KPP Fair Isle Cardigan Knitalong

Color chart question

Hello,

I am re-reading the archived posts and the instruction booklet to try to make sense of it before casting on and it dawned on me that the colors on the very top don't go well with my skin color and think the colors in chart 1 would look better near my face.

Has anyone made this with the color charts reversed - chart 3 first? Is there an obvious reason why the charts could not be reversed?

Anxious to get started

Thanks Laura and Penny for letting me join. I received the pattern and yarns last week and am looking forward to getting started, it will be a slow go as I travel for a living and will be back and forth to Europe until Fall.
The problem is that it is a tremendous amount of yarns to take on the road plus knitting needles are not allowed on flight out of European airports which is when I do my best knitting - on the daytime flights home.

Anyway, I hope to get going in the next 2 wks but am going to make a change or two such as making set-in sleeves. I have really enjoyed reading all of the post and seeing the photos. I have learned a great deal as well.

photos!

Front on this is how my sweater looks. Wish my arms didn't look so stiff. You can also see that I blocked the sweater flat and left creases down the seams. Next time I'll block them around a folded towel.

This is a close up of the knitted in set in sleeves. I really prefer this look over a dropped shoulder design. I'm still not confident I could teach this technique ... at least, I'm not sure I have the math down pat to teach anybody how to do this with any size sweater, but I'm a whole lot closer to doing so.

Here you can see how that little triangle at the shoulder seams looks - it also makes the fit nice. Of course, I am not drunk nor am I still half asleep. sometimes pictures just turn out that way.

Here is the pile of snipped off bits from the woven in ends plus the bits I cut out when I cut the neckline steek.

and here is all the leftover yarn!   

Finished!

I finished, and I love my cardigan!  I actually finished nearly two weeks ago, but it took a good two days to dry after wet blocking.  Then I was, and still am, working insane hours, so no chance for outside daylight shots, until tonight.  Blocking made all the difference in the world.  I was worried it was a little two small when I cast off the last stitch, but it blocked to size perfectly, and all the stitches evened out. 

Modifications:  First off with the ribbing, I used Meg Swansen's "Purl when you can" method.  I also knit an extra plain row between the color bands on the body only to add a little length.  On the sleeves I started knitting with one color band higher than recommended on the pattern because I was afraid of the sleeves being too short - as you can see by the bunching around my wrists, this extra color band wasn't needed :)  I also did a three-needle bind off on the shoulders. Finally, I did an I-cord bind off on the cuffs, neck band, and front button bands, and liked the finished edge so much, I picked up stitches around the bottom ribbing, and did one there too.  It did eat up a little bit of the color work on the button band and neckband, but that doesn't bother me.  If I had it to do over again, I probably would have knit a row or two in black after the color work and used the last black row to attach the i-cord bind off.    

I think that's pretty much it - I have a ton of yarn left over, so I'm looking forward to lots more color work to use some if it up.  But first, I'm going to knit a few other sweaters that I've been itching to start (watch my blog for progress on those).  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about my cardi, and I'm definitely keeping up with the KAL here.  I may even show up again in a few months to work on a fair isle vest or two!

That curling checkered band

Happy news, gang. I've wet blocked my beautiful sweater and that red and blue checked ribbed section is lying very nicely flat and doesn't look like it will curl at all.

I intended to post photos today but I left the cable at home.

:(

I will remember tomorrow. I actually wet blocked the sweater before I tacked down the facings, sewed on the buttons or made the final decision about putting an i-cord trim around the bottom edge. That last feature is what drove my decision because I couldn't decide if I wanted the i-cord or if I wanted some other finish. I wanted a clear vision of what the sweater was going to look like before I put any additional trim on it. I wasn't sure I would like a tiny brown i-cord at the bottom - if it would like strange. Since blocking, I think it will look strange if done in brown and I'm going to do that bottom finish in black. In fact, I am probably going to do it in a little single crochet edge because I want to wear the sweater on Wednesday and I won't have time to do an i-cord edging in such a short time-frame. If I don't really like the crochet edging I can always take it out and do the i-cord.

Other news about this sweater is that it blooms beautifully when blocked. Particularly if you've lugged the poor thing around as I have, and knit on it in a wood stove heated living room, and it's just plain dirty, do consider wet-blocking instead of steam blocking. I always worry that I'll steam in dirt that won't ever wash out when I steam block something. Probably not the case, but it's just a little quirky worry of mine.

If your sweater has felt all scrunchy and soft and puffy - wet-blocking will surprise you by flattening it out beautifully. The fabric has lots of mobility in it - you can block it a little wider if you think you've knit a bit skimpily - or longer if you think it's a bit too wide or too short. In fact, if I were advising anybody about using this yarn I would tell them to knit a swatch and wet-block it just to see how the fabric behaves. (Not that I do this, oh no. I just start right on knitting and trust to Athena to watch over me.)

So. Happy news. Photos tomorrow. Debut on Wednesday.

It sure is quiet around here lately!  How is everyone doing on their cardigans?  As for my, I'm making very slow progress these days.  I have finished both sleeves, and steeked the front.  Over the last few nights I knit the neckband, and the left button band.  I used an i-cord bind off on the sleeve cuffs, the neckband and the button band.  I'm also considering picking up stitches around the bottom ribbing to apply an i-cord to that edge.  I really like the finished look it gives the edging.  I'm really looking forward to blocking this to see how it looks after compared to before. 

By the way, I noticed KnitPicks has put the Fair Isle vest pattern booklet on clearance for $2.99.  If you plan on making one of the vests, better snatch a pattern up while they're still available! 

Happy Knitting,

Penny

NEEDLES

Hello ladies!  I am cast on.  My Addi Turbos were too slippery so I ordered Addi Natura's bamboo circulars.  The join is terrible (a problem I do not have with the Turbos).  Any suggestions?

Here's the sweater, stitched and basted, ready to be cut open.

Here she is, all snipped open. The inside really is quite pretty, isn't it?

 

Thse little fellows are inspecting the button holes.

I'm very pleased with this mitered corner in the button band. There is a matching one on the right side, where the button holes begin.

This is something I'm very unhappy with. This corner of sweater bottom and button band edge is very rough. I'm planning on continuing around the sweater as I cast off,and when I get to the other end I'll start doing a 3 stitch I-cord around the bottom of the sweater. I hope it will give everything a finished look.

Here is where I kitchner stitched the underarm seam from live stitches placed on holding yarn. 

This is where I am as of this morning. I'm doing a 2 stitch i-cord bind off around the button band and neck band.

Working on the button band

I've cut those steeks and am knitting on that button band. I don’t have the buttons and am slightly undecided about how big to make the button holes. I’m on the row where the button hole must be made. I think a 4 stitch button hole ought to be big enough for most any button I might buy. I have lots of buttons - thousands of buttons - but I don’t have enough of either brown or red buttons of the correct size for this sweater. I could just make the button holes and buy buttons to fit. I may do that or I may wait till I see what’s for sale in town today. I don’t want anything fancy for buttons, nor anything heavy. The KipFee is fancy enough. I also struggled with how many buttons I’ll want. 7 is the usual in a sweater for an adult female, this pattern calls for 14 little ones. I marked 7 places and it looks okay but I believe I’ll make 9. More buttons means smaller holes. I’ll make a 4 stitch button hole and see what it looks like - if I don’t like it I can rip it out and make a 3 stitch one.

Because darling wise clever generous Meg Swansen made the most wonderful video on Cardigan Details and I have watched it and remembered about that one row button hole. So I can make one and rip it out without having to rip out a whole row of button band stitches. She even shows you how to do the clever knitting math to figure out how to space your button holes. Meg is a counter and I have secret counting tendencies myself. (Yep. I count how many rows I knit in the body of a sock and then knit that same number on the second sock.)

No photos today. I have some "work in progress" photos, but I'm just so close to the end I want to wait to post photos. I think, weather permitting, I'll have pictures on Wednesday.

Almost done!

Well, my dears, here are some more photos with accompanying verbiage. Here is a shot showing the shoulder fit - unblocked, mind you - so pay no attention to the wobbly stitching. Water will smooth this out a lot.

Note that the front neckline looks just perfect for adding a turtle neck. In other words, its way too high and I shall have to put in that collar steek after all. When I was first knitting the shoulder portion I planned to cut out that large chunk of laboriously knit

Fair Isle

work. Then, when I began the triangular shoulder shaping it looked as if I could just knit the shoulder part starting where the front neck opening should begin and skip the cutting.

<em>Wrong.</em> I would have to have begun the neckline shaping at the top of the green band to do that. I would never <strong><em>(EVER!)</em></strong> have knit that much stranded colorwork flat, but I could have done an Elizabeth Zimmermann kangaroo pouch. Only, I didn’t. So I’ll have to cut. I comfort myself with the knowledge that I had less purling back in stranded colorwork and less cutting to do than originally planned. I am extraordinarily pleased with the back.

This is how I handled the color changes.

<em>Ooops – forgot to photograph that. I’ll show you next time.</em>

<em></em>

This is how I wish I’d handled the color changes.

<em>Ooops – forgot to photograph that. I’ll show you next time too.</em>

I’ve done a lot of

Fair Isle

knitting in small things; mittens, hats, pull-over yokes. This is only the second all over the whole durn sweater fair isle I’ve even done and it’s at 8 st. to the inch, not 5. Without thinking I just did what I do when I do what I do: drop one color, pick up another. Weave it in at the end. I wish I’d started wrapping the new colors around the working yarns at the beginning of each steek, swapped colors in mid-steek, and carried the old colors to the end of the steek. Then I could have just snipped off the dangling bits, crocheted my steek and jumped right into button band knitting. Now I have to do something about all those dangling ends and loose stitches and bummer and all.

Eh. So be it. What I will do is:

<strong>1.</strong> tie off each end

<strong>2.</strong> machine stitch the center steek stitch

<strong>3.</strong> snip off all the loose bits close to the machine stitching.

As for the button band, well, hmm. You must know that I am a devoted follower of <strong>EZ</strong>, though I do not think I am a blind one. I can hear her saying in her clipped English accent, "I can’t see why they use ribbing for button bands. Don’t do it! <em>Gaaaaahtah</em> stitch is the thing for button bands."

Since I have done so few cardigans, I have very little experience and even less of an opinion about it. But I am developing opinions swiftly, for I am swatching. Here is a ribbing swatch done on #2 needles.

And #3’s.

I prefer the ribbing done on #2’s but I don’t really like the ribbing, period. I believe, at least in the case of this sweater, <strong>EZ </strong>is correct. Certainly, with neither swatch was I tempted to include the color knitting - neither the one suggested in the pattern nor the one I used in the cuffs.

I really like those cuff colors. So here is a<em> gaaaahtah</em> stitch swatch that includes the cuff colors.

Here it is pinned to the sweater front, right down the center, along with a view of the coordinating cuffs.

Here it is pinned around as a neck band. I had thought it might be too wide for a neck band, but I like the width.

I'm pretty confident about what to do next. The only thing I want to check is the gauge on that garter stitch band. I would like to see how it looks knit on #2 needles. If I didn't <em>have</em> #2 needles, I wouldn't bother to check this, but since I do, I'll knit another button band swatch and make a final decision.

I'm also going to check out Meg Swansen's video <strong>Cardigan details</strong> and watch it tonight. Just to beef up my confidence, you know. I have tomorrow off because I am working on Saturday. Who knows where I shall be on this sweater by Monday?

Goodness! I'm going to need buttons!!

Good knitting to you all.