KPP Fair Isle Cardigan Knitalong

Beware the hubris of giving advice!

Thank you for the warm welcome. Here’s a link to a blog that has copied, with permission, Meg Swansen’s purl when you can advice.

And of course, always beware of giving advice, because if you spout off about something trying to sound all knowledgeable and clever, Athena will trip you up, often right where that advice is needed, just to be sure you don’t get too uppity. I’d no sooner posted than I knit the solid black round in K2P2 and lined the whole thing with little red blips. I’ve 8 more pair of red blips to get rid of and I can start on the next color change.

Happily, I’m still madly in love with this sweater and don’t mind the fiddly correction. I could probably have ripped out the offending row, but I’m just a tad bit apprehensive about ripping out whole rows of this splitty yarn. Picking it back up might be just as tedious as tinking out 80 red blips.

Howdy!

Thanks for inviting me to join the knitalong. I began this sweater a few days ago and went looking yesterday to see if anyone else was knitting it. I've been on a year long fiber diet - no yarn, fiber or fleece for all of 2006. It hasn't been too hard, either for I have an enormous stash of fibers I love and I wanted to spend this year with them. But the loophole in the oath (a real oath. I even got sworn in by our County Clerk last Jan. The photo is in the January archives of my blog.)is that I can accept gifts of yarn. My husband gave me the yarn last week for my birthday!

I have a thought and a question to share with you. First the thought: If you do the blue and red checkerboard in straight K2P2 corrugated rib, each time you switch the colors, which is every other row, y ou'll get a little bit of the old color in the new square of each 2 purl stitches. I chose to knit that color change round a la Meg Swansen's "Purl when you can" technique, which she talks about in her book Sweaters from Camp. I've finished that section and it lies nice and flat.

The question is: How fussy are you about mistakes? I made 2 bloopers right off the bat. First was to cast on 1 extra stitch, which I discovered in the first round, so I just put the extra stitch into the steeks. But the second mistake is more noticeable. I knit an extra 2 rounds of the checkerboard. Instead of 4 sets of 2 alternating rows, I knit 6. I don't mind the extra 1/4 inch or so of sweater, but would you have ripped them out? Just curious.

I'm just starting the second color series - the green and oranges. Good knitting to you all. Can't wait to hear about your progress. No photos yet. My digital camera comes on Tuesday.

Swatching

I've swatched for the Palette Fair Isle Cardigan, and my gauge is very close, so I don't think I'm going to change needle sizes.  The biggest different was in the stitch gauge.  I had 31 stitches per 4" instead of 32 per 4".  I think this will work out to my advantage, as I am between sizes.  Here's where I need your help:  My bust measures 41 1/2", which puts me between the pattern sizes 40" and 44", although with my gauge difference, they would be more like 41 1/2" and 45 1/2".  I am leaning towards knitting the 40" size because I don't like my cardigans too big.  I will probably never wear this buttoned, and will just wear it over a thin turtleneck or button down shirt.  However, I don't want it TOO small either.  I want it to be "just right" given the amount of work I will be putting into it.  So, do you all think the 40" would be okay?

Penny 

Possible pattern errata?

<img src="http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a337/knittogether/onethird.jpg">

(sorry, I'm not used to Typepad, and I couldn't get the picture to show, but the link works)

I am excited about this KAL, as this is my first attempt at Fair Isle and I am going to need a lot of encourgement!

I am slightly farther along this picture shows, having just started the 2nd chart, and I have noticed what seems to be a mistake in the pattern.  If you'll look at the bars of colors that separate each Fair Isle pattern, and follow it through the charts, you'll notice that they run in two's, except at the very beginning where there are three "bark" rows in succession.  I believe it should read: black (hem border) black, ash, ash, bark, bark, wood, wood... etc, instead of only one ash row and three bark rows.

If you'll look at my piece above, and compare it to the picture on the back of the pattern, I believe they have two "ash" rows... and it looks more asthetic to me, however mine does not look so bad as to make me frog it back.  I just thought I'd point it out to those who are just starting so you can make that judgment call for yourself.

Knit on!

Lynda

Edited to add: Laura pointed out to me that there is only one row of "fawn".  I totally missed that, but it does seem correct and seems to correlate with the picture of the actual sweater, but I'm still "iffy" on the three rows of bark!

Welcome!

Welcome to anyone that is viewing this blog!  This is the first post introducing what we hope will be a fun experience in knitting - the KnitPicks Palette Fair Isle Cardigan Knitalong!  It's a long name but there's nothing we could do about it - KnitPicks named the pattern!  No need for comments about our lack of inspiration for a clever shorter name!  hehe

With this blog we hope to centralize information supporting the KnitPicks Palette Fair Isle Cardigan pattern with tips on fair isle knitting technique, sharing of project photos and help with questions.  There will also be a posting category for pattern eratta if that's needed at some point.  Knitalong participants will receive an inviation to be a guest author for this blog so they can post photos and updates of their progress.

This blog and knitalong also welcomes anyone interested in the fair isle sock pattern that is included in the fair isle cardigan pattern booklet and the other KnitPicks seasonal stranded knitting patterns: the Winter/Snowman, Back-to-School, and Halloween vests.

Your hosts for the knitalong are Laura of Sugar Bunny Boulevard and Penny of Penny Lane.  We're excited about starting the FI cardigan knitalong and possibly branching out ourselves to knit the seasonal stranded knitting patterns as well!

Thanks for visiting!  The Knitalong officially begins on Sunday, October 1st.  We're thinking of creating a goal date to be finished knitting the Fair Isle Cardigan and possibly offering prizes if there are enough people interested in this knitalong.  But then again we might just be here alone with the clicking of our own needles like crickets in the night. 

Anybody wanna grab a button and play along?  :)