Friday, December 8, 2006

Round and round we go


Here is a picture of my progress so far, miles of knitting have yielded one sleeve, part of a cuff and a neatly hemmed body.

I changed the colors of the sweater while still keeping to the original yarn. I chose Whiskey in the Rose Quartz color #57 as the main color and did the hem facing in green. The sleeves have been modified to also have a hem facing and there I am using orange. I did size down the sleeve cuff from 74 stitches to 62 stitches because my first try was way too big.

I do want the sweater to be on the looser side so I'm knitting the 47" although I measure 43" at the bust. I want this sweater to slide over a long sleeve tee so I am hoping that the neckline doesn't sit too wide. If I have to, I'll add a few rows before the neckband.

I decided to work the hem facing at the beginning instead of the end because I did a crappy job on the provisional cast on (I didn't think it would hold up) and I didn't want the sewing part at the end. I have been recovering from a serious hand injury and threading a needle is rough.

I worked the contrast facing first in green for ten rows, did one row in wine then undid the provisional cast on, knitted a round of the main color, purled a round then knitted 10 rounds on the larger needles. On the eleventh round, I knitted the body stitches together with the hem stitches. So much quicker than sewing.

I'm determined to get this sweater done before Chirstmas and think I can pull it off. So far, I love the yarn, love the ease of this knit. It's been a long time since I've done fair isle and I'm planning a few big fair isle projects for next year so I'm looking at this a warm up project.

I'll try to post pictures when I have more to show but feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions or check out my blog.

Thank you for setting up this knit along, I'm sure it will be a tremendous resource to us friends of Enid.

6 comments:

Susan said...

Wow. You're like a real knitter and stuff. I've got some reading to do, because most of the things you've talked about, I've never done. I think the Winter IK and I have a date for tonight. Folks, it should be REAL entertaining to see flighty-flake me try to knit this sweater! Buckle up!

hesira said...

That's looking really great! I can't wait to get started on mine, but that's a few weeks away. Hopefully, you'll blaze the trail for us, who are perhaps less experienced with some aspects of this pattern.

FairyGodKnitter said...

Susan, you will be fine. I am not a "real knitter", just someone who lives with boys and dogs and needs to arm herself accordingly. Remember, it's all just loops pulled through loops.

Amanda said...

Wow, the rose quartz is absolutely beautiful - what a warm pink, I love it. I can't wait to see what you do with the detail work on the yoke - any plans for shuffling those colors at all?

(Oh Susan - you are TOO a real knitter!)

Susan said...

Yeah, I'm a real knitter, and I'm also a drama queen, so don't pay any attention to me. I'm really not worried. I just like to kick up a fuss.

FairyGodKnitter said...

Yes, I'm shuffling the colors around. I keep plotting it on graph paper but haven't settled on the order yet. I love the pink because it has most of the colors blended into it.