So which project to start first from my “snuffled up greedily in the sales” yarn?
First – what exactly is the scope of this resolution?? What yarn to I mean?
Hmmm…every thing in this blog post “Yarn Sales – Being Good, Bad and Disorganised“, plus the gorgeous, green cashmere from my last post. Actually, It’s not to use all of it but to make a garment from each lot of yarn – I’m not gonna stress about an odd ball left over!
That works out as 2 Kidsilk Aura jumpers (patterns decided in Yarn Sales post – Liliana and Gelsey), a yet to be decided it in Silky Tweed and something in the Cashmere.
But what to start now? It was between the beautifully, cloud soft, green cashmere and Liliana in Kidsilk Aura…
Liliana won! Mainly because I need a warm suggly jumper now and I won’t be very inspired to knit it in the summer!
So this is the Rowan pic of Liliana…
 |
| From Lilianna |
from the Kidsilk Aura Collection…
 |
| From Lilianna |
I loved the colourway in the pattern book and didn’t want to change it. Lucky for me, all but one of the colours were available in the sale. Damn. No steel grey…until I got home and found I had snapped up some of that colour in last year’s sale! Yey! for huge stashes!
These colours – my kinda colours 😀
 |
| From Lilianna |
So off to the pattern…
Grrr 🙁
There are two things I dislike about Rowan Fairisle patterns. They are written to be knitted flat and they frequently have three different colours in one row. I’ll explain…
Fair isle in MUCH easier in the round, doing just knit stitches and being able to see your pattern. If you need to weave in long strands, it’s easier too.
So why the problem with three colours in a row? Traditional Fairisle only ever has two colours in a row. As I knit fair isle with one colour in each hand, two colours works great for me and I can keep the yarns untangled – especially relevant when using Kidsilk Aura – sticks to itself like cheap clingfilm! Three colours for me, take much longer and it doesn’t flow. Boo! 🙁
So this is the graph I’m working from…
 |
| From Lilianna |
Fortunately, my “three colour nemesis” only occurs on about 12 rows – I’ll just have to slog through.
I have also addressed the problem of it being a “flat” knit by knitting in the round, doing the back and front together.I’m undecided what to do about the armholes though!
I could either, work some waste stitches and steek them (I’m sure this would work with Aura as it’s so sticky) and join the sleeve cap to the steek (bit worried about the bulk of the steeked bit) or knit back and forth for the armholes upwards. What do you guys think?
Suggestions gratefully received!
So progress shot so far? Here you are!
 |
| From Lilianna |
It is so pretty. You are going to be really warm in that jumper.
Good luck with the three stranded bits. That gives me chills!
I have never steeked, but I agree that it should be fine with the Aura. It really is VERY sticky.
I can’t wait to see how it grows.
It is going to look fabulous in those colours. Good luck with the three colour rows!
Ooh, it’s lovely! So soft and snuggly looking. For some reason, it was very hard for me to see the 3-color rows, but finally I found them (yikes!). Best I can tell, beyond the armholes it’s all two-color fair isle, so it wouldn’t be such a bear to knit flat and you could have longer floats since the yarn is so sticky. I guess Rowan doesn’t want to get into explaining steeks, because flat knitting seems to be the norm with their patterns. I’m doing Martin Storey’s reindeer sweater from Homestead Classics (just two colors) and started with the sleeves, knitting flat. It is slower, but not as bad as I thought. I’m definitely doing the body in the round, but after the armholes I’ll knit the rest of the body flat.
oh it’s going to be the most beautiful jumper! I love the colours 🙂
It looks gorgeous already. As for suggestions, I wouldn’t know where to start.
Hi, lurking person here popping my head out for a sec 😉
The jumper looks like it’ll be fab, and I love the colours.
Anyhow, just popped up to say that my (unofficial) resolution is the same, knit the yarn I’ve just bought in the sales, before buying any more… Not sure if I have the willpower though!
Hi Nat
Keep us posted with your progress – I’m not sure I have the will power either!
Susan
oh that looks wonderful! I would work to and fro after the armholes, because I don’t like knitting to be stressful!
As for the 3 colour rounds…why not just do two of the colours and sl all the sts in the 3rd colour, then do the same round again, sl all the sts you worked first time round and just knitting the 3rd colour ones…if that makes sense…!
3 color knitting tip: I’ve never learned to knit with the yarn in my left hand. But there is a way that you can hold 2 colors of yarn in your right hand by feeding each color over 2 different fingers. I have done it successfully for 2 color knitting but I can’t remember which book gave the instructions. As always perfectly lovely.
reference; Knitting n the round…up to the armhole. Yu will of course have trailed a contrast colour smooth yarn up the ‘side seam’ Just weave it back and forth when you reach that Just knit the front an back flat and they need not match as they are never seen at the same time