I’m having so much fun with this fair isle stuff. It’s fun! And I also learned how to weave in yarn along the back when there are more than 4 stitches in a single color. I look so cool and skilled doing it. :teehee: I’m obsessed with making this sweater. It’s in Yummy Karabella Aurora 8 which is so nice to knit, too. I woke up at 3am and started knitting some more. This is my progress so far since I started 2 days ago.
Isn’t Aurora 8 fantastic? I almost hate it, finding an expensive yarn I like so much. Why can’t I find a cheap yarn I like just as much?
It probably isn’t your service. Drops has been having some problems, and for like 1/2 hour I couldn’t knit :grrr: because I couldn’t get the page to load and I needed to look at the chart. Try it again some time and it should work.
Isn’t Aurora 8 fantastic? I almost hate it, finding an expensive yarn I like so much. Why can’t I find a cheap yarn I like just as much?
Oh, yes yes, mwedzi. I’ll admit, I’m a woman of obsessions – I find yarn (author, recipe, wine, etc.) I like, and it becomes my world, whatever the expense. :oops: (Kinda like these emoticons. I just figured out how to use them this week!)
I finally got through to the pattern. Very flattering design!
Gorgeous!! I love the pattern, and your sweater is looking so good!
Where did you learn to weave in the backs as you go? I admit to changing fair-isle (even very basic ones) so that I don’t have to weave anything in-I haven’t got a clue how to do it!
I learned from my favorite knitting book, Teach Yourself Knitting Visually. I love that book. I’m not even a visual learner in particular, prefer written out instructions, but it is a well organized book with a great index and good written instructions to accompany the pictures.
I just learned the way I need to for what I’m doing, as it seems to differ depending on which yarn you’re weaving and whether you’re knitting or purling. Since I’m working in the round, I’m only doing the knit stitch. I held the yarn that needed to be woven in in my right hand, since the yarn in my left hand was worked for more than 4 stitches straight. To do it for this combo, insert the needle in the stitch and:
Step 1: Wrap the yarn to be woven (in my right hand) around the right needle as if to knit
Step 2: Wrap the working yarn (in my left hand) around the right needle as if to knit
Step 3: Bring the yarn to be woven back around to the back to its original position
And continue knitting. Not difficult at all. But you do look so cool when you do it!
This sweater is proving quite a challenge. Working fair isle on double pointed needles was kicking my butt! The sleeves were done on double pointed needles, and I unraveled the first sleeve 5 or 6 times. I could always get the pattern right, but I could never get it loose enough. It was always puckering. I’d be doing breathing exercises while knitting trying to keep it loose enough. I would have stepped it up to larger dpns to compensate for the tightening, but I didn’t have any. I went ahead and ordered some but couldn’t wait until they got here because I’m obsessed with this sweater. I tell you, I’m up at ridiculous hours knitting this thing. Not having larger dpns but having 2 larger circular needles, I learned how to knit small diameter on two circs, but I had problems with laddering and it still didn’t look right. Finally, I managed it on the dpn’s by keeping it crazy loose (my stitches actually were visible hanging off the needles).
And then attaching the sleeves to start the yoke! Yikes! This can’t be how all yokes are done. I saw another pattern that had a yoke and you knitted the front, back, and sleeves all flat. Then you pick up stitches from all of them and put them on a circular needle. For this, though, I had to insert a smaller diameter circle onto larger circular needles. It was really hard! Have any of you ever tried to do this? I think it was nearly the hardest thing I had to do in knitting! I was slipping stitches back and forth and working with dpns and circs at the same time, yikes! Finally I figured a way to do it a little easier, but it was quite difficult at first.
So now, after all that, I have this so far. You might think, looking at the size of the sweater with respect to that 50g ball of Aurora 8, that an adult can’t fit this sweater, but trust me, it has super stretch. It will fit.
That is turning out beautifully! Good for you for getting it all on the needles the right way! :cheering: Getting the sleeves on in this kind of yoke is ridiculously hard in the beginning and you’re sure you’re going to stretch the thing to shreds. But then again, HOW many seams are you going to have to sew when you’re done? Hmmmm? :teehee:
Thanks Ingrid. I had been thinking that I was missing something, but you saying that it is in fact difficult to do makes me feel like I was on the right track. I really did think I was going to stretch the poor thing out til it tore or something. Really, I couldn’t even move the tips of my circulars until I realized that I had to put as many on as I possibly could until I could move the needles no more and then push the whole work down so that the stitches I had already put on were on the cord (that’s flexible! duh), so I could then pull the needle up, bend the cord, and continue knitting.
But you are right, I will only have 2 seams to sew in when this is all done, just the underarm parts. I don’t hate sewing seams as much as some people, but all the same, I’m really really bad at it, no matter how many tutorials I read on finishing. I think it may be the one knitting technique I’d be willing to spend money on a class for, cuz I suck at it.
on the Faire Isle knitting. That is on my list of things-to-learn-how-to-do.
can’t wait to see it all done! 
I tell you, I’m up at ridiculous hours knitting this thing. Not having larger dpns but having 2 larger circular needles, I learned how to knit small diameter on two circs, but I had problems with laddering and it still didn’t look right. Finally, I managed it on the dpn’s by keeping it crazy loose (my stitches actually were visible hanging off the needles).