Wednesday 18 November 2009

Fair Isle jacket: shoulder join


Fair Isle jacket: shoulder
Originally uploaded by
Asplund

After all, I decided to abandon the idea of a saddle with yellow and white square and/or rectangles, mainly because the yellow drowned in this shade of brown. (Which I wanted to use since it was next in turn of the background colours.)

Not particularly surprisingly, Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting provided inspiration. I changed this simple but elegant leaf pattern only sligthly (adding a couple of rows) and used two of my three shades of green in it; I knitted one half of the pattern on each piece to be joined in the middle.

First I thought of grafting the two pieces, but in that case the pattern halves wouldn't have matched completely but would have been half a stitch off (shock horror!) so I cast them off together.

I liked the leaves so much I made them the first sleeve pattern too. The russet squares wasn't a good idea as the darkest background colour suddenly looked very dark and dominant placed vertically against the borders. I should have taken a photo of how it looked before I unravelled those rows, but unfortunately didn't. (Too eager to knit more leaves!) Here's a photo of the steek instead. The crocheted chain probably could have been closer to the body but perhaps it doesn't make much difference.



Finally, here's the hat I started to have something completely different to focus on. It weighs next to nothing, but all the floats on the wrong side make it warm.

13 comments:

Yarndude said...

I agree, the leaves look awesome! And I LOVE the hat, is that more twined knitting?

Satoko said...

Så vackert!
Ska du inte hålla kurs någon gång i Stockholm?

miastick said...

Vilken speed du har! Och vad vacker fair isle du gör, jättekul att följa ditt arbete!

Ian said...

The hat looks great (it may inspire me to make something similar for myself in the coming weeks) and I am as always very impressed by your color work.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful way to join the shoulders. I really like the leaves. Wonderful hat.
Ron in Mexico

torirot said...

Love the hat!
And hope to see a picture of the whole jacket soon :-)

katarinaw said...

Snacka om racerstickning! Och så snyggt det blir!

MaryjoO said...

I'm really enjoying the birth of this sweater. The leaves are fabulous, and the greens so subtle. I need to slow down and think about my knitting more ... so your notes are really helpful!

Kerry said...

You knit so fast!! I can't believe you're up to the shoulders already, looks great. Love your hat also.

Asplund said...

So many kind words - thank you, all! Your response makes me all warm inside.

To answer Yarndude's question: the hat isn't twined but stranded.

Anonymous said...

Min favoritmössa 'so far'. Härligt att få följa med på dina stick-äventyr. Känner mig lite sugen på att ta upp mitt eget fair isle projekt igen, det har vilat i 5 år nu.... /Anja

heidi said...

fasiken så snygg den blir!

Asplund said...

Tack, Anja och heidi!
Anja: ditt projekt längtar nog efter dig! Vi kanske kan ha en stickträff nästa gång jag är på besök?