This project has called to me for a couple of months now and I’ve been searching for a yarn that can be purchased in the US to do it.

After months and months of waiting for backordered Onyx and Graystone colorways, I found them at KnitCulture.com. They are a lifesaver, and offered them at over 20% less than the other colors I had purchased. This one is a go, and I can’t wait to cast on!

I’ve worked up a chart in photoshop using a scan of the colors I have. The original used more warm coloring in the yoke, and my colors are (by and large) toward the cool side. I only have ten colors instead of the eleven listed in the pattern. This forced me to adjust the colors and order somewhat, but I’ve played with the chart and adjusted the color on some other pictures here on Ravelry, giving me a good idea of what I’ll eventually end up with.

June 4th I finished 20 rows yesterday, but I’ve got a few rows where the floats are just too tight. Rather than be unhappy with the finished piece, I’m going to rip out about half of it tonight and re-knit.

I’m absolutely loving the Fresco! For such a low angora content, it has a beautiful halo.

June 6th This yarn is great! It can be frogged at least four times and still looks great. Ask me how I know.

June 11th I got through dividing for the sleeves and a couple of rows into the body and realized this is gigantic on me.

With much delight, I ripped out about 20 hours of work; back to the short rows.

I’m going to have a lot of yarn left over of each color. I think I can use the leftovers for a cozy pair (or two) of knee-high socks, or I may just get a couple of hanks of the three colors that I used over half of and do a cardigan version of the sweater sometime in the future.

June 12th As long as I’m on a roll with the frogging…

I’ve decided to rip out some more, back to a couple of rows in the yoke that I feel are stranded too tightly. Damn, it feels good to get rid of bad knitting!

The way I look at it, if I’m going to spend over 300 hours knitting a sweater, I’d rather spend an additional 40 hours on something I’ll end up being proud of.

Of course, this means a week of knitting that was merely “practice” for stranded colorwork!

June 14th Groan…. the bohus hates me.

I realized I screwed up an entire row four rows later.

Crud.

tink… tink… tink….

June 15th Back on track (I think… I hope that typing that doesn’t jinx me). I’m hoping to get to the split for the sleeves this weekend.

June 20th This one is a struggle all the way, isn’t it? I didn’t like the shape this was taking, so I ripped it back to a couple of rows after the divide for the sleeves… again. I’m going to have to come up with a better solution to make this a tad bit smaller.

June 26th After three weeks of using my favorite curse word, I finally made it to the body ribbing.

When I decide to do another yoke sweater, I’ve learned that it’s best to reduce the back more than the pattern states and move the sleeve divide accordingly. If I do this particular pattern again (I really do love it, honestly, so I probably will), I would shift the sleeves back at least five to ten stitches on each side to accommodate for petite sizing. I’d also omit the last yoke increase and still only cast on 12 stitches for the sleeve divide.

With this one (that still works just fine), I only cast on 12 stitches under the sleeves = 24 body stitches fewer than the pattern - and then did some drastic decreasing on each side for one inch (every other row, one stitch on each side of side markers, x4 = 16 stitches decreased) and then three increments of decreases on either side of the center in front and back for shaping (8 stitches x 3 = 24 stitches decreased). That left me with 240 stitches at the bust and 216 stitches at the waist. I still have around four inches of ease all around and it’s comfortable without looking like a gunnysack.

If I omitted the last yoke increase, I could have easily done away with the drastic decreasing I had to do under the arms and, along with moving the sleeve divide, it may have made the back even more flat. Right now, there’s a little extra fabric in back around my shoulder blades than I’d like, but it’s still gorgeous.

I’ve certainly learned a lot from this project already!

And, since I’m finally confident that it will fit well enough as it is, I’ll try to get some progress pictures uploaded.

July 7th Figured out the pattern I’ll use for the collar. I was initially drawn to this pattern by surly’s version and I’ve created my own lacy/ribbed pattern that incorporates purl stitches.

Starting work on the collar and then all that’s left is weaving in ends and blocking!! Our heat wave has passed, so I can start working on this again. :)

July 14th Happy Bastille Day! After much struggle and even more learning, “Fearless” is on the blocking boards. I can’t wait to try it on once it comes off and get some pictures up.

In the end, I ony used nine colors, and I’m very pleased with the color choices and placement. I hope it would have met with Emma’s approval and not be considered a “vulgar reproduction.”

My thanks to surly, for her beautiful example, inspiring me to try my hand at it myself.

Edited: http://www.bohuslansmuseum.se/kulturvast_templates/Kultur... has a fairly recent price list for the kits from solsilke