17.04.2012
Yay, it’s finally finished. It took me 10% of the time to finish the first 90% and 90% for the last 10%. But yesterday evening I finally brought myself to weaving in the loose ends and sewing on the buttons. The collar was very floppy and would not fold over properly so I added a row of single crochets along the foldline, crocheting 2 stitches together every now and then, now it looks neater and folds over crisply.

Still, I am not 100% happy with my steeks, they look a bit sloppy and raw. For my next FairIsle project I’ll try to secure the steeks with crochet and use the sandwich technique to get neat seams. I am probably still going to knit a little facing inside of the collar as the raw seams are too obvious.

But on the whole I think I did’t do too badly for my first Fair Isle sweater. I’ll soon start a new one to stay in practice.

A big thank you to TheRedHotKnitter Tasha for her great explanations (and for getting me hooked on knitting in the first place). I’d never have had the confidence to start a stranded project without you :-)

05.03.2012
GAAAH, I’m still at it! I can’t believe that this is taking me so long. Weaving in the loose ends is a PITA! Also it is hard to get the collar to lie flat. I tried blocking but it is still very floppy. I will try to steam it into submission.

30.01.2012
All knitting is done. Now securing the steeks, blocking, setting in the sleeves and (ew!) weaving in the the gazillions of loose threads.

16.01.2012
Front and back are finished. I joined the shoulder stitches with Kitchener stitch and picked up the stitches for the collar.
I have cast on the sleeves. I made the ribbing separately and now have joined them with separating steeks to work both sleeves simultaneously in the round.

12.01.2012
I have decided to cut the yarn at the end of each row and start again from the other side so I won’t have to purl. I’ll rather weave in a few more loose ends than purl and figure out how to weave in the floats.

20.12.2011
I have reached the neckline. Now I have to make a few final rows in flat knitting, meaning I’ll have to purl - blech! Don’t know how to weave in the floats yet …

13.12.2011
I added another steek for the neckline opening. In the original pattern the neckline facing is made together with the front part by starting and ending each row with gartet stitch in background yarn. I will, however, add the facing later by picking up the first steek stitch of every row.

10.12.2011
I made steeks for the armholes. For the first few rows I alternated between background and color yarn. Later I read that the steek is supposed to begin and end with one stitch of background yarn in every row, so I changed the technique. I hope it will not cause any problems that I did it differently in the first few rows.

07.12.2011
I have reached the armholes. According to instructions I am supposed to separate the stitches now and finish the back and front separately. This would mean knitting and purling. Since purling felt very awkward with the Fair Isle pattern, I have decided to make steeks for the armholes and also for the neck opening. I will also knit both sleeves in one piece in the round, following the descriptions of Tasha in her blog by gum, by golly!

I am not completely happy with the sweater, the knitting is still very uneven and the beginning/end of the rounds looks very ugly. It doesn’t show too much from afar though and I hope I can make it better when weaving in the gazillion loose ends and block the sweater

12.11.2011
My very first Fair Isle project. I am still struggling a lot with juggling the two colors, but I’m confident that I’ll improve with practise. Working on the knit side is ok, but on the purl side I cannot keep the two yarns on my fingers at the same time … this project will require a lot of patience, sigh.

The Buttinette Merino yarn is fantastic, very soft and smooth to knit. It looses a little bit of volume with washing and gives a very fine, soft fabric. I am really looking forward to the finished sweater.