Finished: 1940s Fairisle Sweater

It's done! It's done! I started to knit this jumper on September 9th last year and now I have finally finished it.

It's been a rocky road. I had a few false starts with ripping out (see here) before I finally got going, even then I was not using the right gauge and going a little rogue.

It doesn't look quite like the pattern picture...

But it's good enough for me.

I didn't really enjoy the knit as much as I'd hoped. The 'four-leaf' pattern sections were really tricky, when you had to carry three colours along. I really struggled with tension on those parts. In hindsight I might have used intarsia for those bits, but that would have involved juggling with little balls of wool, and I already had enough ends to wind in.

All the cut off ends

I would tackle fairisle again but I feel a lot better equipped to know what to look for in a pattern. I know I am terrible for not reading patterns through and just diving in (I find it hard to translate from instructions to 3 dimensions) but I now know that I enjoyed the linear areas of the pattern because you could build up a rhythm but the other areas seemed to take so so long and were quite fiddly.

I also had the stress of not having enough of the lightest blue wool. It was purchased for a different project and by rights I should have had enough, but I ended up having to try and find another couple of balls online. As it was discontinued I couldn't get the same dye lot, so there are some bits with a slightly different blue.

Post blocking - you can see a slightly different blue on a section of the back neck rib 

I put used the different yarn for the back and tried to disguise it by integrating it with the linear sections.

I also made the sleeves a weird shape, so there are little 'wings' on the inside.

 Bit weird, but it's just between us - shush!

The fit was just right for me so I didn't want to wet block it as normal. Instead I chose to steam block (put a damp tea towel over the top and iron through) so that the fairisle sections would flatten out a bit better. Unfortunately this did still make it a bit bigger, but it didn't stretch it too much.

Pre blocking - a little wrinkled

Thank you for all your kind comments and encouragement when I posted about this here and here earlier in the month. All in all I have produced a sweater I am pretty happy with - I would do some things differently next time but hey, it's all a learning process isn't it?

To finish, some obligatory photos with the cats

Dot looking wistfully into the distance

Tilda watching Dot

Action shot

And finally, a picture of my new favourite find, who you might have spied on the sideboard behind me.

 

I love these pairs of dogs that sit on your mantelpiece, known as wally dogs/dugs. I picked this one up for £5 in a junk shop in the Lake District. He was all on his own but maybe one day I'll find a lonesome dog that faces the other direction to be his friend.

K x