New Beginnings

A few weeks ago I posted about a couple of knitting patterns I had won on eBay, but which had been lost in the post. Well, luckily I was able to purchase a pdf of one of the patterns from elsewhere and so make the fairisle sweater I really wanted to knit. Hooray!

I actually began knitting this on the 9th of September, but after knitting the 3 inches of rib for the front and starting the colour work, I decided that not only was I unhappy with the colours I had chosen, but I also wanted to knit the sweater in the round. So, nothing else for it but rrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiipppppppppp!!

Coloured-in Fairisle chart - it makes it easier to see the pattern!

The original suggested colour scheme was white with blue and red and a small amount of green. I had planned to use a pale blue with a mid blue, dark purple and a small amount of green as these were all yarns I already had in my stash. After starting to knit however I decided that this combination really didn't work together very well. I purchased a couple of balls of darker blue wool which I think complement the other blues. I am now using the pale blue and mid blue with a darker blue and I will amend the suggested colour layout to use only these colours.

 Sweater wool with new bamboo circular needle

I have never converted a flat pattern to knit in the round before but I think it will be easier for colour knitting and I'm not anticipating any major problems with the conversion. Once I get to the armholes I think I'll have to knit flat, but that's manageable. I did have to buy a new circular needle of the right size, and decided to try a bamboo circular as I prefer knitting with wooden needles BUT ALSO this is an interchangeable set of needles, meaning you can swap needles and different lengths of cable.

My set are made by Pony - you can buy a whole set, but I got mine individually from John Lewis. I'm not sure if the whole interchangeable needle thing is worthwhile, but I don't have any sets of circulars I particularly like using already as the cables are either a little rough in places or, horror of horrors, come loose from the needles whilst knitting. I'm a firm believer in buying good quality materials, so I think these will be a worthwhile purchase.

Although I'm looking forward to knitting this sweater I am aware that it will be time consuming and possibly difficult. I've worked in stranded knitting before to make these mittens:

Snowdrift Mittens - on Ravelry here

As well as these armwarmers:

 

Lyra Wristwarmers - on Ravelry here

Yet I have a sneaking suspicion that this project might push me to my knitting limits - I hope I'm up to the challenge!

K x