Category Archives: Fair Isle

Olof Hat

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I spotted this free pattern last week – Fulay Little of LittleKnits shared it on Facebook – and since I have a bunch of Rowan Felted Tweed in my stash, I thought I’d give it a try. I’m always looking for the perfect hat. Most are too small for me, but this one has directions for three sizes.

Here’s the Olof hat pattern on Knitty. (BTW, I chose the option to print just essentials and it included all the pix, which isn’t the way that usually works.)

Here’s my first attempt:

Olof hat designed by Anna Peterseil knit by Deborah Cooke in Rowan Felted Tweed

I chose the Camel (the beige) to offer some contrast to the Bilberry (purple) and the Watery light teal), but the hat is too beige – even though that star band which is half done will have a green background. You’ll notice it’s off the needles, which is a portent of doom – or in this case, frogging. I’m going to switch some colours around.

On the upside, I enjoyed the corrugated ribbing, which was a new thing for me. The hat also fits well, though I might make another in the biggest size just to have one that’s a bit droopy. Rowan Felted Tweed really is wonderful for fair isle work. It’s such a nice soft yarn and I like how the stitches smush together a bit. (That’s a technical term. LOL) Here are several other projects I’ve knit in Rowan Felted Tweed:

Fair Isle hat by Mary Jane Mucklestone knit by Deborah Cooke in Rowan Colourspun and Rowan Felted Tweed
Fair Isle Hat from Vogue Knitting
Bute by Lisa Richardson knit in Rowan Colourspun and Felted Tweed by Deborah Cooke
Bute by Lisa Richardson

I also have the yarn stashed for Bute in the alternate colourway, all blues, for the mister. Here it is on Ravelry. (GAH! ©2012! I should probably cast on that beast. The first one was a lovely knit.)

Hmm. I’m looking at that grey hat on the left. It’s using two shades of Rowan Colourspun, plus three of Felted Tweed – those three were a subscribers’ gift from Rowan. The pattern was a scarf that I didn’t much want to knit and I’d forgotten all about it. It was the Garter Slip Stitch Scarf by Lisa Richardson. Here’s a Ravelry link with a project pic. They look quite good together, don’t they? I decided to frog right back to the purple ribbing and switch out the camel for the avocado.

Another Finished Navelli

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I finally finished my second Navelli. Even though it’s not blocked yet and the ends need to be sewn in, I wanted to show it to you. I love it so much!

Navelli knit by Deborah Cooke in MadTosh Merino Light

The yarn is MadTosh Merino Light in Cardinal and Spicewood. The black is some Malabrigo Sock I had in my stash. This one fits more closely than my first Navelli, which is very boxy.

For contrast, I put them side by side – here they are:

Two Navelli knit by Deborah Cooke

The neck is a little higher on the red one so I must have done something differently. (?)

I don’t wear the teal Navelli, even though I love the colours. I thought it was too wide, but actually, it’s too short. I kind of like how loose and boxy it is. So, my current plan is to pick up the stitches all the way around just below the underarms, on two needles, take out a row to split the garment, knit two inches of teal, then graft it to the top of the sweater. I think I’ll wear the teal one then, and I won’t have to frog the sleeves and top.

If I make a third one of these (!!) I think I’d knit it between the two sizes. That would make for an odd number of repeats on the border pattern, which might be weird. I have to think about that.

In the meantime, I’ll make the teal one longer.

In other sad knitting news, I had to frog a top-down pullover. I’d knit eight inches of body, took it off the needles to check the fit (for the third time) and discovered it was way too big. Just a teeny bit off guage, but it added up. Off to frog pond.

What do you think of my new Navelli?

Wilhelmina, the Reindeer Sweater

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Nordic Tweed pattern book from Rowan
Rowan Nordic Tweed

I can’t believe this sweater is finally done! This one has been on my needles for a long time. The scary thing about Ravelry is that your project pages will tell you exactly how long you’ve been working on something – I cast this one on in December 2016. As so often happens when I modify a pattern, I got myself into a corner (or two) and so it was put aside. And, as often happens when I lose interest in a project, when I finally pick it up again, what’s left to be done is no big deal. This sweater sat with one sleeve for the longest time, but I finished it up last week.

Rowan Colourspun for Wilhelmina knit by Deborah Cooke

The yarn is Rowan Colourspun, a discontinued yarn that I really like. (I knit the mister a vest of this – Skye – and Ice Cable Mitts in it, too. ) The colourways are Jervaulx (the red), Winterburn (the light grey) and Semer Water (the dark grey). I used Felted Tweed for the bit of blue, but really should have hunted down the Colourspun blue.

Wilhelmina designed by Marie Wallin

Wilhelmina is in the Nordic Tweed pattern book from Rowan. (That’s a Ravelry link.) I modified the pattern, though, because it has dropped sleeves and an angled shoulder. The original design also has no fair isle pattern on the sleeves. So, I used the stitch counts and basic shape from Bute (that’s a link to the one I knit here on the blog) with the reindeer and snowflake pattern from Wilhelmina. (That’s a Ravelry link, too.) Bute is fitted through the shoulders, a style I prefer.

This seemed like a good idea at the time, but was more complicated than I expected. The first issue is that Bute is knit with Rowan Colourspun and Rowan Felted Tweed. Since I wanted to use Colourspun, I thought it would work well. It did, but Bute is mostly Felted Tweed, which is thinner, and this sweater is almost all Colourspun – so my Reindeer sweater is bigger than my Bute, even on the same needles with the same stitch count. (And no, I didn’t swatch.) That part is okay. It’s kind of a teddy bear sweater this way.

Wilhelmina also has plain sleeves and I decided to put the snowflake pattern on them – then I decided the pattern had to match at the shoulder. More complication, more work, and really, in this yarn, the fair isle snowflakes are kind of lost. I shouldn’t have bothered – and if I hadn’t, it would have been done a lot sooner. I do like it, though, and the red is nice. It’s incredibly warm, too.

Below is the back of my Wilhelmina.

Back of Wilhelmina knit by Deborah Cooke

You can see that the Colourspun self-stripes a bit. I suppose I could have been strategic and started the red where it was darker and the grey where it was lighter, but since there are more red stitches than blue ones, that contrast wouldn’t have lasted anyway. I think the softness of the fair isle is inescapable – and kind of dreamy. I do like it. I made sure my reindeer started with light feet so their legs would be more visible.

And below is the finished cardigan. You can see what I mean about it being a teddy bear sweater!

Wilhelmina sweater knit by Deborah Cooke

The weather is dingy here, so even taking the sweater outside for a picture didn’t really show the detail well. Here’s a close up of my reindeer:

Wilhelmina sweater knit by Deborah Cooke

Another Navelli

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I liked the Navelli pattern so well that I decided to knit a second one. This one is in MadTosh Merino Light.

The plan was to use up some of my stash. (Don’t laugh.) I chose both Spicewood and Red Phoenix, and put them with some leftover Malabrigo Sock in black. (I’d used it for my Gates of Moria mitts.) I like the Spicewood with the black for the fair isle, but I was less happy with the Red Phoenix. It looked a bit pink with the Spicewood. I visited a LYS (a new one for me) that stocks MadTosh Merino Light and it was obvious that the Cardinal was a much better choice.

This was also when the Simmer Pot jumped into my hands, insisting that I take it home. It goes with the Red Phoenix, and both of them have ended up in my Spector. I don’t mind the Spicewood and the Red Phoenix together in that one because they’re not right up against each other. The first blog post on that sweater was last week, and it’s right here. So, the skein of Spicewood came out of the stash, and the two skeins of Cardinal were added. One skein of Red Phoenix and the other of Spicewood came out of the stash for Spector, along with the skein of Saffron, but the Simmer Pot was added. That’s four skeins out of the stash and three added. Not exactly a win, is it?!

I think my teal Navelli is a bit too wide and too short, too, so I cast on a smaller size this time and I’m knitting an extra two inches before splitting for the arms. It’s possible that I’ll frog the first one and reknit it if I like the fit of this one better.

Here’s my progress so far:Navelli knit in MadTosh Merino Light by Deborah Cooke

Navelli – Finished!

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It’s done! Here’s my finished Navelli:

Navelli knit in Koigu KPPPM and Shibui Sock by Deborah CookeThere are some previous posts about this sweater – Navelli is the main post, which talks about the challenges (and shortcomings) of my first choice of yarn colour; Update on Navelli is about my progress in the new main colour.

I didn’t knit the sleeves as specified. They’re supposed to have essentially a contrast facing – mine would have been purple – but instead I did five rows of 1/1 ribbing in purple and cast them off.

I made the fifth size, which gives me 11″ of positive ease. (The pattern suggests 4 – 15″ of positive ease.) It is a fun boxy fit, but I’m narrow in the shoulders. After blocking, I felt that I was losing the sweater, so I frogged back and changed the neck to be the smallest size. That made the shoulder seam a little bigger, but it’s a more comfortable fit.

This is a better shot of the colours.

Koigu KPPMI had been a little concerned that the fair isle section was narrower than the body of the sweater, even though I knit it on larger needles. That was all fixed in the blocking. My gauge is dead-on with this one – it’s EXACTLY the measurements of the schematic. Ha.

I love this sweater so much that I want to cast on another one. I dipped into the stash over the weekend and discovered some Madeline Tosh Merino Light, in Red Phoenix and Spicewood, plus Malabrigo Sock in black. I think I’ll go down a size and cast on the fourth size, but I’ll keep the neck in the smallest size. I have a plan, but I want to finish another project that’s already on the needls before I cast on a new sweater…we’ll see how that plan goes!

Lined Stargazer Mittens

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I showed you my Stargazer Mittens a few weeks ago. These are knit from Natalia Moreva’s Stargazer Mitten pattern, in Lichen & Lace 80/20 sock. Here they are again:

Stargazer Mittens by Natalia Moreva knitted in Lichen & Lace 80/20 Sock by Deborah CookeI decided to line these mittens with Rowan Kidsilk Haze. I had Jelly in my stash, which is a little more green than the Citron sock yarn, but it works. Here are the lined mittens, one with the ilning tugged out:

Stargazer Mittens knitted by Deborah Cooke and lined in Kidsilk HazeI used the same size needles for the lining, but picked up the stitches at the end of the ribbing. When knitting the mitten, you increase four stitches at the end of the first band of stars, so this means that my lining has four stitches less than the mitten. I figured that would help it slide inside more easily. Similarly, for the thumbs, I put 11 stitches on a holder instead of 13, so my thumbs in the lining have 4 stitches less than the mitten thumbs. I also knit the linings a little bit shorter: 4 rows shorter for the mitten and 2 rows shorter for the thumb. When the lining is pushed inside the mitten, it puffs a bit at the cuff as a result.

The cool thing about lining mittens like this is that there are no ends visible or even carried threads in the fair isle that can be snagged. Everything is sealed between the mittens. To do this, I finished all the ends on the mitten, then knit the main body of the lining. I pulled the tip of the mitten through the hole for the thumb once the top had been sewn with Kitchener stitch, and wove in the ends. After the thumb was done, I worked the end in from the right side, then pushed the needle through the work to leave the end inside.

This lining is lovely and squishy, but maybe a bit thicker than it needs to be. You can see that when I picked up the stitches at the cuff, I first knit with a strand of Citron and a strand of Jelly held together. That seemed too thick and was a bit stiff. I tried with a single strand of the Kidsilk Haze and thought it was too thin, so used the KSH double. In hindsight, the single strand probably would have been fine.

I used just over a ball of KSH for the linings, which mean that I could have lined the mittens with a little over half a ball if the yarn had been single. That’s good to know!

Stargazer Mittens

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These are my new mittens!

Stargazer Mittens by Natalia Moreva knitted in Lichen & Lace 80/20 Sock by Deborah Cooke

The pattern is Stargazer Mittens by Natalia Moreva – that’s a Ravelry link, but here’s the pattern on her website. She provides charts for both mittens with the two options on the colours – either dark background with light detail, or light background with dark detail – which is great. I’ve knit her Gates of Moria mittens, too. These mitts are a close fit and I have small hands. They’re long, too.Stargazer Mittens by Natalia Moreva knitted in Lichen & Lace 80/20 Sock by Deborah Cooke

Ha. Morning picture without my wedding ring. 🙂

The thumbs are long, as well. If I made them again, I’d make the thumbs four rows shorter. I didn’t do that on the second mitt because I didn’t want to rip back the first one.Stargazer Mittens by Natalia Moreva knitted in Lichen & Lace 80/20 Sock by Deborah Cooke

I didn’t have a good yellow in my stash when I decided to knit these, and I wanted to use the same yarn for both colours. I bought Lichen & Lace 80/20 Sock in two colours, Huckleberry and Citron, at my LYS. It’s 80% merino and very squishy. I would have liked the green to be more of a sunny yellow or the blue/purple to have been closer to black. There are flicks of olive and copper in the Citron, and once it’s knit with the Huckleberry, those bits “read” as having a similar value to the blue and purple. The photograph maximizes the contrast, but in real life, I wish there was a bit more.

I do love these mitts. 🙂

I’m going to line them, so they aren’t done. My first idea was to knit a Citron cuff to extend beyond the existing one, but they’re already so long that I’ve decided against that. I knit my Gates of Moria mittens with one strand of Rowan Kidsilk Haze and one strand of fingering yarn held together, which made them thick, soft and very warm. In this case, I’m going to knit a liner in just Kidsilk Haze – that will keep it thin, since these mitts are already a close fit. Even though I never carry a yarn more than a few stitches when knitting fair isle, that will also ensure that no threads are ever caught in pulling the mittens on.

This pattern has two increases in the row count. You add stitches at the end of the ribbing, then 4 stitches more at the end of the first band of stars. I’m going to use the same size needles for the lining, so to have it fit more readily inside, it needs to have fewer stitches. I’m picking up stitches at the top of the ribbing, like this, so the lining will have 4 stitches less than the mitten:Stargazer Mittens by Natalia Moreva knitted in Lichen & Lace 80/20 Sock by Deborah CookeOn the right side, that row of Huckleberry will just pull a little bit tighter. Mitten and liner will be joined forever. I’ll probably also make the lining a few rows shorter, maybe just two, in both the mitten and the thumb. I’ll show the finished and lined mittens to you when they’re done.

Fair Isle Sweaters on the BBC

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There’s an article on the BBC website this week about Fair Isle sweaters, including wonderful photographs taken 50 years ago on the island, wearing their sweaters. It’s well worth a look.

I was surprised to see so many vertical designs in the sweaters, like the ones worn by Stewart and Triona Thomson. That’s a design element I don’t see as often as the round yokes or the horizontal bands.

And I liked seeing the knitting machines, then and now.

Have a look!

Update on Navelli

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I feel as if I’ve knit this sweater three or four times, all due to knitter error, but it’s finally coming off the needles. Navelli is a short sleeved boxy pullover. I started knitting it last summer. There are two blog posts about it already: Navelli, Nightshift and Audrey, and Navelli in Koigu. I had initially started with a handpaint for the body of the sweater, which pooled in a way I didn’t like. I switched out to a more tonal handpaint, which I liked better. Then I messed up my row counts a couple of times, did a lot of frogging and reknitting, and now, the body is off the needles. Here it is!Navelli in Koigu KPPPM and Shibui Knits Sock knit by Deborah CookeIt’s very boxy and short. I’m surprised by how much I like the look of it on, since I’m a bit boxy and short! In a way, I want it longer, but I think it’s most flattering if that fair isle band is at the waist. The neckline is softer than I’d feared it would be – boat necks sometimes can be too tight, but this one is perfect. I’m not in love with the blue in the fair isle band, but I’ve made my peace with it.

It still needs sleeves – the pattern has short cuffed ones with ribbed edging. I think I’ll make mine shorter, since there’s already a lot of drape there, and will do the ribbing in the same purple as the hem. That’s the Shibui Knits Sock.

I do love the colours of the Koigu in the body. Here’s a close-up that shows the colours well if a bit darker than IRL:Koigu KPPMI’m starting to feel as if this one will be done in time for spring!

Harriet’s Hat

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It’s Fibre Friday again and I have a pair of hats to show you.

This pattern is part of a fundraiser to raise money for an MRI for Shetland. A local knitter there – Harriet – created a pattern for a fair isle hand and a local yarn producer there – Jamieson and Shetland – put together yarn kits for knitting the hat. I thought this was a pretty cool and creative way to raise funds, so I bought the yarn kit and the pattern.

Learn more about the MRI Maakers Shetland MRI Scanner Appeal.

I ended up making two hats from the supplied yarn. The first one is on the right:Harriet's Hat knit in Jameson's Shetland by Deborah Cooke

I washed both hats and they fulled a bit, which made them softer and probably warmer.Harriet's Hat knit in Jameson's Shetland by Deborah Cooke

There was quite a bit of yarn left over, so I moved the colours around the charts and knit the second one. I also made it a bit shorter, since Mr. Math thought the first was too deep. It’s more blue, too, and he prefers it.

If you’re interested in the details of how I switched the colours, you can read about that on my Ravelry project page.

Harriet's Hat knit in Jameson's Shetland by Deborah Cooke

I still have some yarn left and could make another hat. It would be mostly yellow, though, and since the darkest blue is all used up, I’m going to stop now.