I am struggling along on the Throwback sweater, sweating and swearing (quietly) as I knit the rows that use three colors. True fair isle, I am told, does not ever use more than two colors, and I swear, as doG is my witness, that I will never do three-color stranding again.  The yarn gets more twisted than you can imagine, and I can't find a way around it.

This is nothing like the worst of the tangling.  

People who have seen me work on this have noted that I take more time untwisting yarn as I knit a row than I do actually knitting.  I'm sure it's true.

However, I have no problem purling the wrong side of the sweater while I am stranding two colors, and people on Ravelry and in person have said that purling stranded knitting is really difficult.  I find it pretty easy, which probably means I'm doing it wrong, but it's turning out ok.

Yesterday I had only two rows of three-color knitting to do, but after I finished the second row, I found a mistake halfway across the first row.  I had to take a row and a half out, just when I thought I had finished with the most difficult of the knitting.  The rest would be a breeze.  

So I start over with three colors today, sweating and swearing (maybe not so quietly), hoping for the best.  



In other news, I bought this good-looking cat tree.  It's so much nicer than the one we've been using.  No thick carpeting to hold onto hair and barf.  Easier to take care of.  All wood, so sturdy.  The last cat tree we will ever need, I told my husband.  He spent an hour and a half putting it together. The cats don't like it.  

I'm hoping they will eventually learn to love it, but so far, nope.  I even squished Baxter's old cat bed into the bottom to replace the white fluffy faux fur pillow.  (White?  What were they thinking?)

ODC cats, right?

Look at Me!

I am fair-isle-ing!!!  (not a word, until today)

I didn't think I could do it, but apparently I can!  Knitter/needlepointer Elizabeth told me to keep the old yarn on top as I went from color to color, and that's what I did.

Yay me!

Yay Me!

I rode my bike this morning all bah mahself!  I know what you're thinking---big deal. But it's the first time in years that I've ridden alone because of the time I fell and broke my wrist.

I always ride with my husband so that he can call 911 when I fall. He is in SC today, so I rode with my trusty "Help I've fallen and I can't get up watch," and the phone it calls 911 from. So in that regard, I was prepared and ready to go.

However at about the 3/4 point of my ride, I had to stop and walk the bike over some curbs between neighborhoods, and I discovered that my kickstand was down.  Ooops.

It's a good thing I hadn't needed to make any sharp left turns, although, when I told my husband what I had done, he said that the kickstand would have gone up if it had hit anything.  I'm just glad I didn't have to learn that firsthand.


In other totally unrelated news, I am making this wrap out of exactly this yarn in exactly this color.  

Cowboys and Angels by Isabell Kraemer

It appears that I will do anything to avoid starting work on the Throwback fair isle sweater.

Still Crazy After All These Years

of knitting.

I finished the aforementioned Weekender sweater and it sort of fits.  So...victory?

Not really; I don't much like it.

But in 2018 I had bought yarn for my first-ever Fair Isle sweater and THAT was going to be my New Year's project.  

(On the top right, main color, the bottom photo, the colors for the yoke.)

I bought the colors in October at SAFF, and that was to be it. No more yarn shopping for me.

But then, while I was in Texas for Christmas, I bought the yarn on the left to make another Free Your Fade, AND while I was still in Texas, I ordered the yarn and pattern for the beret, from Kitterly, from whom I had vowed never to buy another kit after my dissatisfaction with a previous purchase.  I HAD to buy the yarn for Free Your Fade; I was in Sated Sheep in Dripping Springs, Texas, and it would have been rude to not buy anything, right?

Right.

Now for something completely different:

My daughter and her family have a new kitten and she, Violet Beaudelaire,
was fascinated by the Simon's Cat videos on You Tube.

My cats pay absolutely no attention to tv. 


I almost forgot!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

The Albatross Around My Neck,

the thorn in my side, the burr under my saddle, the pea under my mattress.....whatever.

The Weekender sweater is finally finished.  I started it January 12th of this year, and now it's almost the end of November.  It's not that the pattern was a problem, but the yarn would not behave.  I bought it in 2014 and started other patterns a couple of times, then frogged them and put the yarn in time out.  The %^&*() swatches lied every time, and I was, as a result, always on the wrong size needles.  Finally I saw someone else using the same yarn, on size 8 needles, I liked the fabric, so that's what I've used and the sweater WILL FIT SOMEONE or else.

This is a horrible photo of it, but all photos of it all through the process have been horrible; the thing is cursed.  

Anyway, now my plan is to start on my first Fair Isle project.  I have almost no idea of what I'm doing but I figure between friends who are better knitters than I and frequent searches on YouTube, I can figure it out.  I hope.

However, I do have 6.7 oz of this yarn remaining.  Anyone want a hat?  The yarn is Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, color Thistle.  The yarn is rustic and woolen spun, so that means it's light as air and pretty scratchy.

I should go into advertising.

If Wishes Were Horses,

I would knit a Fair Isle sweater.

Or ride a horse, which I know is a lot easier. (my apologies to Shakespeare)

Even if I never knit anything from this gorgeous collection of gorgeous patterns, I will still love looking through the magazine.

When I returned to knitting about ten years ago, my goal was to make a Fair Isle sweater for my oldest granddaughter. As I did more and more research on stranded knitting, I became more and more intimidated and have never even started to knit such a sweater. dH says I should make one for myself, that grandchildren grow out of sweaters faster than I could make one. Good point, but that makes it literally an even larger challenge.

According to this Rowan magazine (#52), Fair Isle knitting comes from one of the Shetland islands and uses two colors on each row. The two strands of wool running across every row make for a very warm sweater, necessary in the climate. The style was popularized by the Prince of Wales (Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne in order to marry Wallace Simpson) when he was seen golfing while wearing a Fair Isle vest in 1921.

I had sort of written off ever knitting a Fair Isle sweater but when I look at these designs, I sigh and wish..........

Aren't they beautiful?
Hmmmmm....maybe some socks?

Or a horse.