Tag Archives: Fair Isle Knitting

Knitting, Weaving

Duplicate Stitch to the Rescue

Posted on by Jean

It’s been a bit. I know. I am getting very excited about my upcoming trip to Fair Isle in a couple of months. I purchased my plane/ferry tickets a couple of weeks ago. That makes it official and all I can think about since is Fair Isle. I was grateful to have had the opportunity to visit that beautiful place for a day back in 2007. We didn’t get to go the first time we went to Shetland, so we made sure to go the second time and the weather graciously worked in our favor. I don’t think I’ll fully believe it until I’ve been there a few days.

Because all I can think about is Fair Isle, I cast on The Fisherman’s Kep Pattern by Anne Sinclair (the group can be found on Facebook), which is sold to support The George Waterston Memorial Center and Museum on Fair Isle. I dug out a bunch of Jamieson and Smith’s wool from my stash from previous visits to Shetland. I did a black/white chart for the patterning and am winging it as I go. It’s coming out nicely, but there was a section I wasn’t crazy about. That pale blue band with all the sand colored patterning looked like a beacon in a dark night to me. It was driving me nuts.

  • Didn’t like the so much pale sand in the pale blue band
  • So I replaced the sand colored stitches in the center row with rose.

I thought I would just duplicate stitch over the center row of the sand color with a rose color I’d used in the brim. It was working, but I didn’t like the way the rose was lifted up off the pattern with the sand yarn under it so I snipped it out and followed the tail of it around to replace it in that row. I’ve made a video to show what I did:

I haven’t been at the looms much since the last post, but I have been weaving here and there on the double width blanket. This week I plan to take the focus off of Fair Isle and back on to my weaving. I should get a lot done if I can just stay off the Shetland webcams! You can see the blanket in the background of the video at least… 🙂

Knitting

More Photos

Posted on by Jean

Still working on my Finished Projects Album.  I added these today:

This is the Scalloway Yoke sweater from Ann Feitelson’s The Art of Fair Isle Knitting.  I love this just about everything in this book.  It not only has beautiful patterns… it’s a great reference book to have on hand.  I think I’ve worn it once.  I want to make it into a cardigan.  I’m almost positive I still have the main yarn left to do the button bands with.  It would get a lot more wear as a cardigan.

There’s also the Fridarey Vest in the photo album from that same book.  It was knit in the round with steeks for the center front and armholes and then cut and finished.

Next up are two cardigans that I did using Meg Swansen’s Lupine Cardigan Details pattern from Meg Swansen’s Knitting.  The first is just as it was done in the pattern.  It’s knit in mule spun yarn and one of those sweaters that’s like an old friend come Fall.

They are knit in the round with steeks and then sewn on a sewing machine before cutting the center front. 

I used this pattern but changed the yarn color and chose a different pattern and knit this cardigan:

One of my favorite sweaters is this one:

It’s Classic Elite’s pattern #807, but I used Naturespun Worsted for it.  It’s soft and cozy and I always get compliments when I wear it.   The trinity stitch was time consuming, but worth it.

Dale of Norway’s Thunder Bay pullover for Dan.  This one sat in the knitting basket for months after I realized I’d forgotten to do the neckline shaping.  I realized this about 20 rows too late.  That’s over 400 stitches, in color work *times* 20.  I literally cried.  Then it sat for months while I hoped that the knitting elves would fix it for me.  Didn’t happen and I cried again as I frogged those rows and redid it the right way.

Blackberry Ridge socks from the first Sock of the Month series.  I finished these within 12 hours of giving birth to Joseph so that I could wear them during labor.  The nurses were so afraid of messing them up. lol.  They kept my tooties nice and warm while I gave birth to my last baby… all ten pounds of him.  😉 

I think that’s all of the items I’ve knit that I still have on hand.  There’s lots of gifts out there that I wish I’d taken pictures of and there are some of the boys’ baby stuff that’s in storage in the States.