I’m about two-thirds of the way through my Lapwing sweater, which is a nontraditional fair isle sweater by Marie Wallin, and I thought I’d share some things I’ve learned from it. If you want to see my Ravelry project page, it’s linked here.
1. Once you get going, it’s hard to stop and work on other projects! I like to keep several things on the needles, and I’m also in the midst of knitting a lot of sweaters for other people before winter really settles in. Yesterday, I took matters into my own hands and soaked the pieces that are done—two sleeves and half the body—so that they would be off-limits for several days while they dry! I also wanted to do a final gauge check. The body feels big around when I put it on, but because the sweater has a drop-sleeve construction, this is normal. I also am knitting at a gauge of about 30 sts/4″ instead of the suggested 32.
2. You need to find a really comfortable gauge for fair isle knitting. If it’s too tight, like with all knitting, it’ll be hard to slide around the circular needle. I knit the sleeves comfortably, but when I started the body, it was a little tighter. I switched from HiyaHiya to Chiaogoo needles and this seemed to help, in case anyone was wondering how to fix that.
3. This pattern is nontraditional for several reasons, but one that is important to note for the actual knitting: some of the rows have EXTREMELY long floats. In fair isle knitting, one of the ‘rules’ is that there should only be 5-7 stitches in any one color before switching, which avoids having to catch floats. Catching floats makes the fabric automatically tighter, so the knitter must be very careful when knitting rounds that have 35 MC stitches and 1 CC stitch in a repeat. If you are wondering how best to catch floats, this tutorial is pretty useful.
4. The other nontraditional thing about the pattern is that it does not have regular X-O motifs. Obviously, the visual quality of these motifs is important, but there is also a functional reason behind them: they change the places where the yarn floats to give the final fabric more stretch. Colorwork knitting as a rule is far less able to stretch than one-color knitting, so anything to give the sweater a little bit of elasticity is helpful. You should always take this into account when you choose a size, because it might mean you need to go up if you have a very tight gauge when working stranded colorwork.
5. A particular mistake I made was knitting the sleeves first. I wish I had knitted the body first and then picked up stitches for sleeves and knitted them downwards. That is a lot easier than making sleeve seams. I will be doing this for fair isle pieces in future.
5. Order more yarn than you think you need! Shetland wool comes in small balls and you want all the yarn to be in the same dyelot. If you have yarn left over, you can make a matching hat or cowl, or save it for contrast colors in your next fair isle project.
That’s all for now. I’m trying so hard to work on other projects and not cast on some fair isle fingerless gloves for fall and winter outdoor knitting down south…
Barnaby Knits 