For my next fair isle piece, I’m knitting the pattern Mioness, which was written by Violet McQuade for Jamieson’s of Shetland.

This sweater has almost no projects on Ravelry—just one other than mine!—and is knitted in nine different shades of Jamieson’s of Shetland Spindrift yarn. If you know me, you know I prefer Jamieson and Smith 2-ply Jumper Weight for a multitude of reasons (it’s cheaper, it’s springier, it’s easier to source in the US), so I’ve chosen to knit with this yarn instead. The one problem is that there are FAR fewer color choices (which seems crazy to even think – there are upwards of 80 colors of J&S available), so I had to make some adjustments.

Instead of knitting the pattern in as-close colors as possible to the original, I decided to change the color scheme. This is one of the ways in which I’m learning to be more comfortable selecting my own fair-isle color scheme, which is a daunting task! I like to take a pattern and keep most of the colors’ value or heathering or whatever as similar as I can, while completely changing the tones. I’ve done this with Mioness, and next I’ll do it with Ann Feitelson’s Brae cardigan (I’m changing it from pinks to greens, but of course with a classic pop of 72 Strawberry), so stay tuned for that adventure! Here is the original color scheme and the initial colors I chose, side by side:

Color 1: Mulberry. I chose J&S 21 (navy)

Color 2: Dusk. I chose 36 (midnight blue)

Color 3: Blueberry. I chose FC 56 (purple)

Color 4: Orchid. I chose 1280 (pale blue/lavender mix)

Color 5: Pot-Pourri. I chose 14 (light blue)

Color 6: Twilight. I chose 123 (light purple)

Color 7: Mist. I chose FC 21 (lavender/tan mix)

Color 8: Jupiter. I chose 131 (lavender sky blue)

Color 9: Purple Haze. I chose FC 52 (blue-tan mix)

The corrugated rib section took bloody forever, and I did it on a size 1 needle, but thanks to the new season of The Crown, I had ten beautiful hours of knitting time last Sunday (and still did not complete this corrugated rib in that time but did manage to get through most of it). I was very pleased with my color selection up through this section.

Of course, when you do something like this, it involves a lot of learning from mistakes. The purple I chose for color 3 was not quite as dark as the original, and the purple I chose for color 6, which has to contrast with it in every other fair isle band, was not different enough in color quality or heathering, which meant it didn’t contrast quite enough to see properly. I decided to change this on further bands (I didn’t want to rip back; I’m not fussed enough about it) to a light grey (J&S Supreme Jumper Weight, shade 2003), and as you can see from the photos, it works quite well. I debated for a long time between this and a light oatmeal shade of J&S Supreme, but this one ended up winning because brown is too warm a color.

The only other spot I worried about in terms of contrast was the middle band of the large star. This color was chosen specifically because I was working on my Lapwing sweater at the time with 131 as the main color, and I wanted to purchase a few extra balls in case I ran out of yarn (I did; this was a good decision). But for this one, I think it works fine – the lighter colors surrounding the middle three rounds of the star make it stand out enough, and unless the light is very dim it is not hard to see.

So, here’s the body of my sweater approximately halfway to the armholes. It knits a lot faster than my Lapwing did, probably because there are hardly any rows on which floats need to be caught and it is much easier in general to memorize the round repeats quickly. Perhaps I’ve just gotten very used to fair-isle knitting now, though, and time has no meaning anymore (I know, I know, we’re in like month 9 of time having no meaning anymore).

Some technical details: I’m knitting this in the smallest size (38-40”) on a US 1.5 (2.5mm) needle to get the correct gauge of 32 sts/4”. I knit my Lapwing on a US 2 and the gauge came out closer to 30 sts/4”, so I figured I’d size down a little for this one and avoid the risk of running out of yarn. I expect to use 21 balls of yarn for this project, although I assume I will end up with leftovers of some colors (especially my original color 6, which I seem not to be using at all anymore! Poor light purple, she’ll have to get used up in a different project). I’ve done a 9-stitch steek bridge and I plan to secure my steek by needle felting again. I will probably do a 7-stitch steek bridge for my sleeves. I made the steek bridge after one row of purling back in corrugated rib, because I was just not having it. (Wish me luck for the button bands and neck!) As per the pattern, I am knitting this piece in the round starting with the body and I will pick up sleeves after cutting the steek bridges open.

This pattern is great and very helpful if you need some tips on how to properly place your sleeve and neck steeks; however, I will warn less experienced fair-isle knitters that it is only four pages long and one full page is taken up with a picture and another with the color chart! Extensive instructions with fair-isle sweaters are fairly redundant – trust yourself and read the sparse words carefully! I always assume this is what those technical challenge recipes in Bake-Off are like for knitters who are used to 10-15 page patterns…

My Ravelry page can be found here, although this post obviously has far more details and I assume it’s more useful. Hopefully I don’t get too distracted by other projects and do a good job finishing this one in a somewhat timely manner. Lapwing took MONTHS, since after the first sleeve I was just like ‘nah,’ so hopefully I stick it out and have this one done in a few weeks!