The Newbie and the Knitter Knitalong

Have you heard about the fabulous knitalong hosted by Kristen of Kristenmakes and Sarah from Rhinestones and Telephones? I am so excited! It is for both complete beginners (like me!) and experienced knitters.

We will be knitting the Cadence pullover by Jordana Paige, which is free from Knitty.  I'm super excited to jump straight into knitting a pullover with Kristen and Sarah's help.  The knitalong will begin in September but will be a nice slow pace.  Kristen's already posted some amazingly helpful pieces of information about yarn on her blog.  I want to make the pullover in a lovely teal wool to go with my new pencil skirt (and maybe a cute peter pan collar or other type of blouse underneath?)

What's even better for me is that Kristen and I both live in Edinburgh! Whoohooo--super happy that I can pick her brain, get lots of help and of course go shopping for yarn together!  We did the latter this last weekend.  Being a complete newbie to knitting, it really helped to have someone in the store with me explaining the weights and difference between all the yarns.

One of our first stops was the yarn section of John Lewis.  The great thing about the store is that they have a section of the yarns already knit up so you can see the consistency of the yarn, feel it in a semi-worked up state and see the entire colourway.

One of the yarns that caught my eye was the Rowan 'silk twist'.  It comes in such pretty jewel tones colours.  Luckily, they had a sample patch knitted up and it was really luxurious to the touch!

It also came in a yummy teal colour! Hmmm...this is definitely in my top 5 potential yarns for this sewalong.  The only downside is that it is quite expensive.  Each ball costs about £7 and we need quite a few balls of this for the sweater (about 8).  EEP! That definitely adds up.  I'm keeping this one in mind but I'm going to keep looking for other wool yarn I love.

The next place we hit up during our shopping trip was K1 Yarns Knitting Boutique--an independent yarn shop in Edinburgh.  Shopping at an independent yarn store appeals to me more than a big chain store and K1 is really lovely.  The staff are very personable and they have classes and tutoring sessions at the store.  As an added bonus, they also have a very limited supply of really neat batik and wool fabrics!!

The owner of K1 makes a lot of her own patterns.  This jumper in the window is one example.  This is my second favourite yarn as well.  It's called scrumptious :)  Unfortunately, they didn't have it in teal in their store--but they had lots of other lovely colours.  I did end up finding the same yarn (scrumptious aran) in teal on a website called Fyberspates and it looks like it is almost the exact same price as the the twisted silk yarn. Hmmm...  I might still hold out for something cheaper??

I really love how the yarns are arranged at K1!  These are some of the lace yarns--so soft.

Are you doing the knitalong?  What are some of your favourite yarn shops/online retailers?

Fair Isle Love

Ah, Fair Isle...a beautiful Scottish export!  Fair Isle is actually an island in Northern Scotland about halfway between the mainland Shetland and Orkney Islands (it's actually part of the Shetland Islands).  Today the island is owned by the National Trust for Scotland and there are only about 70 islanders still living there today.  Fair Isle is also one of the most intensely studied areas in Scotland by archaeologists since they've found evidence that the isle may have been settled by Neolithic people up to 5,000 years ago.   The island sounds absolutely beautiful--I definitely want to see if David and I can make a visit there sometime soon!

So, what about the knitting?  Knitting has always been a staple trade of the island (and that of the region).  Fair Isle knitting is distinguished by the use of two different colours of yarn in each row of knitting and a full size hand knit sweater (jumper) will often requires in excess of over 100 hours to complete (although the stitches are pretty basic--just the knit stich).  It is also traditional knitted on circular needles and often includes usually around five colours with only two per row.  Nowadays the term 'Fair Isle' is much more widely used to just refer to sweaters with colourwork knitting (in alternate colours).

It was made popular when the Prince of Wales (Edward VIII) wore knitted Fair Isle tank tops in public in 1921.  And of course, it was very popular in the 1940's.  Ooohh...how I love the 1940's Fair Isle sweaters!

I've been sitting on the knitting fence for awhile.  I don't actually know how to knit but I am oddly amassing a set of lovely vintage knitting booklets.  I would love to learn to knit--there was even a knit camp in Scotland last summer!  I might take a class.  My main concern is with the amount of time it takes coupled with my desire for complicated looking designs!

I thought I would share a few scans of the Fair Isle knitting booklets I have:

 

This one seems to use the term 'Fair Isle' a bit loosely?  It's not what I would picture as a traditional Fair Isle sweater.  I do love the pink with red and green design! So lovely!!

 

This is such a classic example of the type of jumper I think of when I hear the term 'Fair Isle'.  I love the combined jumper and cardigan and how the Fair Isle knitting slopes off the cardigan!

 

Again, this isn't what I would see as a classic Fair Isle sweater but it is very cute!

This one may well be my favourite! I love the shoulder lines on this jumper and cardigan! I love how the Fair isle knit is done on the entire jumper but only on the upper half of the cardigan.

And OMG, isn't her hair amazing?

What about you?  Do you love Fair Isle sweaters? Do you knit? Have you ever done a Fair Isle knitted item?  Is it hard?