Things to Make & Do - A Fair Isle Pullover

For the Chap in your life, be he young or old.
This fancy Fair isle pullover is just the ticket to keep him warm and looking snazzy whilst  potting up cuttings or just general pottering about the Garden. Worked in 5 shades of 4py yarn with a simple repeat fair isle pattern it will grow quicker than a well-loved cutting!

So as if by magic I finished my dad's pullover just in time for Christmas. To be fair I had promised it to myself more than him, so he would have been none the wiser if I hadn't finished, but knitting to a Dad-line is obviously the only way I seem to be able to finish anything!

Tickety Boo Tupney's

Stitchcraft Men's Fair Isle Pullover

See My Version On Ravelry Here

Pattern : Stitchcraft Fair Isle Pullover 1947
Ingredients: 

• King Cole Big Value 4 ply 
• 150g Dune (677)
• 50g Red (667)
• 50g Opal (678)
• 50g Mustard (671)
• Robin 4 ply
• 50g Brown (51)
• Pair of Needles (Rib) US 1½ - 2.5 mm
• Pair of Needles US 2½/ 3.0 mm
                  OR
• Circular (Rib) US 1½ - 2.5 mm 
• Circular (Body) US 2½/ 3.0 mm
• Tips on changing pattern to round

YouTube-ualr Know How:

• Cast On, Knit & Cast/Bind Off
• Fair Isle Knitting
• Pick up Stitches on Neck & Armholes
• Circular Cast On 

I opted to knit it up on circular needles, to hopefully save me some time, and once I had passed the K.1,  P.1 rib it was wonderfully quick to do. Plus it was much more enjoyable to knit as there was a lot less pesky purl rows to battle with the fair isle  and all the end tails that would need to be worked in once finished, were only on one side of the pullover rather than on both!

One thing I learnt the hard way was that when choosing to convert a fair isle 'flat knit' pattern to 'in the round' you will need to remove TWO stitches from the quantity - The pattern was designed for flat knitting, which would mean that the first stitch of the front section and the last stitch on the back section will meet at the seams when finished. When knitting in the round these two stitches become ONE stitch as there is no seam. It took many hours of head scratching for me to figure out why when I started the pattern it just would not meet up and was 2 stitches out though I had the exact number of stitches required! (37-39" chest) 145 for Front + 145 for Back = 290 -2 for on the round =288.

The only downside to knitting in the round in fair isle is row jogging. This is because rather than knitting back and forth, you are knitting in a spiral meaning the last stitch of the row below gets pulled up to the next row. I had intended to get a picture of this as it is quite noticeable - once you know it's there. I also had intended to have this running under the arm where the original seam would have been, but due to frustration over dividing up my stitches for the armholes it ended a couple of repeats into the front of the pullover, Blast!

Front view
I convinced my brother to model it for me so that I could see if it would fit my Dad.

I  made a classic blunder of not reading the pattern properly and so sewed the shoulders together before realising I should have picked up stitches and worked on each section separately first. So I ended up by working the neckband in one piece, beginning and ending at the centre V which actually worked out fine and meant the only seaming needed was at the centre of the V, mistakes sometimes pay off and less sewing is always good!!

Armhole Band

When picking up for the neckband I divided each side of the V and back into equal sections with pins and aimed to get as evenly as possible the 189 stitches in. I will be honest and say that I worked with what would comfortably fit rather than sticking to the required 189 which was much easier and it still looks OK!

The only change I made to the pattern was to add an additional Dune row (main beige colour) in between each pattern section, I did this to make it a little longer and to give my brain a little rest between each fair isle section.

The inside a close up from the purl side Yarn Floats - The pullover was turned on its side when taking the picture, so they actually run the width of the pullover not vertically as they look here. 

As I was using the acrylic yarn I was convinced, that I had to rule out the possibilities of blocking. so I had to hope that it would be fine without and after a few flattening tugs across the width and the odd loosening of a float or two, it flattened out a treat!

I have since learnt that you can actually block acrylic yarn! Yep, it's done slightly differently but certainly can and should be done, see beadknitters post all about it here!

I am glad and relieved to say he loves it (see above and the fact that he was prepared to pose for the cover shot!) and he was quite taken aback by it, so much so he wore it for three days straight! To be honest, if he hadn't liked it I would have been disappointed, but I would have quite easily been consoled by the fact I could have kept it for myself!

Wendy x