Fair Isle Sweater from Scratch: The Start

What you see here is the start of a casual, very long-term project: the Fair Isle Sweater from Scratch Project (or almost scratch--I'm not going to raise the sheep!). For some time I've wanted to explore the Fair Isle tradition from the ground up--washing the fleece, carding, spinning, dyeing with natural dyes, and knitting.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step....

Parcheesi Afghan

I've received several lovely responses about the pattern--thank you, everyone! I cannot track exactly how many people have downloaded the pattern, but if only half the people who have accessed my site from Ravelry donated just $5, Heifer now has $2,000 to spend on its programs. And I know that some people have donated considerably more than $5.... This makes me so happy, you can hardly imagine.

Spinning

A week or so ago I posted a picture of my brightly dyed roving. Here it is, spun up as a fingering weight yarn:

If Seattle is going to be pelted with rain day after day, the least I can do is brighten up my yarn corner....

Comments

[Northmoon]

Wow, I have enough "puritan work ethic" guilt from the number of unfinished projects I have piled up - not only knittng mind you - that I can't see myself tackling a fair ilse sweater from scratch anytime soon! I love the self-sufficieny of making something useful from raw materials, so I'll be following your sweater project with great interest and anticipation.

By the way, kind of sheep is the wool from? A friend of mine is threatening to get a few sheep at his farm, and I'd like to push for a good spinning fleece type. Of course then I'd have to find time to start spinning too!

[Naomi]

Way cool! Now that sounds like fun! Melinda and I have chatted about spinning up some shetland for a project. How cool is that? I can't wait to watch your journey!

Another WAY cool...about the amount raised for Heifer!!!

[carla]

Is that Shetland wool? I had no idea it was so crimpy!

[--Deb]

Wow, that is going to be one, beautiful sweater! Good for you--I really look forward to seeing the progress!

[vanessa]

yum yummy spun yarn :-)

[linda]

And here I'm feeling ambitious thinking I'll spin roving someone else prepared into enough yarn for a pair of socks some time this year. Can't wait to see it!

[Cassie]

All I can say is, that fleece has me drooling on my keyboard!

[Sheila]

You go, girl!! Ok, let's have details! Where is this fleece from... what's the sheep's name, for example? How big is it? Is it the only one you will use or will you combine fleeces of different colors? Are you going to spin and knit as you go, or wait until it is all spun and dyed before commencing? Will it be a cardigan or a pullover or what?

[Greg]

Way to go Janine! I dearly love every sweater I've done that with.

Greg

[Cathy]

http://leighsfiberjournal.blogspot.com/

Check out Leigh's handspun Shetland fair isle sweater project. You'll have to go back a few posts. I spun several lbs of Shetland fleece (shades of white, grays, fawn, 2 blacks) for a project but am just looking and thinking about knitting it. Leigh started hers of pretty much the same fleece.

[CarolyninAlaska]

Amazing! I can't imagine knitting a Shetland sweater from true "scratch".

[Dianna Vandermeyden]

Hi! Would appreciate so much a short description of your speed swatching technique. I am taking a class with Terry, who also wrote to you about it. I understand the xxooxxoo part, and then making the next row, shifting one stitch, introducing a new color. How do you keep track of the combos if you want to use that in a sweater? Also, is one row of each combo enough to really tell or are two rows better? I am leaving tomorrow to help my sister recuperate and if possible, would love to do this kind of swatching while I'm there being quiet! Thanks so much