Remember this? This started life as the first part of a front for a Fair Isle pullover, but morphed into a hat when I realised that using cream, bright yellow and red looked far too Spring-like for the autumnal richness I had in mind.
So now I have been following Jean's adventures in lozenge knitting with interest. First, I obviously needed more yarn, as I had only scraps on each colour. Meadow Yarns were able to supply a lovely golden brown J&S jumper-weight, which will be the ribs and the back of my waistcoat.
Then I used my old favourite, Sheila McGregor. She provides two pages of 17 row lozenge patterns to choose from. I was surprised to see such a random mix in Jean's source, the Museum Sweater. I know that Fair Isle can have different patterns in each band, but different patterns in the lozenges within each band? That would be counter-intuitive somehow, as it would be hard to establish a rhythm to each row.
I already have a Fair Isle waistcoat that fits, so I got my stitch counts from that one. Then I charted out the pattern for one front.
I did actually try a little swatch for the background and pattern colours, but that mainly served to rule out certain combinations.
So then, what about the central row? I tried a row of bright yellow which just disappeared into the background. So, it was back to the box of scraps where a range of greens seemed like possibilities. I went with this mid-green.
So now I have been following Jean's adventures in lozenge knitting with interest. First, I obviously needed more yarn, as I had only scraps on each colour. Meadow Yarns were able to supply a lovely golden brown J&S jumper-weight, which will be the ribs and the back of my waistcoat.
Then I used my old favourite, Sheila McGregor. She provides two pages of 17 row lozenge patterns to choose from. I was surprised to see such a random mix in Jean's source, the Museum Sweater. I know that Fair Isle can have different patterns in each band, but different patterns in the lozenges within each band? That would be counter-intuitive somehow, as it would be hard to establish a rhythm to each row.
I already have a Fair Isle waistcoat that fits, so I got my stitch counts from that one. Then I charted out the pattern for one front.
I did actually try a little swatch for the background and pattern colours, but that mainly served to rule out certain combinations.
So then, what about the central row? I tried a row of bright yellow which just disappeared into the background. So, it was back to the box of scraps where a range of greens seemed like possibilities. I went with this mid-green.
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