I have been working on this sweater. Here’s the fair isle band around the waist, and the steeky bits off to the right hand side:

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I think I’ve mentioned it before. It’s adapted from a pattern in the Knit It! magazine from 2002. Now that I am looking at the pattern, I can see it was designed by Nicky Epstein. I generally like the way her garments turn out. But looking at the kinds of things she produces, she must have wrists of steel. Her and Debbie Bliss both. They use cotton a lot.
Anyway, I have made a lot of changes to the pattern. I decided to not knit it flat, but in the round instead, with steeks. I am using Cascade 220 instead of Wool-Ease. I am not doing the purl bumps in the solid colored part of the sweater. I just didn’t like it that way. I chose my colors based on one of the Cascade Quatro yarns. It’s four colors, one ply each, twisted into a worsted weight yarn. I really liked the combination of colors, and since I don’t think I have the vision myself, and since they probably paid someone to figure out those colors, I decided to rely on their expertise.
By now, I am getting close to the collar, and I haven’t decided what to do with it. The pattern calls for Black Fun Fur in garter stich, but with my super sensitive skin, that would send me to the loony bin. I can’t stand when hair touches my face, and the Fun Fur would drive me up a wall so close to my face. But what to do? I will swatch and see when I get there.
My goal was to get this sweater finished in time for my trip to France in August. Looks like I’ll make it!