Fair Isle Knit Socks and More

Phew.  Those fair isle socks (only two yarn colors per row, knit intermittently while holding the opposing color in the back of the knitting) are complete.


What with all the self striping sock yarns now available, I doubt if anyone other than an experienced knitter could tell that the technique used in whipping up these socks was indeed "fair isle" knitting.

Alas, one of the women from the Shetland Fair Isle Knitting Guild (link here for information and pictures) (link here for more pictures) (and also here for a knitting workshop blog post) would be able to differentiate and critique this knitting.  They could right away spot my errors.

But I continue working on the technique and do have a bit of prior fair isle knitting under my belt:

(Our Mercy)

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing kit by Sandra Manson and Kate Davies, using all nine shades of 2 ply Shetland Supreme wool yarns from various types of sheep on Shetland) .. kit available here

Now I have the bright idea of trying to create a portion of this picture in fair isle knitting, along with reference help from the Book of Fair Isle Knitting by Alice Starmore. 

Giovanni Battista di Jacopo (Italian Mannerist painter, 1494–1540), known as Rosso Fiorentino (meaning the Red Florentine in Italian) Angel with Lute Madonna dello Spedalingo

If I can graph this out correctly ensuring the shading on the cherub, it should be a year long knitting project taking a lot of patience and many shades of yarn. Pinterest has some graphing aides, along with Starmore's book.  There are very few Renaissance needlepoint kits with angels, and none that I could unearth on the internet linking angels, Renaissance and knitting.  If you know of any such kits, including needlepoint, please leave me a comment as it would save lots of time if I could find a kit readily available.

Linking with Ginny's Yarn Along this Wednesday.

Let's Do This Again

Since last week's dyeing concoction did not go so well (previous post), a few corrections to the marigold dyeing process were made yesterday with very differing results.  New process was to

• cut off flower heads (check)
• simmer flower heads in 1/2 gallon of water for an hour (check)
• strain flower water, discarding the flowers and retaining the water for day (again, did that last week)
• mordant the wool in 1/2 tsp. alum and 1/2 gallon of water for one hour over simmer (different than last time as I used vinegar for the mordant)
• place wool skeins into the dye bath and simmer for one hour (same as last week)
• over-dye that ugly skein from the first dye bath last week by re-dyeing it in this week's concoction (check, but with rapidly beating heart)
• retrieve wool from dye bath and rinse under cool water several times to remove dye left over in fiber
• enjoy the scent of the marigold water and marvel at the color of the golden dye bath water
• delight in the resulting pretty colors (different from last week)

Here are the results, with plenty of seeds saved for next year's garden:

The skein on the right was the prior seaweed color.  Now it is a deep golden.  The wool on the left is a pretty and bright yellow, having started out as a virgin white wool.

Another picture of the bright yellow wool:

Yea! I am happy, happy, happy!

This will be used to knit a Fair Isle tam, using one of the patterns used by the Scottish women in the knitting guild whose pretty hats are shown below.

Thanks to the commenters last week who said to look for alum in the spice aisle. I HAD looked in our largest local grocery chain in our town and could not find it, but then went to the local Safeway and BEHOLD! There it was. Thanks for nudging me to look for it again!

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Just finished my second Fair Isle knitting project.  It is rams and sheep designs knitted into the fabric to make a dog's coat.

Fun facts about this project by Kate Davies, with the pattern cleverly termed A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing:

• Nine different colors of wool are knitted into the pattern
• Each of the nine colors is from a different type of sheep that are raised on the Shetland islands
• Learned how to knit in the traditional Fair Isle style this summer in Scotland
• I bought the kit while visiting Jamieson & Smith Wool Brokers over the summer in Lerwick
• It was so much fun to knit that I finished it in ten days

Although I made only one sweater, each of our dogs can wear it.  In order to lessen their jealous streaks, I'll be making a second sweater.  There is plenty of yarn left over in the kit.

Some modifications were made because our dogs are a bit smaller than the size given.

Our models:

Libby Sweatpea has her ears back and looks embarrassed, doesn't she?

 

 

Mercy has attitude, right?  She thought it was a bit warm to be modeling this coat in August, but what is a girl to do when she is being featured on the runway?

Royal Prince George: Christening Gown

Friend Mary who writes this blog passed along a few articles that may be of interest to fibre enthusiasts.  Here is one of interest from the Shetland Times about the royal baby's christening gown that Sandra Manson from Bressay was commissioned to knit: ARTICLE HERE

...a quote from the article:

The robe was made of Shetland supreme one-ply worsted spun yarn, which is the nearest to homespun it is possible to get. Although the full-length garment only took two weeks to make, it took six weeks to plan.

We met Sandra in Shetland two weeks ago; what a nice woman and talented knitter!

Then another on Shetland Woolens here from a blogger who knows her stuff.  Mary also found that article.

And to end on this note: I am knitting up a dog sweater with a kit purchased from Jamieson & Smith while in Lerwick, and loving knitting it.  It is made up with sheep and rams' horns in nine natural colors of the different sheep on Shetland.  And the name of the pattern is clever: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing by Kate Davies.  Here is the finished picture of what it will look like:

And here is where I've gotten so far:

Shetland Lace Knitting Workshop

Three women from this part of the world representing the knitting guild in Lerwick shared their lace knitting expertise and showed some of their beautiful shawls and scarves made from one ply wool.

The knitter above, Kathleen Anderson, can make something the size she shows below in about six weeks.

Close ups of lace:

Sandra Manson was commissioned to knit the Royal Baby's Christening Shawl.  This quote is from The Shetland News:

The robe was made of Shetland supreme one-ply worsted spun yarn, which is the nearest to homespun it is possible to get. Although the full-length garment only took two weeks to make, it took six weeks to plan.

This was our supplied yarn