My Love Affair With Fair Isle Knitting

Some years ago, I came across the Philosopher's Wool Book: "Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified" and fell in love with the idea of stranded knitting. Didn't know about "Fair Isle" vs. "Stranded Knitting", but I'm sure that, had the book been titled "Stranded Knitting Simplified", it might not have caught my eye. I loved the colorways. So I ordered yarn from Briggs and Little, in New Brunswick, made my first stranded sweater, and cut steeks for the first time. Authentic Fair Isle or not, it has earned me many a compliment. It was also my first wool sweater in years. I was sure I was allergic to wool since every sweater I had ever had in wool was scratchy. But I tried the B&L yarn(and that's another love affair--so soft, and not itchy). Then 2 friends commissioned similar

sweaters in a brown/green colorway 1 cardigan and one pullover. And I ordered yarn for 3 more sweaters in other colors. (at this point I have not knit fine socks and am oblivious to authentic Fair Isle Knitting).

Knitting geek I may be, but techno-geek? Those genes bypassed me and all went to my son. Adding images is difficult for me (I'll blame it on slow dial-up), so I managed to sit here posting while my image was uploading, and I managed to get the same image twice. Could someone please tell me how to remove an image?

A (see below)

Back to the saga. At this time, I had not heard of Lorraine or Anne (http://shadesofshetland.blogspot.com/). When Alice Starmore's Oregon sweater appeared in the Vogue Knitting magazine, I was hooked. In trying to find the yarn for the Jamieson's book, I had googled, and found Jamieson and Smith, thinking this was the right company, so I ordered for 3 sweaters. My apologies Anne, I'd love to order a shade card from you and some yarn, but I have to de-stash some first. But I've been tempted by the cute little Roslin Fair Isle hoodie on the Rainey Sisters http://theraineysisters.com/ site. That one calls for Jamieson yarns in 2 weights. I will resist the temptation till my Roscalie and Oregon are finished. Then I'll reward myself.

With all the image stuff, I managed to move the following paragraph to the bottom of the page and started typing again ahead of it. Insert the following paragraph at A above to keep the saga in order. It's not letting me cut&paste.

A friend at school had a kit for Alice Starmore's Roscalie Cardigan, in the original Scottish Campion colors, and she asked me for help--I couldn't believe how thin the yarn was, but am always up for a challenge. In exchange for the help, she shared the pattern with me. So I checked the gauge, with B&L one ply, adjusted the pattern repeats, and that will be my Roscalie Cardigan. At this point, I was curious about who Alice Starmore might be, so I googled, and opened a new world of knitting. Alas and alack!! Most of the books that I would die to own (but not spend

hundreds of $$$ for) are out of print. But prayers answered; Jamieson's have some lovely Fair Isles in their books and Lorraine has a tempting one. (Shh...I'm trying to upload the picture of my Roscalie sweater. Maybe the image gremlins won't know if we're quiet about it)
I guess I wasn't quiet enough, because they heard me, and I lost the link, and my picture should have been almost finished... This time I'm going to time the upload.

OK What's up? After 14 minutes the blessed thing tells me my upload is done, click DONE and it will be on the post. So where is it? I'll add it next time.

I think I'm pushing my luck for one evening. On a final note: At the left are my Galaxy socks--A Regia yarn sent to me by a cousin in Germany along with other colors for 4 more pairs but sadly, no more Galaxy ones.

(I had uploaded this image onto a blank post for future use, so it worked fine)

GOOD NIGHT! I'm going for a cup of tea!!

Till next time: You can get a lot of extra mileage out of a grandmother if you let her have a cup of tea. (Charlotte Gray)