Question: What do you do when you like the look of
a fair isle scarf from M & S advertised in the paper, but when you see it in-store you realise that although it's lovely, there's something not quite right about it?
Answer: You make one of your own of course!
Mine doesn't really look anything like the original of course because I only used that a spring-board, but I love it all the same. And because I wanted a bolder look I used a unifying background colour (except when I felt more contrast was needed) rather than also changing background colours as in traditional fair isle knitting.
I used some patterns from the thankfully reprinted
Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting, combining them as desired, although once the sequence was set, I stuck with it. It all looks different though because the colours were also cycling round too, and by design I didn't get the same motif in the same colour more than once.
I learned a lot about the reading of fair isle charts. Basically the contrast colour is either on or it's off and once I got into my rhythm I was motoring ahead.
I am on the laptop here and don't have all my photos in the drive, but there are plenty more views either on
Ravelry or on
Flickr for those without Ravelry accounts.
Edit: I should also add that this finished object owes something to Kaffe Fassett's Lidiya Scarf from Rowan 48. (No links but that info should enable you to find it.) End edit.
Hopefully everyone is enjoying the Christmas season. x K
