The pattern says to cut extra stitches on the front of the body and the collar before starting the collar. Every time I anticipate cutting my work, I feel a bit queasy about the idea. So, I decide to only cut the extra stitches around the collar and finish it before cutting into the extra stitches on the front. After the fact, I’m thinking I should just get over my fear of stitches unraveling. It’s really no big deal when working with Shetland yarn. Working the collar with the front open would have been much easier.

Time to start thinking about the next project

I’ve been engrossed in this project for so long that it’s odd to even think about starting another one. Several months back I was going to start a sock project  but never manage to get it started. I’ve been promising to make fingerless gloves, so I guess that will be next.

That’s now my number one advice to any knitter.

Earlier this week I was looking at the pattern for “Lindsay” in Starmore’s A Scottish Garland and was surprised to see a section called “Stitches” that described exactly how the chart, steeks, edge stitch and cross stitch should be done. Right there in black and white, were answers a couple of burning questions that I had wondered about when first starting Firebirds. These were things that most patterns leave to the knitter to figure out on their own.

After finding this, I grabbed my Firebirds pattern to see if that pattern also had a similar section. It turns out that the amendment  send with the pattern card refers to the pattern card for that part of the pattern.  I seemed to have skipped reading the pattern card.

Here are the questions that I had.

Q: There are some long stretches of one color in this pattern. How often should I weave in between color changes?

A: When there are more than 7 stitches of one color then weave in the yarn being carried half way between color changes.

Q:  How long should my yarn ends be when I change colors at the front?

A: Leave a 5 cm tail.

Starmore patterns are very detailed, easy to understand and mostly error free. I did however find one small error on my version of the Firebirds amendment when starting the cuff. It says to start the cuff on round 8 of the chart and then list the first row of the cuff as round 12.  I started at round 12.

I found enough courage to finally cut one of the arm steeks and pickup the sleeve stitches.

In the picture on the right, you’ll see the inside (private side) of the sweater and I’ve pointed out where I picked up stitches from the cut steek. So far the edge hasn’t unraveled much despite several attempts at picking up stitches before getting it right. When the sleeves are finished I’ll trim the steek stitches if necessary and tack down the remaining stitches as described in A. Starmore’s book.

In the picture on the left you’ll see the outside (public side) of the same sleeve. Notice how it starts in the middle of a lengthwise repeat. I’ve read that traditional Fair Isle sweaters are usually designed so that there are no partial lengthwise repeats. With that being said, I think the long single lengthwise repeat in this non-traditional sweater makes it impossible to avoid a partial repeat on the sleeves, especially the adult versions. I did however notice that the child’s version shown on the Virtual Yarn website, has sleeves with three full lengthwise repeats.

Almost looks like a skirt rather than a sweater. I promise it will start looking more like a sweater soon.

Notice the stitch holders. Just after casting off the extra stitches some stitches are put on hold just before starting decreases for the neck line.

On the front neck line, several inches of stitches in the center of the body are put on hold and the knitting continues in the round with decreases on either side of the extra stitches. Thanks to Anne Feitelson’s book, I learned that the decreases should slant towards the extra stitches – totally opposite of what I would have thought.

On the back neck line, about 1/3 of the stitches at center back are put on hold just a few rows before the body is complete. This small dip in the back will help the collar sit comfortably around the neck; or so I’ve read in various knitting books.

Although not shown in these photos, the shoulders were grafter together earlier this week.

Next step is to cut the extra stitches at the sides  and to pick up stitches for the sleeves. What a difficult thing to do since once done, there’s no turning back.

By the way,  this photo wasn’t taken in my yard. We tend not to water the little grass that we do have. This large lawn was well nurtured by my father for the past year.

When knitting with only one color I hold the yarn in my right hand between my thumb and forefinger, with no extra yarn wrapped around any fingers. I probably came across this method when I first started teaching myself how to knit from books but didn’t bother learning the details of how to tension the yarn around other fingers. I’ve tried the proper way of holding yarn in the right hand but always go back to my own way. I love how it gives me total control over the tension, even if it is a little slower method of knitting.

Learning to work with two colors was quite a challenge. I tried knitting with both colors in my left hand, both in my right and one in each hand. As you can see in the picture, I finally settled on holding one color in each hand. Of course,I don’t hold the yarns as shown in most books.

The yarn in my right hand is held as I do when knitting with one color. The yarn in my left hand is held between the first and second finger. To give more tension to the yarn in this hand, the working yarn is always placed in front of the object being knitted and held in place with my thumb.

While I can put lots of tension on the yarn with this method, I don’t. I always make sure that tension in both yarns is very even and not too tight or too loose. When switching between yarns I “fan out” the stitches on the right needle to make sure the yarn carried along the back isn’t too tight.

My advice on holding yarn is to practice until you find a way that achieves the best results.

Progress report:
Next week the body of Firebirds should be nearly completed. This week I started the arm steeks.