princessdeia

Fairly Easy Fair Isle

February 15 2005
Filed under General

A while ago whilst searching through my wool and I noticed I have an increasing amount of 4-ply cotton, so I decided to knit a Fair Isle cardigan, after getting my copy of Stitch ‘n’ Bitch Nation, I decided that Fairly Easy Fair Isle was the pattern for me.

I couldn’t use the 4-ply on the 6.5 needles the pattern asked for so I decided to work on 5mm. after knitting my gauge, I worked out that 4inches equaled 20 stitches, as the pattern asked for 12 stitches to four inches, it was a simple equation to work out how many stitches I needed etc.

But life was going to be that simple, the pattern involved knitting the back and two fronts, as one long piece and then added the arms before decreasing, and working on the whole item at once – again, this didn’t seem like a challenge… but the disaster struck, the pattern didn’t make sense.

The pattern said you should have 105 stitches for the main body and 39 stitches for each arm that is 183 stitches
However, when you come to merge the arms and body… it stated…
Knit 20 from the body
*Place 9 stitches on holder (from body)
Place 4 stitches on holder (from arm)
Knit 30 from arm
Place 5 stitches on holder (from arm)*
Knit 42 from body
Repeat from * to *
Knit 20 from body.
That’s 178 stitches

Where are the other 5… Am I missing something or is it an error???

After pleading on several message boards, and even searching the web for the SnBN correction list, no luck.
Eventually armed with a lot of scrap paper, pen and a calculator, I managed to re-write the pattern for my needs.

Photos soon!

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3 Comments »
  • Geraldine

    Oh, I’m so glad I found your site today. I am trying to make this cardigan and I’ve started with the sleeves and already I’m stumped. I’ve never done any Fair Isle patterns before but I’m assuming the chart should equal the stitches on the needle, in mulitples? I can’t figure this out as it doesn’t seem correct the way it’s written. I just posted about this at my craft blog:

    http://www.veggiesyarnsandtails.wordpress.com

    I want to get going on this but don’t want to have to frog a bunch, later on if it is an error. I can’t find any corrections online either. Please help if you can! Thank you. G

  • Anonymous

    Hi Geraldine, I made this cardigan so long ago I can’t remember it. But please feel free to email me if you need any help and I will see if I can help.

  • Geraldine

    Hi again, I don’t know if my email went through, here’s what I wrote in reply:
    I’m stuck on the sleeve chart pattern. I have 32 stitches on the needles and the
    chart is a 5 stitch repeat. No mention of the other two stitches. I note that
    none of the sizes match up with the multiple of 5. I did find out from someone
    else with more experience knitting than myself,  that it is usually the case that charts match up with the number of
    stitches on needle, in equal multiples. So I don’t know what I should be
    doing.I’m also not sure if there’s a right way or wrong way to wrap the
    new color of yarn to attach to the needle, for a stitch in the pattern. I’m so
    clumsy with this at this point. The youtube videos I’ve looked at so far
    are pretty lame. I do know that a color dot represents a color yarn !!!! If you
    know of any good fair isle tutorials, that would be helpful too. If I could get
    some help from someone who made this cardigan and remembered any corrections
    that would be even better. Everyone online says its such an easy one to make. I
    want to get started!!!!