I may have convinced a few folks to knit the Emerson sweater with me. I got very ambitious and started with the left front section, instead of something easy like the back or a sleeve. The fair isle on this sweater is only on the left and right fronts, making nearly two thirds of the sweater rather fast and straightforward but also making the fronts just not fun, as they are fair isle worked FLAT. This means changing between colors while purling. If you hate to purl, try doing it with one color on each hand. It requires patience and concentration. I don’t have either.
After looking at the chart, I thought that floating the yarn across the 5 or 6 sts that it would need to float wouldn’t be all that bad and besides, it was just one less thing that I had to worry about on those fun purl rows. (I am a lazy colorwork
knitter) So i rocked about half the left front without wrapping the two colors or catching the float with the other color. Then I realized what a mess that was making. So I started to grab the floats for the remainder of the left front. (See this tutorial on how to catch the floats.) The fabric so so much better now. It will probably be noticeably better even after I block it, so that portion of the sweater may end up with a big ol pocket on it…pockets are great for hiding things. I got the back of the sweater cast on and after a grueling 4″ of 1×1 rib, we were off to the races. Sadly, I had to put the project aside for a bit to focus on more pressing matters:
So remember my debate on what to knit while in Seattle, and the battle that occurred in flight when my husband wouldn’t let me block my swatch for the Shadow sweater? Well the class that I am teaching on this very sweater is now frightening close, and I have to knock out a bit of it before class starts Thursday night. yikes! So I put away my Emerson for a bit and got about half of the sleeve done last night. Fortunately, the cables are actually super easy to memorize and I haven’t needed the chart for awhile.
Class details:
Cabled Pullover – Thursdays, September 22, 29 and Oct 6th (second session starting in October!)
Experience required – previous experience knitting a sweater. Ability to work in the round, increase and decrease. Cabling experience is also helpful but not necessary.