New Year: New Project!

Okay, not really a "new" project. Not only is this a pattern I've knit before, I started it back in December.


See, I "can" do fair isle... in the round, at least! This is my second Aspinwall Pullover. Matt and I loved how the first one turned out, but as I wanted it done for Christmas last year, I cut some corners. Mainly, I HATED doing the half brioche stitch in the round. I don't think I can describe the tortured pain I suffereed doing only 3" of it. So I switched to stockenette stitch and trudged along. Still turned out well:

(holy krappy photo!, gotta convince him to do an other photo shoot).

One of the problems I had with doing the half brioche in the round was that it biased terribly. Even with only 3" of the ribbing, it's very noticable. Blocking helped a bit, but I can't image how bad it would've been if I had done the entire bottom section with it (not that I would ever know... I hated working the stitch so much that the project would've stalled).

So I figured I would do the bottom section this time flat, then seam it up. The stitch is soooo much easier to work back and forth and there is zero biasing. However, like everything in life, there is a drawback. I added seam stitches, of course. The problem is that the half brioche stitch has a different row gauge than st. st. (which is my standard seam stitch). In retrospect, I should've done a slipped stitch seam. Eh, blocking fixes everything, right?

No matter, as I love how it's looking! The colors are just what I wanted. The Highland Donegal (from Elann) is a lovely yarn (yes it will pill: I have yet to find a single ply yarn that doesn't pill).

So body is to the armholes. I'm ready to tackle the sleeves (eeks, that's half brioche stitch in the round again... at least it's just for the sleeve cuffs. I can live with that. I hope.)


Close up of the fair isle band.