I have done fair isle!

G'day all!

Way back in the dim dark ages when I last had the knitting bug in a big way, I made jumpers. (Not sweaters - sweaters are things like sloppy joes and windcheaters and stuff that you sweat in not that we particularly use the term sweater anyway - jumpers are for looking nice and keeping warm in. Don't ask me why they are jumpers - maybe because you were active in the newly fashionable knitwear of the late 19th/early 20th centuries and you could do things like jumping in them at a time when everyone wore stays and constrictive clothing.)

I found my box of jumpers that I can't throw out, but conversely don't want to wear any more.

Here's fair isle one:

It has *beautiful* full sleeves that gather into the cuff and a turtle neck, as you did in the 80s. It was quite warm I seem to remember. The colours are very 80s too, but then again that is when I knitted it. I probably knitted it with an old standard here - Paton's Totem, though I may have used a plain, cheaper Cleckheaton yarn, but that seems unlikely from the feel of the jumper. I am pretty sure I could not get enough of the Cleckheaton Merino Supreme to make a whole jumper - it was the best yarn for softness and knitted up very well indeed (more another time!).

I know there are plenty of freaks out there who like to see the inside of the fair isle (pretty much more than the outside!) so here it is:


Here's fair isle two. I can't remember if I knitted this one for a boyfriend or for me - I think this one was for me cos the scraps and leftover wool from the other one were greens and turquoises, and I only just threw most of them out 20 years on (and the jumper was MUCH too big, lol. And yes we did break up). Anyway, this jumper was a bit broad for me even now that I have porked up 10 kilos from my early uni days - it would almost fit my DH except he is too long in the body for it.


Now the inside:


Do you like the different techniques used on the arms and the body? I was worried I'd run out of yarn if I stranded it so I used a gazillion little bobbins of yarn instead. Then I stranded it on the arms.

So there are my two remaining fair isle jumpers. I have two intarsia ones left as well, one of which I have been know to wear recently just to stir people up :-)

Oh, yes, we are still in Melbourne. I have been warned by THREE different people now to expect it to take THREE months before the visas are issued. So much for it only taking two days, like the bloke told us.

anon!

Comments

  1. Beautiful jumpers and very 80's too as you said!
    The lower one you could get away wearing today though,it looks lovely!
    The parcel arrived with a little surprise! Thankyou!!!! I shall enjoy playing with them!!!
    Maybe you will have abit more time to get things ready before you go!!!!

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  2. I think your jumpers are very beautiful.
    I am now finding hand knitted jumpers too warm for our Sydney 'controlled' climate. When I started work in the late 70s I needed jumpers to keep me warm - now I just need a light jacket indoors (and a coat when I go outside)

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  3. Pretty jumpers! Excellent work with the stranding too.

    When my sister went to college in Tennessee, her student visa took nearly three months to go through. Her regular visa took about a month and a half and the lady at immigration told her it was that fast only because she already had a student visa and it was current when she applied for permanent status.

    I hope your visas go well and quickly, then you can have summer back.

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