I’m hoping at some point I’ll get back into the swing of regular blogging. I do have a major life change coming up this autumn (she said mysteriously) so perhaps that will prompt me to change my slovenly blogging ways.

For the past month-and-then-some I have been working on a traditional gansey: Alice Starmore’s Stornoway, from her book Fishermen’s Sweaters. I’m using Frangipani 5-ply Guernsey on 3mm needles.

As you can see, Loki is being a BIG help with this project. This older photo gives you a much better look at the pattern:

I am at the point where I will knit the shoulder straps before picking up stitches around the armhole and knitting sleeves. Well, I’ll probably knit the neckband before the sleeves.

This design is knit in the round until you get to the armholes. At that point you knit the front and back separately, flat. That has seemed to take forever. Knitting back and forth on one side while the rest of the sweater is hanging off the needles is a bit awkward. But soon I’ll be back working in the round!

So it looks as though I am blogging once a month at this point. I may yet get back in the habit of blogging regularly . . . we shall see. My hosting plan is up for renewal this month and I decided to renew for another year. So I can put off deciding whether or not to scrap the whole thing for another year.

So I finished this:

This is Emily (warning — Ravelry link) designed by Emily Greene. I knit mine in Harrisville Designs Daylight in the Caffeine colorway. This is a lovely lovely cormo blend yarn and I really enjoyed knitting with it.

Then I started this:

This is Stornoway, designed by Alice Starmore from her book Fishermen’s Sweaters. I’m using Frangipani 5-ply guernsey wool in the Aran colorway, on a 3.0mm needle. While it is a huger number of stitches around, it’s a fairly easy knit — the motifs are easily memorized.

Loki takes seriously his job of keeping my cone o’ yarn in place!

Finished, actually, last weekend:

As I mentioned in my last post, I used charts from a design from an old book (Traditional Knitting from the Scottish and Irish Isles, edited by Debbie Bliss) to create this sweater. The original is a sleeveless v-neck vest designed by Lesley Stanfield. I used both Jamieson & Smith and Jamiesons of Shetland yarn as I couldn’t find all the colors in one or the other brand.

I’m very pleased with how it turned out — I managed to get the sleeves looing like they match the body.

Next up . . . a non-fairisle project!

And Loki is having a busy day.

In a not-so-surprising move, I am knitting another fair isle sweater. This:

This is from a book I’ve owned for ages: Traditional Knitting from the Scottish and Irish Isles, edited by Debbie Bliss. It was published in 1991. Wow — that is thirty years ago! It’s out of print but I see copies available on Amazon, both the original book published in the U.K. and the U.S. reprint.

I bought it when it first came out and I have knit several of the designs — there are a lot of good ones in this book! I had previously knit the one I am making now — it is the Fair Isle Long Line Slipover designed by Lesley Stanfield. It’s a v-neck sleeveless vest. I made it as directed back then.

But this time around I’m simply using the charts/colors to knit a long-sleeve crew-neck pullover. I am into the armhole steeks

I’m using a mix of Jamieson & Smith and Jamieson’s shetland jumper weight simply because I couldn’t find all the colors I needed in one or the other brand. I love these colors and I love the flower motif in the ribbing.

So there you have it.

And here is my little shrimp.

I finished Hillswick Lumber:

I knit an insanely bright fair isle (my own design):

And I knit a fair isle from leftovers from my other fair isle projects and a set of mini-skeins from Wee County Yarns:

Oh, and Loki took a lot of naps: