Finally, I am so happy to be able to show you my finished blue Kellie Fair Isle jumper!

The colour work sections continue around the back too…

I finished it over a week ago but the weather here in England has been so gloomy, drizzly or both for the past week or so that I couldn’t get outside to take any photographs. Plus, with the days being so short in the middle of winter, blink and you’ll miss the daylight!

You may recall, if you read my previous blog post, this Fair Isle style jumper, Kellie, designed by Kristen TenDyke and knitted in Rowan Alpaca Classic, was one of my favourite designs in Rowan’s Knitting and Crochet Magazine 68. It is definitely a style that is popular at the moment but a style that will always be favoured by me.

However, the main shade of Kellie, as per the Rowan pattern, is a rusty colour called Copper Clay, and I know that it just wouldn’t suit me. Here’s a photograph of the original colours for Kellie…

So, I changed the main shade to a blue called Blue Haze, the pale pink to a slightly stronger pink called Hyacinth and the Dark Burgundy to Purple Rain. The only shade I didn’t change was Snowflake White. Here’s a close-up of the colours and the Fair Isle pattern…

You can read all about swapping yarn colours in my previous blog post and I discuss and illustrate many different colour combinations.

Kellie is part of a collection of 20 designs in the Seamless section in Magazine 68. These designs are all as seamless as possible, knitted top down and in the round. The seam for Kellie was just 4 stitches at the top of the sleeves under each armhole. This seamless construction suits me as I really don’t like the sewing up part of knitting. So, 4 stitches at each armpit and several yarn ends to tie in at the Fair Isle sections were more than enough for me.

The best thing about knitting top down and in the round is that you can try the work on as you go, which I did. I found that I could make some adjustments to the fit as I followed the instructions for the second size and then when I got to below the bust I kept decreasing stitches until I got to those required for the first size. As I got nearer to the hip area I tried it on so I could get the correct length for my body; the same with the sleeves as I always seem to make these too long as I’m afraid I’ll make them too short.

The resulting fabric is really soft and because it is knitted using Rowan’s Alpaca Classic yarn (57% Alpaca and 43% Cotton) it is very lightweight too. I really do like the alpaca yarns and the lightweight fabrics they produce as opposed to the heavy thick ones which feel overly warm and often scratchy around the neck.

I really enjoyed knitting my blue Kellie jumper and love the result so much that I am thinking I might knit another one. I’m tempted to make the main colour white and then use shades of blue or pink for the other 3 colours, maybe going no darker than Peacock or Pink Lips.

So, have you knitted a Fair Isle style jumper recently? Or maybe you are reluctant to try some two-stranded colour work?

Please do let me know by scrolling down to “Leave a Reply” below.

Don’t miss my next blog post when I will talk about the two-stranded knitting technique I used to knit up Kellie and much more!

Thanks for reading my blog all the way to the end!

Esther x

P.S. Please note: There is a mistake in the magazine regarding the number of balls of yarn needed to knit Kellie. Click the link below and then click on Addendums.
Rowan’s Knitting and Crochet Magazine 68.