Fluffbuff

I started this sweater in London with a pattern from Scottish Island Knits.

After struggling for more than a week with tangle horrors of galactic proportions, a few friends in my spinning guild helped me frog the whole thing down to the ribbing. Yes, it took four people to rip about twenty rows of unspeakable mess. Then one of them (thanks Kathy) showed me how to weave in the yarn as I knit and I was on my way to do things properly. So I started my pattern again. All went well up to the point where I had to use more than two colors per row and even my new technique was no help. Finally, I asked for help on a Fair Isle knitting list and someone pointed out that I was using a Fair Isle technique on an intarsia pattern. Duh! More frogging, all by myself this time.

Down to the ribbing again, the day before my retreat at Deer Springs where my friend Andrea was going to bring a book by Norwegian designer Solveig Hisdal, so I decided to pick a new pattern from that book. This is what I chose.

I am not sure I can call it Fair Isle, since it's not a traditional Fair Isle pattern, but it only requires two colors per row, which I understand is the basis of the Fair Isle technique. Here is the sweater now, one week later.

And this is the back, with every other stitch weaved in. I don't know if it's overkill, but I like the effect.

I am finally happy with how my sweater is going. The only problem is that now my UFOs have even less chances of getting done.