Great Grandmother's Gift, Guest Post from Linda

My mother knit as long as she could see and hold needles, but near the end of her life, she no longer had the skill. One of her unfinished projects was the "Hillswick Lumber" Fair Isle style cardigan, from Ann Feitelson's book The Art of Fair Isle Knitting. It was knit in the round, with a steek where the front opening would be. Mother made it a few rows past the armscye openings, and then set it aside. 

Sweater body before steek is cut

Mother died in September of 2018 at the age of 97. I don't keep many mementos, but this piece of knitting was special to me. I removed the needles and gently fulled the wool in warm water and Unicorn Fiber Wash. Butterick pattern 3782 has a very simple jacket that I've used before, and the simple lines seemed perfect for this knit. 

E's jacket is Butterick 3782 and made from her dad's worn out cotton knit sweater, embellished with simple hand embroidery.

I cut the fabric tube open at the front steek to evaluate yardage, and decided on a size medium. I could use the ribbing on the bottom of the sweater, but it seemed to overpower the sleeves. (Didn't have quite enough fabric anyway.)

Fabric laid out flat

Pattern pieces laid on fabric

Trimming off the front facing

I ended up cutting off the front facings. I needed to reduce bulk wherever possible, so I decided to make the front and neck facings out of wool knit ponte that I had in my stash. That gave me an extra seam, so I'm not positive it was the right choice, but the edges finished nicely inside. Iron-on knit interfacing stabilized the front openings and the shoulder seams. 

Fronts with facings ready to be attached

These two photos of the sweater insides will illustrate the difference between a sweater knit to fit and a sweater cut from a piece of fabric--seams and facings. The seams won't show when the sweater is being worn, and I don't think they will be irritating since the sweater is an outer garment. It wouldn't be my first choice if I were starting to knit a sweater, however. Far better to knit the pieces to fit and have no seam allowances and no raw edges to finish. 

This sweater has no inner seams

Seams visible in Fair Isle sweater

Not all of the pattern rows are perfect, because the patterns are tiny and Mother couldn't see well enough to always distinguish the colors. The discrepancies make the fabric all the more dear to me.

Closeup of pattern bands

Pattern bands across the front

Mother would be pleased to know all of her stitches on this project will go to warm one of her great grandchildren. It's just colored wool, but precious to this family.