ravelry page // pattern: Sweet and Seamless Sweater // yarn: LB fisherman’s wool & Knit Picks WotA 

One of the biggest lessons I learned when I started knitting bigger projects was that if I catch a mistake, even if it’s on row 3 and I’m all the way at row 57, I should always rip and fix it. Unless you can fix without ripping, of course. Some people can tell themselves that they love it for its imperfections, or that they won’t notice the error. I can’t do that; I always notice.

The thing with fair isle knitting is that even if you’re doing it totally right, it looks absolutely awful. The entire time I’ve worked on this sweater, I’ve had this ongoing argument with myself over whether or not I need to rip and start over. Maybe I’m pulling too hard. This part’s uneven. Why are these stitches leaning that way? It’s not even comforting to watch Youtube videos of the experts or to look at other people’s progress photos because I always seem to be able to convince myself that they’re knitting gods and I suck.

And yet inevitably I bind off, toss it in some warm water for a soak, and when it dries it’s lovely and even and I feel silly for ever doubting myself.

The moral of the story is that I need to photograph all my fair isle projects while they’re in progress so that when I start a new one, I can look back and see that the gorgeous sweater I finished and blocked used to look like crap too.

Or that wet yarn attracts small magical fair isle elves that unravel and re-knit the whole thing evenly whilst I sleep.