Fair Isle Knitting with the Wartime Farm

It dawned on me yesterday that I haven't 'officially' announced the publication of the Wartime Farm Sleeveless Pullover. I'm sure most regular readers will already know that it is now available to download but in case you didn't, it can now be downloaded for £5.00 from ravelry with £2.50 from each sale going to the Women's Land Army Tribute Campaign. Just click on the link below to take you to the ravelry page to purchase (there is no requirement to be a member of ravelry to purchase).



You can also read all the details about the pattern and the wide range of sizes available here.

We had a wonderful time photographing Gavin 'disguised' as Alex from Wartime Farm. He didn't take much disguising to be honest as once he was donned in his period style clothing and fedora, he looked remarkably similar.

The pullover featured in the photographs is knitted using Jamieson and Smith jumper weight Shetland wool and I am currently knitting another sample for aged 3-4 years in Excelana 4 ply. Here is the swatch.

I have used Saharan Sand as the background colour and tried to keep the same type of colour combining in this sample so it as similar to the original as possible. This colourway is now also available as a kit from my website.

All the yarn to knit the pullover is provided neatly packed in a Susan Crawford Vintage project bag. There are 21 sizing possibilities in the pattern in total which are all listed on the website to ensure you purchase the correct kit.

Once I've finished the toddlers sample I intend to knit a further Excelana version of the pullover in a bit of a different colourway and this one will be for me. This will also be available as a kit once its all completed.

A first for me with this pattern is the release of my first video tutorial. A lot of people have bought the pattern who haven't previously tried stranded Fair Isle knitting, so to help people get started I have put together a video introducing the basic skills and techniques needed to knit the Wartime Farm pullover (and many other Fair Isle patterns). I hope to gradually add other tutorials and more advanced techniques over time.

So without further ado, here is an Introduction to Fair Isle Knitting.

Do let me know what you think. As I've already mentioned this is the first time I've recorded a video tutorial and it wouldn't have been possible without the marvellous camera work of my daughter, Charlie and the editing talents of Alex impersonator, Gavin! And to finish, here are a couple of wonderful 'out takes'.

for now,

Ruby xx

All images copyright @Susan Crawford 2013