My Hero, the Postman

He brought me two especially nice things today.

Did you know Kim Hargreaves just came out with a book?! That jumped into my shopping cart before I even had time to take a breath. And I got the yarn book on the lovely Claudia’s recommendation. Kim’s patterns are gorgeous, as usual, and I can’t wait to dive into the yarn book.

The yarn pictured is nothing much, really–a couple of balls of 4ply soft for endpaper mitts after seeing Julia’s gorgeous version, and some cashmerino for another indoor cap for hubby. Both projects will wait until after the remaining holiday knitting–which may not be so long, since HoJo is just zipping off the needles.

The fair isle looks good, when I stretch the ribbing out a bit, but I’m also anxious to see what a good soak does for it. I find that color work almost always improves dramatically with some water. The back should be easy-peasy, I think. But let me get your opinion, just for good measure:

The pattern calls for an identical fair isle stripe across the back, and no color work on the sleeves. This strikes me as something that will look totally bizarre (there’s no back view in the magazine), so I was planning on just continuing the ribbing up since I have extra yarn. What do you think?

16 thoughts on “My Hero, the Postman

  1. I agree – just a stripe in front would look better! It’s looking great!

  2. I like the front stripe idea (but of course, I am a little bit lazy). It looks good so far…I heart that book.

  3. I think it would look great with the pattern just in the front. Striping across the back seems like something that might actually have been done in those retro days, but that doesn’t mean you have to!

  4. You already know my position on the fair isle. I want to ask you about wet blocking ribbing, though. I’ve only done it twice, but both times the ribbing really stretched out and never recovered. Maybe I wasn’t gentle enough with it? What do you do to make it work?

    Also, I don’t know why I thought the Hargreaves books wasn’t available yet!

  5. I agree – leave the back plain. It will go faster, plus, you wouldn’t get to see the fancy colorwork on the back anyway! It is going to be a lovely sweater!

  6. I actually am bucking the trend and say the stripe on front and back. Make the back a little more interesting!!

  7. I think you could go either way, since there isn’t any color detail on either one of the sleeves. I think I would probably prefer a “plain” (since the ribbing at the bottom of the sweater is anything but) back!

  8. I think you could go either way. So if you want to be easier on yourself than no stripe on the back.

  9. I would have guessed the sweater would have a plain (ribbing only) back. I don’t think it would look weird or bad to have fair isle on the back, it would just be (to me anyway) an unexpected surprise. I vote for ribbing only on the back. Unless you start itching to do more colorwork, in which case, have at it.

    I’ve got the yarn book on my Christmas wish list. If I don’t get it over the holidays, I’ll just have to buy it for myself later. 😉

  10. I think the stripe in the back would look odd if it isn’t on the sleeves. I vote for ribbing all the way up.

  11. Oh, you got the Kim Hargreaves book. I can`t wait to see something knitted out of it.
    I am a fan of the plain back too. The ribbing is already so eye catching plus it is going to make the turtleneck look really tailored. My husband who is looking over my shoulder, is voting for plain back too, claiming that colorwork on both sides will have a shortening and widening affect (I thought I would throw just a little bit of guy opinion here :-).

  12. I think it would look good either way. Which would you rather knit? By the time you get through all of that ribbing, will you be itching for something more interesting?

  13. Yep. just colorwork on the front would look best, if it isn’t also on the sleeves.

  14. Anyway you want to do would look fine. Yay! A new book to buy!

  15. Amy, I finally have time to catch up with my blogs. This sweater looks fabulous, I’m feeling a “me, too!” I want to knit it myself! I’d go with the stripe in the back, just so it’s more of a challenge. I think it would look cute from behind.

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