Yeah, it's smooth sailing, but I don't even have one pattern repeat (30 rows) completed yet. Fair isle can be a slo-o-o-ow thing!. Here's what it looked like last night here (opens in new window).

Didn't get as much completed as I'd like. Stuff got in the way. Like, the cat wanted me to feed her, I had to do laundry. Hey! Maybe I could teach the kitty to do the laundry?

I took a squint at the pattern and saw that I'll be starting armhole steeks after 87 rows. So three rows shy of completing the third pattern repeat. It's not a real long sweater, sort of cropped looking. Hopefully next week at this time I'll be close to the steeks.

Okay, I kept thinking about that blasted three-color round in the body pattern of Luskentyre. It just didn't seem right because (1) traditional fair isle patterns only have two colors per round and (2) I've never seen another Alice Starmore fair isle with more than two colors per round. So I posted a message to the email list for this designer.

Someone Who Has Reason to Know responded that she felt it was not the designer's intent to have a three-color round and it was probably a typo. So I sent an email off to Alice and she sent me a very cordial response this morning. Yes, it was a typo -- Rounds 2 and 30, which show three colors in the chart, are incorrect and should only be two colors. And she said in ten years I'm the only person who noticed it. Ain't I special?

So even though I had knitted 12 rounds beyond Round 2 I ripped them out. No I didn't, I'm just kidding! I left the one three-color round in. What a horrible thought -- me rip out unless it's absolutely necessary?? I think NOT!

Here's how it's looking now (opens in new window).

I finished the bottom border! check it out here (opens in new window).

So I'm knitting merrily along, happy to have started the body pattern when, starting the second pattern round I see . . .

A three-color row! Arrrgghhh! I look again. There it is, make no mistake abut it. And here I thought that only Dale of Norway did that kind of torture. (Actually, I did a Dale of Norway sweater that had a couple of four-color rows, though at the moment I can't remember which design it was. Madness!)

But I got a few rows done -- my progress here (opens in new window).

And on the train this morning I finished turning the heel of the second Lorna's Laces waffle sock.

I'm plugging away on the border of this, which is like a checkerboard effect in garter stitch. Very slow going, but very pretty.

About purling with two colors in the round:

Someone suggested to me once that an easier way to do this is to purl around with one color first, slipping the stitches to be worked in the second color, then purl around again working the second color stitches and slipping the first color stitches that you worked on the first go-round.

I did this on one round last night and timed it, then did one round the regular way, working with both colors. Both took me the same amount of time. Oh well.

Last night I cast on for Luskentyre. 332 stitches. Ga-a-ack. While I'm casting on, I place a marker every 50 stitches. Helps keep track of how many I have without having to go back to the beginning.

I'm using a US size 3 (3.25mm) 32" circular needle -- an Addi Turbo. I always used to use a 24" needle for the body of sweaters, but after making a few Dale of Norway designs got sick of jamming all the stitches on the short needle. This design has a finished circumference of 42" so the stitches fit nicely on the 32" needle.

The cast on is completed (opens in a new window).

And I've worked four rounds. This is what it looks like after one round (opens in a new window).

This design has a garter stitch border, so in the round you must knit one row and purl one row. Ever purl in the round with two colors? It's very slow going!