FO: Kevin’s EPS Fair Isle Sweater

I promised I’d be sharing lots of knitting projects and this first one is a doozy.  Introducing…Kevin’s EPS Fair Isle Sweater!!!!!  This has been on the needles since last January so I’m very pleased to announce it’s finished, blocked, and ready to be worn.  For those of you who don’t know ultra-nerdy-knitting-speak, EPS stands for Elizabeth’s Percentage System.  It was developed by that wonderful goddess of knitting Elizabeth Zimmermann and I followed her instructions in her book “Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop”.  The basic idea is to measure a sweater you already own and love, knit up a swatch with whatever needles and yarn you prefer, then use your measurements and her percentage system to craft your very own custom sweater.  It’s knit completely in the round from the bottom up (huzzah!) and there are several choices to pick from for the shoulder shaping.  I decided to go with a saddle shoulder.  For the Fair Isle bit, I adapted a pattern from Alice Stanmore’s “Fair Isle Knitting”.  It took me a while to get the charts and the stitch count to work out right.  Wait.  Did I just say I got the charts and stitch counts to work out right? That’s not entirely true.  I realized too late that I hadn’t gotten the math right and had to do some creative increasing and decreasing under the arms.  But you didn’t notice right? Right. Here's a few more detail shots. 

The grey yarn is called Heilo by Dale of Norway/Dalegarn.  I thrifted about 25 skeins of it awhile back and have been plotting to make some sort of Kevin sweater with it every since.  It's a bit to Scratchy McScratherson for me. The fair isle bits are Jamieson & Smith 2 Ply Jumper Weight.  Needles are US size 4. Raveled here. 

These photos were taken on a Saturday morning trip to Bakery Nouveau. We sampled their delicious almond croissant, chocolate croissant, croque monsieur, and this pretty pear danish.