theraineysisters knitting and so much more

Ahem. Let’s move away from the sock monkeys, ever so briefly, and start talking about knitting again. I wanted to show you some photographs of one of my favorite Fair Isle sweaters: Henry VIII, designed by Alice Starmore. I realized that I don’t have a good “distant” photograph of it that shows the whole sweater and I just can’t hobble up the stairs again to find the sweater, lay it out, and take another photograph. Instead, I’ll post these photographs of her slightly reworked version of the design.

If you own the book Tudor Roses, and feel adventurous, you can purchase this as a kit at Virtual Yarns. She and her daughter Jade have many other lovely designs available there as well.

Anyway, I knit this sweater for my husband. Fortunately, I can wear this one too — it’s somewhat “big” for me but I’m willing to make the sacrifice.

Here is a detail of the neck:

Here is a closeup of the main part of the pattern:

Finally, because you know how much I like to look at the inside, here is the reversed stranded design:

I always have at least one Starmore project going. (Right now, including ones that have been “aging” a bit, I have four on the needles.) The most current one, which I expect to get back to very shortly, is Rosarie, which was designed by Jade Starmore. Although I don’t usually go for vests, I really loved this bold design and just had to work on it.

I haven’t had a chance to do to much knitting on it. Here is my one photo in progress.

This Fair Isle has only 5 colors in it, whereas there are fourteen in the original version of Henry VIII. (I haven’t checked on how many there are in her revised version.)