0508-4

January 2013

I've been looking for a Dinosaur related pattern to make for the son of a friend of mine ever since he bought me some lovely yarn back from the US, and after much searching finally I settled on this one.

One of the reasons I love knitting so much it the sense that every project has something to teach you, and this one is no different. Over the last two weeks, I have learned:

(i) that with the help of google translate and a little bit of educated guesswork, you can follow a pattern in another language;

(ii) that wool is preferable to acrylic for a project like this, because steeking works better with a grippy yarn, and anyway, you're really going to want to block as aggressively as you can with this sort of colourwork to get it as smooth as you can; and

(iii) much as I hate drop-sleeves, it's hard to make a jumper like this without them, as it would mean cutting into the colour motif. I'm sure I've seen one or two fair isle patterns with set-in sleeves, though, so I need to do a bit of investigating.

There are some details about how I worked the neckline and armholes on the project page, just in case they are of any use, but basically I chickened out of steeking, and so worked the front and back separately and used intarsia in places rather than long floats. But I'm determined to try steeking soon despite not owning a sewing machine. Probably in the process of making a Baby Norgi for my little boy to wear next Christmas. I think this video looks like a helpful one.

I have about half a ball of the green and black left over. Slightly less of the light grey, and a little of the middle grey. Hopefully enough for one of these.

Pattern: 0508-4 by Solbjørg Langnes
Yarn: Hayfield Bonus dk and Sirdar Country Style dk
Colourway: Green 0791, White 096, Light Grey 0383, Black/Flint 0778 and Medium Grey 0395.
Size: 8 yo
On ravelry: here