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Tam O'Shanter

Hi,

I finished my "December Lights Tam," a tam o'shanter from Interweave Knits (2007 Holiday issue, and reprinted in the 2009 Accessories issue), by Mary Jane Mucklestone.

I used Knit Picks Palette yarn. I was eager and was familiar with it... Otherwise, I'd have been searching for yarn... I may try Jamieson's Spindrift for my next project. Hmmm.



I like it so much that I cast on to make a cardigan. It seems like I have a lot of yarn, but I may need another ball of a few colors. I used the "body" chart from the tam (the two sets of XOX patterns, but not the hearts), and then I put together some "peerie" patterns based on a picture in Michael Pearson's "Traditional Knitting: Aran, Fair Isle, and Fisher Ganseys." (I don't own the book. I borrowed it from the library. I wish I did have this book!) I used the bottom band design from the "Water-Lily Jacket" in Alice Starmore's "Book of Fair Isle Knitting," and will use the bands for the front/neck/arms, too.

It is a big leap from the tam, dealing with steeks and a lot more knitting. It has a steek for the cardigan front, and I just put in the armhole steeks this morning. Steeks freak me out. It means cutting the knitting. Ack! But knitting in the round all the way to the top seems compelling. I'm trying to decide between a steek for the neck (V-neck) vs. knitting plain to the shoulders and then sewing/cutting per the instructions in, "The New Stranded Colorwork," by Mary Scott Huff. That looks like the more obvious approach, but it seems a shame to do that much extra knitting just to cut it and throw it away. Hmmm...

Happy Knitting!
Lisa Kay

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