Saturday, March 11, 2006

Forever Fana Finally Finished (for the most part)


Dear Cynthia,

The yarn gods were smiling on me, because my skein ran out as I was binding off the neckband, and I had a large enough scrap to finish it off. Here it is! Still some small amount of finishing left (weave in ends, parts of two facings need to be sewn down, etc), but these are the last photos I will subject you all to. The finishing on this thing has been a long haul, and for somebody who really does not enjoy finishing, I'm ready to move on. Anyway, I found buttons having little snowflakes on them, and if you squint and wrinkle your nose, you might be able to make them out in the photo. I am quite happy with how it turned out. It was a very fun project, and it had a few techniques I hadn't done before, so a good learning project, too. My dear son cried yesterday, because the weather is getting warmer and he wanted to wear it to school, but it wasn't done yet, and it's not THAT warm...

I decided that after this, I'll finish my second sock, sew the pieces of my Campus Coat together (because "sweater weather" is almost here) and then I'm going to make this my next "technical" project. It is the "Summer in Kansas" shawl, by Two Old Bags. Speaking of lace, have you been reading Eunny's blog lately? Oh my..... What a gift she gives to people who read her blog. It is like taking a class from an expert, except without the fees, on my own time, in my pajamas, and in my own home. It has really motivated me to pull this shawl project out of my stash and tackle it. Besides, shawl weather is almost upon us, so I'm going to set aside my new addiction to Dale of Norway and try my hand at lace knitting.

Well, my circle from church is going to serve the lunch at a Habitat for Humanity work site this noon, so I'd better get my chores around the house done before that.

Warm regards,
Laura (aka YarnThrower)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Laura, I know this is kind of an ancient blog entry, but I am about to start knitting a Fana pullover for my son (in burgundy and off-white), so I've been googling for others who've done it. Your posts are INSPIRING! Thanks for the step by step info. This is my first big fair isle (other than socks and mittens), and my first steeks. You mentioned a "glaring error" in the pattern. What was it??

YarnThrower said...

Hi Caren,

Thank you so much for your nice comment!

I'm looking at the notes I jotted down while I was knitting the Fana, and they indicate that the one error in the pattern was in the area for the "BACK NECK OPENING". I was making size 8, and the directions say to "work the first 74 sts in pattern as set". I changed that number to 69 instead, because otherwise it was going to throw off the symmetry, and the numbers weren't adding up correctly. (I had 169 stitches on my needles, and if I worked 74, then cast off the 31 for the back neck edge, I only would only have had 64 on the other side.....) I imagine the numbers for the other sizes are suspect, as well... Note that my copy of the pattern is from book 125, pattern number 11..... I know I've seen this pattern in at least one other collection of patterns, and it may be slightly different there? I don't know.....)

Best wishes with the Fana!