Pattern - Bernacchi Cowl Fair Isle Class w Sally

 I took the Fair Isle Course with Sally at the Moonah Wool Shop in 2021 and it opened up a whole new world to me. 

Sally chose the Bernacchi cowl (Island Imprints) as a sample project to learn the skills of colourwork,  corrugated ribbing, a steek, and buttonhole bands -all skills that are transferrable to many other projects.

The cowl consists of 160 stitches (16 sts x 10 repeat) + 8 stitches for the steek. The chart does not show the steek stitches. Therefore, the BOR marker is 4 stitches before the beginning of the chart and 4 stitches after. The first 4 stitches of the steek are: pattern, background, pattern, background and the last 4 stitches of the steek are: background, pattern, background, pattern. ie they are the mirror image of each other.

The yarn was all Jamiesons of Shetland Spindrift 4 ply, a very sticky yarn with great loft. It takes 1 ball for the main colour and ½ ball each of two other colours. It was knitted using 3.25 circular needles on a 40cm cable and a pair of 3.25mm straight needles.

The gauge was 30sts x 32 rows to 10cm using the 3.25mm straight needles.

Carrying Floats

To carry the pattern floats underneath, knit with the yarn in the left hand.

To carry the background floats above, knit with the yarn in the right hand.

Corrugated Ribbing

Corrugated ribbing =k2, p2 in two colours

Cast on is usually in the colour of the purl stitch which is usually the main background colour. However, you can cast on in the pattern colour (frames the knitting) but this creates an obvious colour change in the purl bumps that you may not want. To avoid this, in the set-up round before starting on the chart, k2 in pattern colour and ......

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	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1
	Rows 1 to 4 and 56 to 59
	Corrugated Ribbing