I am planning a MK sweater with several different “fair-isle” (rather stranded knitting) patterns. From a lot of test swatches I selected three patterns, two of them I will knit in colour variations, so there will be five different patterns in the end.
The base colour will be Lana Gatto Vecchio Ponte in Blu Notte (night blue) and main contrast colour Ghiaccio (glacier, a bright beige) from the same brand (both 100% wool, approx. 800 m / 100 g). Second contrast colour will be a red Mezzaluna merino-cashmere mix with a tiny amount of nylon and a similar weight.
The stitch count will be too high to do the front or back in one piece, so I will add side panels. I played a bit in Powerpoint (really not the best tool for this job, but available…) with a sketched sweater silhouette and pictures of the swatches and came up with a design that should be at least a bit flattering for my not so elfish proportions. ;-)
T: 4
30.05.2021
Started knitting…
I inverted the star pattern, so that the white or red lines dominate less (the yarn is now fed through feeder A, the blue yarn through feeder B).
05.06.2021
I have joined the panels with mattress stitch.
06.06.2021
In the meantime I found a name for the sweater:
“Shetland meets Sashiko”
We are currently watching the BBC crime series “Shetland” where there are sweaters and accessories with patterns like the arm and yoke pattern on display.
And the star pattern of front, back and side panels is my own design, I used it for mittens several years ago (not recorded in my projects) and it was heavily inspired by traditional Sashiko motives. So - Shetland meets Sashiko…
20.09.2021
Cut&Sew is always easy to plan but I find it hard to actually start doing it. So much responsibility - what if I cut too much, what if the neckline is too deep, the armholes too big… Much easier to fold the pieces nicely and postpone this step. 
Now that autumn is heavily beckoning (it is getting quite cold in the evenings already), I really want to finish this project and look forward to wearing this sweater.
Since July I am a member of the Machine Knit Community, a very inspiring place with many rabbitholes to explore.
But they also have something brilliant that helps me a lot to focus and get things really done: Every month and every week you are asked what you hope to achieve (MK-wise) for that time. You can answer that question or not, it’s completely up to you. No one will follow up - it is just for yourself, to help you sort your priorities. It is also up to you if you post your result or not. However, for me this really works, I feel a commitment that is much stronger than if I had only planned something for myself (to try a new technique, finish those mittens or whatever).
So, I committed myself today to some progress on this project for this week. At the least doing the cut&sew part. 
And then I did it, this evening, I started marking and sewing neckline and arm holes on my serger. Tomorrow I will do the sleeve caps.
A first fitting with shoulders pinned together was promising - I want that sweater finished… 
23.09.2021
Both sleeve caps are cut & overcast, both arms seamed with the linker, one shoulder sewn, one arm sewn in.
Next step will be to knit and link the neck band.
09.10.2021
The neckband is finished and sewn to the sweater. Yay!
I had knitted a band of 6 cm width with a fold line and sewn it to the neckline with my linker. Technically it worked perfectly but I was quite disappointed with the result. It looked unfashionable, like an old men’s pajama. It was too dark, too dominating. I knew I had to knit a much narrower band. When I folded it doubled to the back in order to test the look I was surprised that it worked perfectly with the doubled layer of knits. Somehow this adds volume and weight without domineering the FI patterns. So I just had to whip-stitch the foldline to the seam, voilà!
04.12.2021
Finally finished! Phew!
Really happy with the finished sweater, nice and warm.
Not so impressed with the yarn: after one day of wear there is quite some pilling on the side panels and arms. Easily removed but still… I hope it will stop after some time.
But it is lovely to wear, absolutely not scratchy.
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