This pattern is easy to read and quick to knit. I made no changes, although my gauge came out at 14 stitches x 21 rows for a 10cm x 10cm square in stocking stitch (the pattern suggests 17sts x 23 rows). I decided to continue though because the rib at the bottom of the back measured 44cm and the stocking stitch 47.5 cm across (the pattern suggests 46.5cm for the bottom of the jumper).

As I progressed with the jumper I began to notice that in the yoke the pattern isn’t at all regular due to the placings of the decreases. This isn’t obvious at first glance on the Fair Isle pattern chart because the mismatch occurs between the beginning and end of the repeats. This is quite unlike a traditional Icelandic jumper where the invisible decreases are part of the attraction.

The yoke doesn’t smoothly transition from the jumper either in the small size. Just before the transition the pattern adjusts so the stitch count becomes a multiple of 25 stitches 250250:250:275:275. As you can imagine this is quite a jump between sizes but I suppose makes the maths easy for the pattern writer. Inevitably it spoils the flow of the jumper.

The yarn is in fact a dark navy blue which surprised me, since it looks so black in the photos of the Meredith
jumper but it is very pretty. The wool is quite ‘rustic’ in its spin so it broke several times. I couldn’t sew up using it and so I used some black Shetland 2ply. Oh, and I had three and a half balls of Askrigg left over which meant I only used 6 and a half as opposed to the suggested 10.

Despite all the close-up problems, I do like the result. It is very cosy and I love the colours. I enjoyed knitting it too. It has encouraged me to try knitting a genuine Lopi pattern next time. The body and sleeves are all knitted seamlessly, as well as the yoke, so only the sewing off the under arms to do and the pattern looks so magical!