Ferals Top to Toe Challenge

Naomi invited me to Ferals last year shortly after I picked up my knitting needles again. The first time, I looked through the window at all of them and went to work out instead. The next time, I went in and very self-consciously sat as close as possible to Naomi while I knitted on something conspicuously NOT Fair Isle. I continued to attend, with or without Naomi, and have gradually met and been talking with many of the members. One meeting Karen Campbell delivered the Cotton Jeans yarn I had ordered from Two Swans, another meeting Sandra got my address and sent me a copy of the Fair Isle Tam and Vest pattern from Vogue magazine. At another meeting, Wendy showed me her third beautiful Martha sweater from the Rowan Studio Two book, and I was hooked (unfortunately, the book is now out of print, but I did manage to track down a copy to buy. Phew!). I can't name them all - I'm just trying to say how amazed and grateful I feel to find such a graceful group of interesting, talented and kind women to spend a couple of hours with every two weeks or so, and how lucky I feel to be among them.

I don't remember who actually set the top to toe challenge to have a Fair Isle knit hat or a pair of Fair Isle socks completed between January 1 and April 1, but I was determined to try something new. I heard about Sandy Blue's Midnight Sun tam then saw it at Churchmouse when I was attending Janine's Color in Fair Isle class and decided it was so beautiful, I wanted to try it. Once I decided, Karen delivered the yarn and pattern so swiftly, I didn't have a chance to feel panicky. I have shared my experience with it along the way, from the German cast-on to finally deciding with which colors to replace Bracken and Yellow ochre. Sandy talked with me not only in person at a Ferals meeting to tell me how she went about choosing new colors when shades get discontinued, but later by phone when I had novice-tam-knitter questions about the wheel chart. I'm not a fast knitter, and am even slower when doing the stranded knitting since I'm still learning technique, but even I thought I could finish the tam by April 1. And I did finish the knitting at the Ferals on March 31, with help from Rebecca and Naomi reminding me to read my color chart AND my knitted item, and with Melinda showing me the spit splice color change to avoid the hundreds (as it seemed) of ends to knit in. So finally, here it is!

The show and tell was this past Monday April 7 - I took my camera to capture images of some of the completed tams. Still to come are Wendy's re-colored Midnight Sun tam and Diana's hat - maybe more that I don't even know about. I'm sure there must have been more hats and some socks that didn't make it to the meeting. The folks who brought completed items were very generously given prizes from Karen Campbell and Linda K (two people I neglected to photograph) - I was lucky to receive the Koigu shown at the top, and am planning a pair of ribbed socks as soon as possible. Other prizes included pattern books, other colors of Koigu, needles, and I can't remember what all.

The knitting wasn't all hats and socks! Here's Lori on the left with her own intricate and beautifully colored design becoming a cardigan. She began this design in Janine's class when and that's when we met her and invited her to Ferals - she's been a devotee ever since! She also got in the spirit of the challenge and designed and knitted her tam in one day. And here's Janine on the right with her Armenian technique Leo sweater - this is another classic in the making to join Janine's collection of heirloom sweaters.

Left are four of the tams from the back: left is Lori, my Midnight Sun, Norma's snowy design, and Karen Hust's beautiful tam of Sandy Blue's other color way. Right is same lovely ladies in their tams. Below left is Wendy wearing Karen's tam and below right is Karen wearing my tam.

I loved being involved with the challenge, and it was a thrill to knit something so lovely and complex. I plan to knit another one and try more colors or maybe design my own.

It was a Tam Good Time!