The folks who have replied are gratefully thanked, as are any who still wish to chime in.
I'm still trying to get my horizontal gauge correct at this point; still experimenting. The vertical gauge, though, seems to be off. The original was
20 sts and 26 rows = 4 ins [10cm] with 4.5 mm needles in stocking st.
21.5 sts and 22 rows = 4 ins [10cm] with 4.5 mm needles in fair isle pat.
but mine is closer to 22 sts, 24 rows. Granted, this is my first fair isle attempt, and I really don't want to subject my hubby to another grossly oversized sweater*, so I'm swatching like a madwoman. I've been fiddling with a simple stranding pattern of 3 st x 3 st boxes of color, but the actual pattern stitch is a bit more open. The next step is to try using the 4.5 mm needles one more time and do a 6" x 6" swatch using the actual pattern to see if my gauge is still off. If that fails, we'll move up a size in needle. I'm a notoriously loose knitter, once I get going, so I'm a bit hesitant to go up a needle size.
Also, a book I have suggests using a circular needle for fair isle. I love circulars, and understand how the yarn won't get screwy at the end of rows if you use circulars, but I was hoping to use straight needles for this one. Of course, my book doesn't give much assistance when it comes to dealing with the issue of that second strand of yarn. I've been twisting the two strands together before I turn, but that's been pulling the work in on the ends. I'm thinking there are three ways to attack this little tricky bit:
1) Do the first and last stitch of every row in an alternate color, then hide that stich in the seam. Creates a bulkier seam, but would probably help keep those ends from pulling in so badly.
2) Cut the yarn at the end of every row and knot the two strands together? I really hate this idea, as I don't want knots to add to the bulk of the seams.
3) Chuck the others and re-design the sweater myself (I think I can do that) to allow for a circular construction. If I do decide to go with circulars, how do you switch yarn colors? I've always just used one color before, so splicing in was never a problem. I would think that a splice would just be ugly.....or should I try that join that twists back on itself (I believe it's called a Russian join)?
I'm planning on trying to teach myself how to "catch" the longer floats this time around, too. I might not get to any of this for a few days, though, as I have two papers and a midterm this week.
Fortunam bonam mihi cupe!**
Anastasia
*please let's not revisit the Homespun disaster. Thank you.
** "Wish me good luck" in Latin. My midterm's in that class.