Topic: faroese knitting
It is always an act of faith for me when I knit to make a specific size in a new yarn. I gauge and swatch and gauge and swatch and wash and block many hats before I settle on a "blocking ratio" change. Two stranded color knitting can change size dramatically after blocking. Yarns vary in their elasticity. And, most importantly, knitters vary in their tensioning systems while they knit with two strands of yarn at the same time.
I have discovered that "I" will gain about 1.5" of width and an inch of length when I block Dale's Norwegian wool HEILO yarn. (This on a child's sweater). This discovery took quite a few hats until I was satisfied I was consistent. So, I knit my desired sweater 1" shorter than I wanted (1/2" in the body and 1/2" in the shoulder) and used a WORKING GAUGE of 6.5 sts=1", rather than the 6 sts=1" that measures in the final washed hat.
The final result:
The washing method I use for blocking: use HOT water and a tablespoon of your favorite shampoo. Soak for 20 minutes. Lift the sweater out of the basin carefully and let drip. Run hotter water in the basin, gently squeeze the drips out of the soapy sweater and immerse in the hot water, letting soak 10 minutes. Remove the sweater and carry to the washing machine. Turn off ALL water valves so no water at all can enter the washer. Set the washer for SPIN, and if you can, a gentle cycle. Spin for about 10 minutes.
Find the measurements desired in the beginning, and lay out your sweater, front side down, on a thick towel or clean bedspread, using a yardstick to move the warm knitting around to your specifications. Leave the sweater alone for 6 hours, then turn it over and repat into size. Let dry at least a full day (more if you are in humid air).
Just a note on the construction of this sweater; I am CONTINUALLY DELIGHTED with the tidy shoulder lines that circular knitting brings to any garment. It is a challenge to get all the patterns centered as you join body and sleeves, so that the patterns decrease in a pleasing and balanced way as you knit around up to the neck. I find writing patterns for these designs to be incredibly challenging (which is part of the fun), but the smooth knitting that results is rewarding.
This sweater is one of 3 designs that will be available at the Cape Ann Faroe Sweater Knitting Retreat next March, in sizes 6 months through Men's XXXL.
Knitting came to the Islands in the late 1500's, and within a very short time, the quota of knitted socks that were exported reached in the hundreds of thousands. Sweaters were hand knitted at large gauges and sold in the mid 1900's. Here is an original design by Meg Swansen with Faroe color stitch patterns. Many times the marketed sweaters were turtlenecks. Most were steeked to add in the sleeves. Many sported natural sheep colors and all had lovely, simple to knit repeated small color stitch patterns that employed almost no float wrapping, which would slow down a knitter.
Over the years I have dabbled with Faroe stitches in some hat patterns I've written. 
On the left is FAROE BANDED HAT and on the right is FAROE VINE HAT. They are quite fun to knit and go remarkably fast even with two colors as there is no fiddling with the carried color. For the three sweater patterns, three hat patterns, and one sock pattern I have in my head, I hope to fully explore the use of 9 different natural sheep colors in the next year. I will break with tradition to create sweater patterns that do not have steeks, but rather raglan shoulder shapings, so that the entire garment can be worked continuously on circular needles, with only a few underarm stitches left to graft at the end.
