A few years back Hilde knitted the Kate Davies sheep heid tam as a Christmas present for Gonda. She loves her hat and asked if I could knit her a matching sheep heid jumper from Foula wool. This gave me the chance to try circular knitting to create a seamless garment. Until then I had only used circular knitting for hats and socks. I had also recently made a pair of socks using the ‘magic loop technique’ and wanted to use this for the sleeves.
I knitted the jumper from Foula four-ply wool, a nice thickness for a warm jumper. The sleeves and body were knitted from  two skeins (hanks) of brown-to-fawn gradient wool for the sleeves and body. The first batch of Foual wool had gradients as they had too little wool to spin each colour seperately. I used the Rams from Davies’ design in the yoke, and the sheep around the bottom of the jumper and sleeves.
I’m pretty pleased with the outcome, especially how the gradients of the body and sleeves match. However, having seen Kate Davies book on yokes, I’m considering re-doing the the yoke with a more intricate pattern.
Gonda really likes the sheep heid jumper, and it forms a nice reminder of our holidays on Foula. It’s comfy and very warm, a perfect outdoors jumper for camping trips and hikes.
Time and cost
The jumper contains 500 g of Foula wool, which costs about £45. As it’s a fairly think yarn, I was able to complete it in approximately 10 hours.
Further information
The jumper pattern was adapted from Kate Davies sheip heid pattern which you can order on her Ravelry page. Perhaps you’d also like to read my posts about our holidays on the remote Shetland island Foula and about Foula wool in particular.