Fair Isle Near Fiasco

I just about gave up on my first Fair Isle knitting project...the Drifting Kid's Raglan Pullover from Inspired Fair Isle Knits by Fiona Ellis. Fiona, your designs are lovely, but almost everyone knows (and I do now) that Fair Isle is meant to be knitted in the round. That way you can knit one color English style and one Continental style without having to rearrange the yarn. This pattern actually calls for you to knit the front, back, and sleeves as flat pieces which means that you have to find a way to do the color work from the purl side on every other row. I found it extremely difficult, if not impossible to do this, which resulted in me frogging the project twice before finally deciding to modify the pattern and knit it in the round.

I choose a different colorway since I couldn't find the colors in the photo in a washable yarn I liked. I'm knitting it in Plymouth Encore DK. I'm working on the first sleeve now and hope to have this finished in time to take to my grand daughter next month. I was a little displeased about how the fair isle portion of the knit pulls in (even though I used a larger needle and tried to hold the yarn loosely on the back) , but I think after I block the sweater, it will be just fine. I do need to find just the right buttons.