This is the Colour Your Own kit from Philosopher's Wool.

I'd picked up the kit at the Stitches West conference, after seeing the Philosopher's Wool video on Fair Isle knitting. I'd done one Fair Isle sweater before. This one was different in several ways. The wool was much heavier with gauge of 5 st/inch on #7 needles instead of about 8 st/inch on #3 needles in the earlier Fair Isle.

With this kit, they recommended knitting the sleeves first and then moving to the body. My sleeves are huge, simply huge. In my earlier sweater, the sleeves were done last. I did steeks for the armhole openings and then picked up stitches for the sleeves. Maybe I'm just not very skilled at seaming sleeves to the main body. I think the sleeve made with the picked-up stitches looks better.

The neck also had a different construction. On my earlier sweater, I did a steek for the neck along with some shaping. This time, I kept knitting in the round all the way to the top. At the end, I drew in the neckline, went to a friend's house, sewed the neckline, and then cut. Manipulating the sweater underneath the sewing machine wasn't the easiest task. I didn't do a very good job of it. The neck is a bit off. I like the shaping-using-a-steek method, better.

All in all, I'd do one of these kits again, but do the sleeves & neck as my earlier sweater. The Philsopher's Wool knits up very fast. The wool is a bit scratchy. The end result is a warm, durable sweater.

My gauge: 5 st/inch in #7 needles, knitted in the round.