Afternoon Tea Throw – Jam Tart and Cherry Bakewell

After much trial and error – I have managed to come up with a shape that is sort of round.  It is the best I can do in the space available.  The first block I have knitted is inspired by a jam tart.

 

I then knitted the same design again using different colours and added a “cherry”.

 

I am now going to adapt these designs to knit some Swiss Roll!  When I started knitting these blocks – I started to get cravings for cake but fortunately I managed to avoid buying any.

I still don’t know what the final throw will look like – I am just knitting blocks as the ideas occur to me.

Afternoon Tea Throw – Second and Third Steps

I have mainly been working on a fair-isle cardigan which I keep forgetting to photograph.  This week I have also knitted 2 more blocks for my throw.  As I hinted last time – the Angel Cake was an obvious next step.  

I debated a bit about which colours to use but in the end I decided to use the same pink and yellow that I had used in the main part of the Battenburg block. 

The third block is inspired by a Victoria Sandwich cake.  

I do not do baking myself and when I have bought this type of cake – it tends to have a cream filling as well as jam, but I remember hearing that this was incorrect and that a Victoria Sandwich should only include Jam!  Alternatively you could just look at it as a block made up of 3 stripes. 

I am now thinking about how to create some blocks with circular shapes on them – I think I need to find my pattern for the Japanese flag which is always a good starting point.    With knitting - the design has to be oval to turn out circular due to the fact that the stitches are taller than they are wide. 

Afternoon Tea Throw – First Steps

For a while I have been thinking about knitting a throw based on cakes or desserts – the idea being that it is healthier to knit them than eat them.  Unfortunately I think that if I spend a lot of time thinking about cake – I might be tempted to eat some!  The first step in the design process is to write down some ideas.  When the VE day celebrations were happening – I thought I would broaden the idea to include other things which are associated with afternoon tea – such as cake-stands and sugar lumps.  I haven’t come up with a proper design – I just have ideas swirling around in my head.

I often tend to make things up as I go along and I like painting with wool – so the next step was to order some yarn.  Karen Draisey at Oxford Yarn store is operating a mail order service – so I sent her an email with my requirements.  I do love Rowan Felted Tweed and so intend to use that yarn.  This is what she sent me.

I already have some other colours.  I am not exactly sure which colours I will use but I needed some pastry and cake colours. 

The next consideration was the size of needles to use and the number of rows and stitches.  I have already decided to knit separate squares to sew together afterwards and so I will cast on and off with a main colour.  When I have knitted the squares that I want to – I can then knit some more to pull the design together.  I don’t like heavy throws and I don’t want it to be too big  - so I have decided to use 5mm needles (so much larger than normal for this yarn), and I am casting on 34sts and knitting 48 rows.  Knowing how things turn out  - I expect the squares will still not all be the same size.

Anyway when I was talking about this idea to my sister – we somehow got on to talking about Battenburg cake – I think our father liked it – so I decided to use that for my sample square.

I think it has turned out well.  I think this piece of knitting does say “Battenburg”!  I am supposed to be finishing a cardigan but I am now itching to knit a slice of Angel cake.