Vanessa by Marie Wallin

Last year I greatly admired the Marie Wallin collection called Bloomsbury.  If I had endless amounts of time I would love to knit several of the designs.  They are knitted in Rowan Felted Tweed and are a mixture of Fair-isle and texture.

I decided that I particularly liked a Fair-isle cardigan called Vanessa and received the yarn for Christmas as a present.

I had intended to start knitting immediately – full of enthusiasm for a pile of beautiful yarn and a complicated pattern.  I have a lot of holiday in January – so  I should have plenty of time to work on it.  That was the plan but then I got ill and remembered the Creative Cables throw that I started last year – and so I haven’t got very far with this cardigan.  I think it could take some time but if I finish it – I think it will be the adult-size first Fair-isle cardigan that I have ever finished – I usually unravel them!  

At the moment I am still trying to follow the pattern.  When I have knitted it once I can copy my knitting instead of having to peer through a magnifying glass at the chart.  I did try to look at the photograph but the chart and the photograph are different – they shouldn’t be but they are.  I think it is the chart that is correct – the sample garment has been knitted with the pattern starting in the middle rather than at the beginning.

Apart from the chart – I have had problems with my tension.  I know I knit loosely but I can’t go down too many needles sizes when the needles are very thin to start with.  I have decided to knit the smallest size with the correct needles – hopefully this will work out.  Otherwise I will be unravelling again!

Creative Cables Throw

Some time last year I started knitting the Creative Cables Throw from Martin Storey’s Afghan Knits book.

I like the look of the design but I really dislike the colours.  They look really bitty and random.  I looked in my stash and found 7 colours which I liked better. 

I haven’t  finished it – it will take months – but I have finished knitting the first strip.

This is an easy one – just one row of twists in an 8 row pattern.  When I started knitting it – I immediately came to a problem – the diagram suggests you put the twist on the back (Row 2) – which must be wrong – so I have moved it to the following row (Row 3). 

As I have said the pattern is easy but it is also quite boring.  It is OK if you are watching something interesting on TV but otherwise it is boring.   I had intended to just finish the strip I had been knitting – and then come back to the project later.  However – I have got interested again and no sooner had I finished the first strip – I began another one.

This is a 4 row pattern with 2 rows of twists.  I think it is actually easier to knit because – the use of the cable needle is intensive rather than spaced out – so you need to concentrate in small sections.  I may change my mind after a few hundred rows.

Anyway – the first strip I knitted is Strip 5 and this one is Strip 6.  I am knitting them as they appeal to me.  The thinking is if I leave the most difficult one until last – I will be thinking – I have only got to finish this one for the project to be finished.  This is not strictly true as I will have the edging to do.

In the end I didn’t start knitting again this year until 14 January.  I did finish the shawl I had been making and then I sewed up a jumper I had been making.  I haven’t tried that on yet – it may not be completely finished if it needs adjustments. 

Apart from the Creative Cables Throws project – I have also cast on something quite complicated – but I will write about that next week.

Everything I have Ever Knitted

Last year when I finished knitting my WW1 Memorial Quilt – I was asked – what are you going to do next?  I thought about this for several weeks.  I am attracted to knitting simple garments which let the yarn to the talking and this started from when I first developed my knitting skills.  In the summer of 2019 it will be 40 years since I  knitted my first garment and then knitted lots of samples to try out various stitch patterns.

I learned to knit as a child but only knitted small squares and oblongs.  And then some time in the mid to late 1970s I worked on this patchwork quilt.  I knitted stripes for the first time and used very small needles.  This was my first colour-work project.  Unlike the majority of the other projects that I have knitted since – I still have access to it – it is on my mother’s bed.

This year I want to produce a piece of knitting which commemorates my experience of knitting.  This won’t mean much to anyone else but I hope the end result will be interesting and attractive.

When I mentioned my idea at a Knitting & Crochet Guild meeting – I was asked – can you remember everything you have ever knitted or do you keep a record of it?  This blog is a record of most of what I have knitted during the last 5 years.  Before that I have files of patterns that I  have designed, copies of patterns I have knitted and little bits of yarn that I kept to use for something else one day.  That day may have come because I will be able to use the yarn that I used originally.

Last Christmas I read a book called “A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived.”  This provided the idea for my knitting project – because one person is symbolic of lots of others – that is the same with this project – I will remember the garments I liked, that I hated, that were significant in some way – and they will represent all the others.

I am surprised about what I do remember but it is because of how I think and how I design – I tend to go over what I have done or what I have learned and then produce a variation.  Some patterns have had about 20 variations, if not more.  I am thinking particularly of a jacket that I have knitted for an expected baby.  I have done it plain – in pink or blue or yellow – I have done it with a Fair Isle pattern – I have done it in tartan and I have done it striped.  The basic pattern is the same but the end results look very different.  

At the moment – I intend to be very casual about this project – I will knit whatever occurs to me in whatever order it occurs.  I will collect together lots of little bits of knitting and arrange them at the end.  I may then find that I need to knit some more pieces to persuade those I have already knitted to look like one piece of knitting that hangs together.

So far this year I have knitted nothing – not one stitch – not on this project nor on any other.  I have been suffering from a nasty virus which has left me feeling exhausted most of the time and too tired to knit (I must have been very ill indeed!).  Anyway – today I am feeling a bit more optimistic and have a bit more energy – so I might actually finish the Christmas present that I mentioned in the previous post.