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.
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