The English Armchair Abroad

Military Cardigan

2012-01-24T19:40:55+01:00

Back in May I joined the Tricot Nordique group for their annual get-together, once again at St Gilles Croix de Vie. The wonderful Gwenola from Laine & Tricot came and displayed her wooly wares. It is not reasonable to put this temptation in the way of stash addicts and it just happened that somehow three skeins of Cascade Eco+ found their way into my car.

When I bought this wool I had Veronik Avery's Military Cardigan in mind. I knew ages ago I would make it one day and when I found the book for sale, well, that was it. I took the advice of other TN members and chose the green "Vert Foret" colourway. This is not something I would have done on my own I admit - too pastel for me. In fact, I got home and realised I had made a dreadful mistake. I didn't like the colour. But it was too late. I'd bought it, I had the pattern, I had no excuse and was determined to go through with it.

There is certainly something about this pattern that is not straightforward. It is well written but I fell into the cable trap: for some reason, although it is marked in the book, it is not obvious that the first few rows of the cable pattern are knitted once only and from then on there is an 8-row repeat. I am not the first and I probably won't be the last.

I also lengthened the body an inch or so which involved a fair bit of recalculation and finally I decided to knit the arms from the top down in the round.

My first attempt at the arms was dreadful but I decided to leave them until I had finished the border. Now, that border is a wonder of design. It is brilliant. However, the buttonhole placement is IN THE WRONG PLACE in the pattern. This is really important because however wonderful the design of the border, the execution is long, boring, tedious and repetitive; so when you cast off, open a bottle of champagne because you've finished the tedious bit, and THEN discover the buttonholes don't work where they are and you have to frog about ten rows (400+ stitches each row and cables worked both sides), well, it doesn't make for a very happy knitter. This matters especially if you don't like the colour. Simple solution - put it aside for a bit - preferably in a corner that you don't look at too often - and forget about it.

Rubbish photo of sleeve & cuff

Fastforward to a couple of weeks ago when my husband asked me what I want for my birthday. I told him and to my complete astonishment he agreed (I'm saying nothing until it arrives). As a challenge to myself I decided that the wretched green thing had to be redone and finished before my birthday. I bought some buttons at a local thrift shop and undid the arms (which on second look were dreadful). I redid the border successfully (one slight hiccup but so what) and then redid the arms.

And guess what? I love the colour on me! The cardigan is snug, fits well and everyone who has seen it (husband and one son) has remarked "Gosh, it looks quite military with those buttons and that border."

Maximilian by Jade Starmore

2012-01-23T22:12:18+01:00

Our eldest son is currently working in Vancouver and we are thrilled that he has come back for two weeks to coincide with my birthday (the "big" one) and our Burns Supper celebration on Saturday (more after the event).

When he arrived on Saturday I was at last able to give him his Christmas present. A few months ago I made Maximilian by Jade Starmore (from her book "A Collector's Item"). It was a fiddly cable pattern but it did finally become easy to remember. I changed it a little - I prefer set-in sleeves so I worked the body in the round up to the armholes and then worked the set-in sleeves from the top down - seemless in other words. Come to think of it I changed the front a bit too. Perhaps I should say "based on" but you get the idea...

Needless to say the colour I chose isn't great for showing off the pattern in the photos but it shows up beautifully in the flesh.

Back to work for Burns' Night.

Zebra Chair

2012-01-20T19:19:56+01:00

Well, it needed a name.

We are having a party in a week's time and once again I have to empty the workroom to make way for laughter and merriment as we celebrate Robert Burn's birthday - and, indeed my own. I have been busily trying to get all the upholstery projects finished so that we can deliver them before the party. This was the last one.

It had been hacked to bits and sadly the marks still show where they shouldn't, but it has certainly taken on a new lease of life!

Christmas knitting

2012-01-20T19:05:40+01:00

It is, obviously, important to keep busy over Christmas. I mean, it's not as if I have anything more important to do - like cook meals for the family for example. I also wanted to dig through some of my stash - good intentions and all that!

So just before Christmas I took out 10 balls of DK pure alpaca and a ball or two of my precious cashmere/alpaca/silk laceweight, did a swatch and set to on Shiri Mor's Botanica Medallion Shrug. It is a clever design, starting with a hexagonal centre piece and then a border knitted separately and stitched on afterwards. Be warned, the border takes FOR EVER plus a few days. The medallion, on the other hand, knits up quicker than you can say K1,P1,K2tog.

Because I am just a touch larger than the girl in the Vogue picture I added about an inch of garter stitch around the medallion. Then the border, and more border but actually that was great during Christmas as it didn't involve too much thought once I'd got going.

I also changed the border using the idea from here. This is a winter shrug and I wanted something that I could fasten in front - although I haven't figured that out yet.

But that wasn't all. I also decided to continue my good intentions of using up the wool stash and set to on a pair of fair isle gloves. I rather thought I would get stuck and stop before I finished because in the past I have hated knitting fingers - too many of them - and I don't like mittens very much. But I was pleasantly surprised. The hand went whizzing along and before I knew it one glove was finished. The second followed a couple of days later.

And finally, something I finished over a year ago and have only just managed to photograph! This is Mary Ann Stephens' lovely Polar Chullo from 2009 Twist Collective. It is utterly gorgeous and was my first serious fair isle hat.

Louis Style chairs

2012-01-07T16:13:45+01:00

These were delivered this afternoon. They are the last of five chairs that I did for a client. As is so often the case the wood on the back was in a very fragile state and it was quite difficult attaching the fabric. I had to use less tacks than usual. But the result is lovely and a happy client.

No close ups as the battery on my camera died at the crucial moment!