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The blog spoke

The blog spoke, and I listened; it demanded and I capitulated.

'No more silly Miss Silver quotations,' it said. 'No more pathetic excuses about green tweed cardigans taking forever to knit and always looking the same in photos. Give me blogfodder!'

So here you are. I've had stashed away for some time Dream in Color's Classy in the Lucky Jade colourway. I've started making it into a top-down cardigan following Barbara Walker's excellent Knitting from the Top. Here is the top of one sleeve, showing the start of the raglan increases. The colour is rather washed out in the photo.

As you know, I visited La Droguerie in Lille last weekend. One of my purchases was some dark teal tweed wool. I was advised that it should be knitted along with another yarn because it is only a single and not very strong. It actually seems quite strong to me, but I'll need to knit it with something else because I won't have enough for a whole garment (450g). Adrienne, last night at Liberty's (and where was everybody?), suggested Kidsilk Haze as a carrier. I bought a ball in Trance (582) and while it is the right sort of blue it is a bit paler than I really wanted. Never mind, here's a swatch of the two together with the tweed behind. They aren't quite as blue as they look here. I'm using 4.5 mm needles and may even experiment with 5 mm (very unusual for me!). It does make a very cosy fabric.

A new stitch for Miss Silver

Miss Silver was inclined to see the hand of Providence in trifles. Her first contact with the Pilgrim Case occurred when she had just finished working out a new and elaborate stitch for the jumper which she intended for her niece Ethel's birthday. This she regarded as providential, for though she could, and did, knit her way serenely through all the complications which murder produces, she found it difficult to concentrate upon a really elaborate new pattern at the same time. Ethel Burkett's annual jumper provided sufficient mental exercise without being brought into competition with a criminal case.'

from Pilgrim's Rest by Patricia Wentworth (1948)

There's someone who has her priorities right!

I'm still plugging on with the green cardigan. Now I've finished the back and right front and have started the left front (important not to muddle them up because the cables twist in opposite directions).

Last weekend we were in France. We spent the first night in Lille and then went on to stay with friends who had hired a small chateau in Beauvais for a 50th birthday celebration. The chateau was very pretty but I forgot to take any photos there! A high point was the presence of a red squirrel in the garden. A real Nutkin moment for me!

However, I did take one relevant photo in Lille:

I had a lovely time in there! I bought a couple of pattern books (one in English, one in French) and the wool to make a baby's jumper with an intarsia hen on it and also some tweed yarn for me. The shop is so attractive and different from other yarn shops. There's a whole wall of buttons and beads in glass jars and another wall of hanks of yarn. When you've decided what you want an assistant weighs out your yarn and winds it up for you. It's a bit like buying sweeties in an old-fashioned shop. When more yarn is needed from the stock room a trap door opens in the floor and the assistant clambers down into the depths to get it. My French gave out pretty quickly but the assistant spoke fairly good English. I want to go back!

Her name was Silver, Maud Silver

Miss Cara persevered.
"Her name is Maud Silver. Louisa says she has solved many difficult cases besides being an extremely expert knitter."

Have you met Miss Silver yet? She is a detective in the mould of Miss Marple, but she's a continental knitter, whereas I always imagine Miss Marple as an English knitter. She appears in about thirty novels by Patricia Wentworth written in the 1930s to 60s. They go in and out of print but are usually easy to find in charity shops and jumble sales.

The quote above is from The Benevent Treasure, in which the mystery involves secret passages, hidden treasure, murder and true love (there's always a love story in Miss Silver novels).

In Spotlight Miss Silver indulges in some yarn tasting:

Miss Maud Silver was choosing wool for a set of infant's vests. After the Khaki and Air Force yarn she had knitted up during the war, to say nothing of useful grey stockings for her niece Ethel's three boys, it was a real pleasure to handle these soft blush-pink balls - all ready wound, and so much better than you could wind it yourself.... This pale pink wool was a most charming colour, and so soft and light. She paid for her purchase, and stood waiting for her change and the parcel.

As the case progresses, so does the knitting, until finally the case is solved and the knitting is complete:

The fire burned bright. The room was comfortable and warm. Miss Silver had finished the vest she had been knitting and had begun another. An inch of ribbing ruffled on the needles in a pale pink frill. She looked at Justin and Dorinda with a benignant smile. Nothing please her better than to see young people happy.

I have only just realised, on rereading a few of the novels for about the sixth time, that whereas Miss Silver is the only knitter there is quite often a character who embroiders. However, in contrast to dear Miss Silver, the embroiderers are always selfish, feckless or cold-hearted, if not downright evil. Knitting = useful, intelligent, creative, therapeutic. Embroidery = useless, stereotyped, uncreative, time-wasting! (Yow!)

I do recommend these novels if you like detective stories in the classic 'golden age' style (what I believe are called 'cozy' murder mysteries in the USA.)

Bad blogger

I'm still here and still knitting. Actually, I have been completely monogamous - knitting on my Kathy Zimmerman cardigan to the exclusion of all else. It's quite slow work but I'm enjoying it a lot. There's really nothing much to show, though. Just more green tweediness.

It seems to have been that all my commitments fall on Thursday evenings or Saturdays when I would really like to be meeting up with all my knitting friends. I'm sorry to have missed you all and hope to see you soon.

Katherine Hepburn cardigan

I have a couple of ends to sew in on T's fatigue and buttons to find. Then I need to wash and/or press it to finish it off.

On Friday night I couldn't see well enough to graft the ribbed back yoke sections together (yuck, that was a job and a half) so I started the Katherine Hepburn cardigan from Lace Style. I'm using Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4-ply in 'Lustre'.

I decided to start with a sleeve to see if I like doing the stitch and also to check that the gauge is working. I seem to be OK on both counts. I'm really enjoying knitting it. It has the right amount of complexity and repetitiveness that makes it easy to dispense with the pattern but still enjoy the manoevres of yo's and cables. I'm cabling without a cable needle and it's really easy and quick.

Nearly done

I'm so near the finish now, but have slowed down because I'm a little bit bored with dark brown and also not sure that the end result is going to be quite as I hoped. Never mind, it's not too bad and the recipient has tried it on a couple of times and so I know it does fit. In the top picture I've pinned the neck together. You can see that the left shoulder saddle is finished to the neckline and the right-hand saddle is just creeping in.

Here's the way the top of the saddle met the diagonals of the placket:

I had hoped to be able somehow to carry on the lines of the placket but I just couldn't work out how. I modified the decreases from the saddle slightly to give the illusion that the ribs coming up from the placket were going over the horizontal ribs of the shoulder, but without huge success. What has worked quite well is changing from stocking stitch to 2x2 ribbing for the shoulder. The ribbing will carry on round the back of the neck. It's a bit of a jigsaw puzzle at the moment, but I think it will work!

I'm rather distracted by an invitation to join the Twined Knitting group on Ravelry. I've always wanted to learn how to do that!

I've been monogamous (nearly)

I promised myself and the blog that I wouldn't swatch my newly acquired Classy until I had finished T's fatigue jersey. Well I haven't, but I may have done a teeny tiny swatch of Yorkshire Tweed 4-ply:

This is going to be a Katherine Hepburn cardigan from Lace Style. I saw a lovely version on Ravelry done in Yorkshire Tweed 4-ply and it so happened that Janette had a special offer on this colour (Lustre) and Barley (which I went back and ordered later). The combination of little cables and small lace pattern is lovely, I think. Yes, I know the cables bend different ways top and bottom - I was practising cabling without a cable needle! (And, yes, I realised when I'd finished that I had done the wrong double decrease - it will be centred in the real thing.)

But I have made really good progress on the fatigue. I'm doing a seamless hybrid raglan with the shirt yoke variation from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop. I have made a body and two sleeves and have knitted them together into a yoke, decreasing at the raglan seam lines every three rows as instructed. Now I have split the front for the placket, which means I'm no longer working in the round. I was pleased to be able to work out a double purl decrease which seems to match the knit ones OK.

I had to pause for thought about how the diagonal sides of the placket and the raglan shaping were going to interact. I've decided just to go for it and see what happens - fudging is my middle name!

Little cakes of yarn

I'm improving in my ballwinding skills, although the 'interface' between yarn swift and ball winder still sometimes breaks down.

The light grey is recycled Rowan 4-ply tweed - I think it may be Donegal tweed - that I half knitted into a jersey for my eldest son when he was about 2. Now he's 18... I have some more part skeins and some unused skeins, so this could be the basis of a fair isle project.

The dark grey is Malabrigo laceweight merino in the Paris Night colourway. I fell for this at Stash a couple of weeks ago but they only had one in stock. Dawn came to the rescue: I bought her two skeins of Purple Mystery and we did a swap! I have plans to make a Gerda stole with this (free pattern pdf). It is the most deliciously soft cuddly yarn; I like slightly thicker laceweight.

The greeny-brown is Dream in Color Classy (Lucky Jade) that I bought in the sale at Socktopus (sadly, this yarn is no longer at a reduced price, but others are). I have seven of these to make into a top-down cardigan (but I'm not even swatching until I finish the fatigue).

I'm making good progress on T's fatigue. The body is done to the armholes and I am half way up the first sleeve. Unbelievably swift progress for me - only just over a week so far!

Old grey fatigue

No, not my mental state! Here's the original fatigue that I described in the previous post. I love the little black spot on the right sleeve. It's not dirt; it's a fleck of black wool in the heather grey.

Some semblance of order

Here is my collection of knitting books and magazines. We have been sorting, emptying the loft, emptying shelves, moving shelves - and still this isn't their final home. However, I think everything is in one place. There's a slight hitch - the room is also used by my sons to play their electric guitars so I can't call it my own, but I'm encroaching gradually...

I've had a scheme for a husband jersey cooking for quite some time and actually got started on it yesterday. I suddenly developed a violent sneezing cold on Saturday night and spend Sunday firmly at home, so I had enough time to really get going on it.

About three or four years ago I knitted T a fatigue - his favourite kind of jersey. Unfortunately I think he must be wearing it today because I couldn't find it to photograph it. It has been a very successful garment so I want to repeat the magic if possible. The original yarn was Jo Sharp dk and it has worn brilliantly. Not a pill in sight. I'm using the same yarn again (bought a couple of years ago from Get Knitted in a sale, so a good use of stash there!), this time in beetle brown. So, the yarn has been maturing and I have been reading Elizabeth Zimmermann on the subject of percentages and hybrid yoke techniques. The two came together spectacularly when I saw this at Knitspot (25 December entry). Mine will be quite similar, but without the ribbed sleeves. I'm already on the third ball (50g)!