Vintage knitting pattern - finally finished

After many a blog post about the jumper I've been knitting for at least the past 6 months, it brings me great pleasure to finally blog about it being finished!

I had only ever knitted one jumper before and it was in one colour of super chunky yarn so knitted up really quickly. Then I started to discover vintage patterns and there was something about the old fashioned pictures and nostalgia that made me want to knit one up. Little did I know how dam complicated it would be! Blood, sweat and lots of tears have literally gone into this jumper.

I choose this pattern. A fitted jumper with a modest neck line which used the fair isle technique to create the wavy stripes.

First problem I hit was all the measurements were in the old UK system. Sizes 10 and 13 needles and the amount of yarn was in ozs. Google soon resolved that hurdle for me. Next up it recommended 3ply yarn. Most of what I could find in 3 ply was baby stuff so after a discussion with my Mum I went for 4ply, did a tension square and adjusted my needle size so it corresponded to the tension in the pattern. I was ready to go.

I know we all learn and read differently but the description of the pattern repeat was literally boggling my mind, especially when I had to start accounting for the increases.

My first major stumbling block hit..... I got onto ravelry and found a local knitting group and went along in the hope of some much needed help. By the end of the night I had been shown how to use stitch markers to make increasing while maintaining the pattern a heck of a lot easier and off I trotted home to write a grid of the pattern repeat so I didn't have to read the complicated written version.

After that it was plain sailing...just for a while. Until I ran out of yarn and the extra stuff I bought was a from a different dye lot, thankfully its not too noticeable. Then I knitted a whole sleeve wrong because I forgot a crucial increase row and it turned out just a bit too small...doh!

But last Thursday I finally finished it, with all its little imperfections, I can truly say I gave it my best shot and I'm proud of it anyway.

One thing I didn't realise is, is that as people went Simon Cowell stylee with their high waistbands back then, the top is a bit short on the body. Ah well...guess I need to embrace the full retro style and get something high waisted myself to go with it. I'm thinking maybe a Colette pattern Ginger skirt....

Ginger skirt by Colette Patterns

Knitting nightmare

I've made a mistake....a very big mistake...and I've been trying really hard to not feel down about it all weekend. I knitted a whole sleeve wrong. Not just any sleeve...a complicated one with various increases and decreases and 3 different colours. It took me a whole week to knit that sleeve and now it needs to be pulled out! Gutted -to say the least!

The sleeve is from the little jumper I'm knitting from an old pattern and its been pretty complicated.

I think I choose a bit if a difficult one for my first project using colour fair isle stylee. Its been a bit of an emotional roller coaster since I started it. I'm knitting it in 4ply when the pattern is meant to be 3ply so I had to figure out a different size of needles to use. Then I had to work out how to fair isle knit. Then there was complicated increases so I joined a knitting group and thankfully one of my new friends was able to teach me how to accommodate for the increases and use stitch markers. Then I drew a chart to help me keep track of the pattern repeat..then I realised I had colour coded it wrong and had to take out half of a pattern repeat.

I got through it though and was making good headway. I had already done the back of the jumper and I  really wanted to push on with it as there are loads of other things I want to knit and make but I'm not keen on having too many things on the go at once.

This is the back, finally finished!

But after a week of knitting for at about 2 hours every day and then stitching in all the loose ends I compared it to my other sleeve only to find it was too dam small!!! I missed out a crucial increase row after I had done the rib which would have increased the stitches to 90 from 74. So the whole bloomin' thing was knitted on 74 stitches when it should have been 90!

But hey ho....what can you do? I still really want  to finish the thing. So I'm having a rest from it for a few days and I'll just try to forget about it...put it down to experience.

Have you ever made a big mistake when knitting up something? How did you cope?

(Hand knitted) Sock it to me

From farmers ‘cushioning the insides of their hide boots with felt’ in 700 BC to hand knitted fragments, recognizable as a sock found in Syria in 200 AD, there are many references to the humble sock throughout history. 

Some argue that knitting made its way to Europe from the Middle East. Early knitted cotton fragments were found in Spain from 1275, which at that time was held by the Arabs, and had ‘Allah’ knitted into them. At that time it was the Islamic world that had wide spread literacy, not the Europeans. Also cotton was much easier to come by in the Middle East. The Europeans are more likely to have used wool or linen. Also we knit right to left, just like how Arabic is written, further adding to the argument. Knitty has a more in-depth article about this.

Regardless of its exact origins knitting has been a wide spread craft for centuries and has hugely developed and advanced in terms of materials, colours and techniques, especially when it come to knitting socks. 

I love these patterns - sort of Scandinavian style

This is a yarn stash from Carole Knits - and I though I was bad!

Such a gorgeous pattern! from Sock Yarn Shop

Little did I know how obsessed people can become with knitting socks until I joined a local knitting group and just about everyone was knitting or had knitted a pair of socks at some point. The clincher was when one of my new knitting buddies said she only ever wore knitted socks that I realised this was something that I had to try. 

So a trip to my local knitting treasure trove Fibre Flurry to pick up some supplies and I was ready to go! 

Despite my pattern being titled 'simple sock pattern', at the time it really felt like anything but simple! I've had to figure out how to knit in the round, and with 5 needles!,  dropped stitches, managed to end up with a few holes and unfortunately my tension isn't quite consistent - I think it all just adds to the charm, at least that what I'm telling myself. But with a lot of help from my sock expert knitting friends, a little perseverance (once I've started something I really have to finish it no matter what) and determination I have finally finished my first sock!! 

Even with all its imperfections (the stripes didn't really end up as stripy as I'd hoped) I'm still pleased with it. When I tried it on my foot really did feel warmer instantly, so I can't wait to get the other one finished too!

7 weeks without stitching - NEVER!

As my big trip to South America looms closer I've been thinking about what projects I can take that will keep me going during 7 weeks of backpacking.  We have decided to only take 2 smallish rucksacks each. Mine is 33 litres and hubbys is 35 litres. So space is seriously tight.

We've got quite a distance to cover, and even though we will be spending a lot of time trekking and sightseeing there are quite a few long bus and plane journeys in to get through as well. What better way to pass the time than to take some projects to keep me going.

I thought about taking the vintage knitted top that I keep going on about, but I would be beside myself if anything happened to it, its taken me so long to figure out how to do it and I've spent so long working on it.

A few weeks ago now I was at the Knitting and Stitching show in London and the lovely people there taught me how to crochet. I had tried once before but made the mistake of not practising regularly enough and quickly forgot how to do it.

Since then I've been practicing granny squares and I am defiantly getting more of a hang of it...although still not mastered what to do with all the loose ends.

So I thought something like this might be good to squeeze in my rucksack. Only one hook needed...I can take just a few balls of wool...no biggie if my rucksack gets nicked or anything. Maybe by the time I get back I'll have enough squares to stitch me up a blanket!

I bought this gorgeous crochet book by Nicki Trench recently. 

It has a few blanket projects in it but I'm going for the beginner one...this 'Springtime Throw'. Its bloomin' massive (finished size 162cm x 2223cm)...so I'm just going to work with the few yarn balls that I have and see how many squares I get to. 

House of Fraser have a sale on the Amy Butler Belle Organic aran and DK at the moment...I think they are selling of there end of line stock and I managed to top up some of the yarn that I already had for just £2.50 per ball (usually over £5 so a bit of a bargain). Only problem was you had to buy it in packs of 10 balls...which seemed excessive....so I managed to find a few smaller packs and I'm planning on using the cream and the two shades of blue to make up a smaller blanket. Will probably end up being a baby sized blanket...now I just need a baby...maybe not just yet! 

Planning, packing and stitching too...of course!

I've been busy trying to get organised for my upcoming trip over the past few weeks. Me and the hubby are going to Panama and South America for 7 weeks and we leave in just 2 weeks time! We only decided to go about 5 weeks ago so it all been a bit of a rush to get ready. Here is a map of our planned route....

My cousin has put us in touch with one of his close friends who is a tour organiser based in Lima and she has been so amazing!... putting an itinerary together for us and she is even picking us up at the airport in Lima. We just have to sort out a week in Panama ourselves. 


In between ticking off my several to do lists I've been working on the vintage knitting pattern I found at my parents house in the summer. I thought it didn't look to difficult....I could work out all the abbreviations and when I first read it I thought..yeh sure...I can work it out. Hmmmm.....so far its certainly not been a smooth ride. On the positive side I can't believe how much I have learned by the section I have done so far. 

A few weeks ago I got soooo stuck with it. The pattern presumed I had special powers and could work out complicated increases with minimal information. I seriously got so stuck and in such a state. After a frustrating phone call to my Mum, who couldn't help me figure it out (and I don't blame her, it was really complicated especially when she could't actually see what I was doing) I turned to Ravelry and searched for knitting groups in my area. What were the chances....? There was a group meeting that night at the MAC. 


Everyone I met was so lovely and friendly and I got the much needed help from Minty who even gave me some stitch markers to help me on my way. It all seemed so much clearer. I needed to draw out a chart of the pattern..which seemed simple...until I made about 3 mistakes in that which then lead me having to undo 3 rows (of 106 stitches!), In process I also managed to drop stitches...thanks you tube videos for teaching my how to pick these back up again! 

But since then I've been on a roll with it...and now managed to get a huge chunk done of the back panel.

So now I've managed to figure out how to do knitting 'a la fair isle'....pick up dropped stitches...use stitch markers...turn complicated instructions into a chart...incorporate increases to follow the pattern. Not bad I reckon! And now I can't put it down!  


I quite fancy making a new wallet for my trip though and found some great tutorials online last night by very purple person so thats my job for next weekend I think!

Getting projects finished - eventually!

I've been a bit of a stranger to my blog recently and have been finding it hard to get time to keep things up to date. Having said that I have been busy, as always stitching, sewing, knitting and the like. I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show in London a few weekends ago for the first time. I had a great time and even managed to get someone to teach me how to crochet!


On the business side of things (please see this post for summary) I went to a free workshop run by the Business Link people last week about finding and keeping customers. I wasn't sure about it before hand but actually ended up having a really good time and got a chance to talk a lot about my new business and how to give my customers a 5 star experience! All very exciting...so please keep an eye on how I'm getting on so you can be involved once I'm up and running (fingers crossed opening spring 2012!).


I've written a few posts recently about trying to complete all the various craft type projects I have on the go around the house. And continuing on my mission I've managed to get a few more things finished off over the last few weeks.


This is an Amy Butler  design for an afghan bolster cushion cover that I adapted a bit and decided to do a stripy design for the back. When we had the heat wave at the beginning of the month I had a lovely relaxing time sitting out in the sun finishing it off. 

 This is a Cath Kidson design from her new "Sew" book that my friend Amy gave for my birthday. It turned out really well, and I love that it is lined as well, makes it feel much more sturdy. Using it a a knitting bag at the moment but its solid enough to carry heavy things too so very versatile!

 A while back now I posted about the screen printed roman blind that I got finished and hung up in my studio/spare room. I had quite a few scraps and practice prints left over and it seemed a shame not to do anything with them so I made some cushions to match. I just appliquéd them onto a neutral background colour and made an envelope type fastening on the back and secured with self cover buttons. I also made a few of the practice prints into tote bags as well (not that I actually needed any more of them!)

 Some of you may recognise the design below from the Cross Stitcher July issue. I spotted it in Mollie Makes Magazine and thought they looked lovely. Its taken a while but managed to get to finished over the weekend. I used Japanese fabric that I bought from The Eternal Maker at the Knitting and Stitching Show to make the back and sides of the cushion. Its got parrots and peacocks on it - still loving' all the bird related stuff that out there at the moment!

I also eventually finished the dining chair that I've been hammering away at for what seams like ages! I'm really pleased with how it has turned out, even if I don't really have anywhere to put it at the moment. My little house is just about bursting at the seams with various bits of furniture that I've re-vamped or given a make over too. I've also seem to have made up so many different cushion covers over the last few months theres hardly any room for me left on the sofa!

So whats next?!?!? I've started making up the vintage knitting pattern that I found in the deepest darkest depths of my mum and dads garage......

Its meant to be made up in 3ply (which I've discovered doesn't really exist anymore unfortunately) so I'm using 4 ply instead and altered the needle size. I did a tension square to check so just going for it and I'll see what happens. If it ends up not fitting I'll use it as part of a display in my new shop! Just got the back panel rib done so far so watch this space for how I get on with it!