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Written by Lynda Fiendley

Category: Gallery

Published: 02 March 2018

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 Club member, Susan, has sent in these photos of her garments to inspire us [and she certainly has!]

  

First project since knitting in 1992 was a 4-ply cotton bolero on BROTHER std gauge machine with built in knitleader.

I traced the pattern pieces from an existing favourite East shrug using baking parchment and then copied the paper flat pattern onto the knitleader. (6 pieces sewn together, back, 2 fronts, 2 sleeves, tie –band)

Did tension swatch and the maths, but then I love this kind of maths, more arithmetic really.

I always record how many stitches in 1 cm, how many rows in 1 cm, how many cm for 1 stitch and how many cm for 1 row.

Then I’m all set to convert a paper pattern to cast on stitches, number rows, neckline shaping etc.

 

The tie band was too thick as the East original had a double band but that was 2 ply linen…

I finished it all off with crochet after steam blocking on my blocking board.

 

 

And there are more!

 

Projects in order:

 

1.Red and white Christmas and winter sports jumper: a remake of an identical one I designed and made in 1991 and wore out as the chenille broke up and made holes in the fair-isle. That one was white 4 ply wool and red yeoman acrylic chenille.

 

The remodel was made on a Brother 940 electronic, I coded in all the fair-isle patterns, it’s in 4 ply pure machine washable wool from Yeoman and took 1.2 cones white and 1.2 cones red. The front neck was cut and sew but the back I did with shaping. (don’t ask!) Crew neck and indent sleeves and armholes. The gauge was somehow quite different from the original, so I had to re-jig the order and extent of the fairisle rows to make it fit the new gauge.

Finished well before November 2017 and have worn it ever such a lot! Love it and it’s very comfy and soft.

 

2. Grey alpaca with random stripes- used Drops alpaca hand knit 4 ply from Woolwarehouse and re-wound all the balls for the machine on a woolwinder. Knitted on Brother 940 and using the green book, no knitleader yet for this one.

 

Own design but guided and helped by the green book (my bible= 6000 pullover poss)-used a straight silhouette, but shorter, with square neck and square indented construction sleeves.

Prefer hems to ribbing so that’s what I did, and I got the idea for the asymmetrical stripes from Pinterest.

Put hems on neckline mitering by decreasing 1 st per row and then increasing again after the fold-row.

Is good for the office and has been admired by the young folk there.

 

3. Colinette kit of 3- 50 g balls of TAO pure silk in variegated colour way and 3 -25 g balls of Parisienne kidsilk mohair.

Based on the jumper that was in the hand-knit book NOSTALGIA.

   

Details are on Ravelry where I am Merrystitcher. Knitted on the convertible brother at the chunky setting with 2 very different tensions. Crochet finish to neckline and hem, sleeves have a hem in silk with a rib design detail.

Used the green book again for the indented sleeve construction and front scoop, back high necklines.

 

 

Next project completed!

 

Rowan chunky cotton chenille bought in 2005, finally knitted up into a jacket.

Lots of detailed photos of blocked pieces and choices of trim on Ravelry. Own pattern, inspired by a schematic seen in a Rowan magazine, Yaksoft- Nambu was the pattern…

I changed the drop shoulder sleeve to a fully fashioned inset sleeve and used the green book ( 6000+) for armhole, sleeve and neck shapings. 3.5-4 sts to the inch. I think I made the overlap too large and the front neckline may have been better if it was higher, I aimed at 6 and got 10 cm neck depth, but maybe it should have been 2-3 cm like the back neck.

But still it seems to fit quite nicely, have lots to wear it with but will wait to see if I actually do wear it.