Kaffe Revisited

This lively jacket demonstrates the inventiveness of Kaffe Fassett at his best, in "Glorious Knitting."

It is shown again in "Kaffe at the Vand A", and really demonstrates how a simple stripe pattern comes alive with fluctuating colour ranges. I knit this for my sister many years ago, largely from the leftovers of the dark version of the Pompeii Jacket. I like Rowan yarns, but not the price of them , so this is entirely knit in oddments from a yarn shop in Tiptree - single balls of unusual eveningy yarns. And I do believe that there is enough still leftover to knit another whole jumper.

I do agree with whoever it was recently who called their stash a resource, rather than seeing it as a burden. Unless you don't feel able to buy new yarn until you have used up what is in store, I think stocks of yarn should be an inspiration.


A close-up of the toothed stripe waistcoat I was wearing for the Kaffe event. It was knit in Shetland wools from Jamieson and Smith, at least twenty years ago as a gift for my mother. What gives it life is not only the movement created by the flickering teeth, which are knit randomly, but also the addition of occasional bright blues and purples alongside the browns and greens.

I do think his new book, "Kaffe Knits Again", is a pale reflection of former glory. The sheer inventiveness of "Glorious Knitting" and the wonderful aesthetic feast of the V and A book really point this up. He may be right that throws and scarves are more likely to appeal, but surely the use of more subtle palettes would make the cardigans and jumpers more timeless and less obviously 80s.

Kaffe Fassett

Today to a long-awaited event with my friend, Alison. A visit to the Warner Textile Archive to see the collection of woven fabrics and textile pieces from the days of the silk mill in Braintree.

Then, a piece of astonishing luck. We were heading for a village hall not a mile from where we had lunch but became spectacularly lost, driving in a circle, so that we arrived with minutes to spare, instead of half an hour early as planned.

To our amazement, and the chagrin of those already seated, we were ushered to the front row, from where we had an uninterrupted view of the great man himself.

He gave a talk, as a commentary on a series of slides of his work and what inspired it. Brendon Mably managed the slides.

At times gasps of amazement or spontaneous applause greeted particular items, pricipally the quilts. It was a great afternoon, competed by the book-signing. I hand over the book to a man who has given me great pleasure over nearly thirty years and I find I have nothing to say. He, however, tells me he likes the colours in my waistcoat, which is the brown Toothed Stripe, one of his most vibrant designs. Imagine that.

Piles of wonderful textiles were strewn across the stage, and more were pulled from a holdall.

Kaffe Fassett signing my book.

Mufflers

On a day when we are forecast the worst storm of the year: two scarves.

The first for my husband, in Jaeger Luxury Spun, an e-bay buy of a discontinued yarn. We had gone up to London on a rare visit, on a bitterly cold day, and stood outside Liberty's waiting for my sister who was delayed. With half an hour to kill, we browsed Lberty's menswear dept, checking out scarves since it was so cold. We were astonished to see one, with a designer name, but also a price tage of almost two hundred pounds. It was knit on one side and silk-lined on the other, a very appealing item.

We bought a navy lambswool scarf for fifteen pounds, but the idea stayed with me. This one is in a diagonal rib, lined with silk from the silk mill in Sudbury, just up the road. The silk makes it smooth against the skin, instead of itchy.

Secondly, a feather and fan scarf in Colinette four-ply, bought at Allie Pallie, one of those buys which has to wait years for its hour to come.

Both are being worn by the wall fruit trees in our garden: the espaliered pear just coming into bud.

Sunday' Best

Perhaps I'll try posting once a week and see how it goes. Somehow I can't get into the Work-in-Progress groove - half-finished socks, one front of the Arwen cardigan, more hours than I like to think of on the Icarus shawl...

I like things a little more finished.

A treat just before Christmas: a card from the Innocent Smoothie organiser commenting on the hat in Sanquhar knitting. Then, some days later, this.





Now, nothing on the site reveals that there were rosettes - how many, for what? My design was not chosen as Hat of the Week. But I was really gratified to have this rosette, the first I've ever been awarded, even if thousands of others also received them.

Next some mittens with a tale behind them. For some while I read Blogdogblog, finding the links from there intriguing. There, I first saw Sanquhar gloves and a Japanese rendering of them. Sanquhar is less than a hundred miles from my birthplace, but I'd never heard of it until then.

I also saw knitted braids there too for the first time. These mittens are a mixture of Komi patterns from Charlene Schurch's book "Knitting Marvellous Mittens".

These were knit on two needles in Shetland 2ply wool. I thought they would be interesting but unwearable but, in fact, they've been in constant winter use.

Little Hats

Little hats for the Innocent Smoothie campaign organised by Amelia.

These certainly meet many needs: quick results, using only small ends and a guaranteed charitable purpose.

I've managed four of these at a sitting - roughly twenty minutes per hat, bobble time extra.

Flagging it up

My first experiment at a log cabin blankie - and I'm not completely convinced. First, I overestimated how many stitches to pick up - major distortion, so I unpicked the middle and picked up on four dpns to knit a red centre. This kind of sorted it - until I noticed that I'd picked up the wrong side. I waited to see if I could live with it, but I couldn't, so out it came.

Then I found it took twice the red yarn the second time. Something wrong there, but I'm not sure what. Still quite distorted because it is hard to pick up and cast off at exactly the right tension to avoid this.

However, it's quite a startling effect, and I got the yarn at a giveaway price, so I was not wrecking good yarn in the experiment.

Innocent Hats

For some reason the charity knitting theme has taken hold. Perhaps it's the sense of making something from nothing, or the idea of community activity.
These are destined for Amelia's drive for hats for Innocent Smoothies. Yes, it's a marketing or image-building ploy, but 50p to Age Concern is a generous contribution for the results of twenty minute's knitting while watching tele.
First, some candy coloured offerings.








Next, a series representing different knitting traditions: Aran, Sanquhar, Fair Isle and Tyrolean. I can see this becoming a test of ingenuity.

Surprise.

Now what can this be? While knitting this for the first time it holds the attention although only garter stitch is used. This must be because you don't really know where you are on the garment until quite a late stage. Thus, the placing of stripes is a shot in the dark.


Eventually you reach a point where buttonholes are placed so it all starts to clarify. The section where you knit on the central 90 stitches for a while is mysterious. But the final mitreing of the front corners is not immediately clear. At last you have the whole piece off the needles...


And you have the Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket. I've wanted to knit this for some time, and I'm really pleased with the result.

Knitting for Kisiizi

Two little knits for Brigid's appeal. Rummaging through the bottom of a wardrobe I came across a cache of baby yarn. Not just yarn but all the pieces for one jumper and the back and one sleeve of the other - with the pattern. This meant a satisfyingly quick result. And to think that the bag had been there these eight years. All that was needed was the motivation.








I wonder how many other stalled projects I could dig out if I felt there was a need...under the bed, in the loft, in the other wardrobe, the dining-room.....

Charity Knitting

Knitting for charity.

Busy weekend made purposeful by the notion of joining in worthwhile schemes.

First, four squares for the Rebuilding Greensburg Block by Block project. Can it really be that those devastated by tornado damage are most in need of an afghan or knitted blanket? But the idea is compelling – if only we could resolve the world's big problems by knitting squares.

As my husband pointed out: anything which reduces the scrap yarn stash in our house has to be good news. And these were knitted from just some of the pale neutrals I used to knit the Pompei jacket all those years ago. So we have a way to go.

 

Next, some little hats for the hospital in Uganda supported by Brigid. I wasn't clear on the bonnets issue when I started these. Again these are just leftovers from previous projects. I never seem to have just little ends left.

Now, I learn from reading Rabbitch that mittens are needed on the Cheyenne reservation. There's a thought to fire the imagination: mittens, possibly inspired by the Latvians, on their way to support Native Americans. Did the Sioux Indians knit? And if so, with what? Buffalo fibre?

Another Aran cushion

Aran cushion in a pattern taken from an Aran jumper pattern. Just the front done in the complex pattern while the back is in double moss stitch. Two buttonhole loops and some neutral buttons and it's done.

Aran Cushions

Aran patterns have a charm all their own: so much dramatic impact for often minimal effort - cables being easy to memorise by reading the knitting itself. So, a series of cushions for the cottage. The point here is that heavy usage would soil these quickly, but a cottage only has intermittent use so these stay fairly clean.
This is a pattern from Alice Starmore's "Fishermen's Sweaters" - an absolute feast of complex designs. How wearable such an encrusted pattern would be, is another matter, but as a cushion, all the interplay of light from the textural interest is ther. And I can admire it, which I couldn't if I was wearing it.

Strippy Throw

A sampler throw for the cottage. The idea here was to build in a number of design elements: alternating large, complex patterns with small textures. Barbara Walker's stitch pattern library gave me most of the designs. Then two colours were chosen to echo the colours in the room, which has striped wallpaper on the chimneybreast. A further reference was the strippy quilt, where the quilting forms a textural interest on the alternating colours.

It was nowhere near as easy to knit as it might have been, because different stitch patterns alter the size of the resulting block. There were several reknittings of difficult strips to adjust for this.

One square has the date and my initials.

Giant jumper

Walking in Cumbria in the depths of winter decided me to reknit an old pattern, but in a much larger size. This would accommodate not only a bigger me, but also several layers of lighter jumpers. Knitted in Balmoral, a chunky yarn, it knit up quickly. This is a pattern I've used several times before.

Kid Mohair

This is the black version of the kid mohair cardigan. Knitted from this very light fibre, it is still floaty after all these years. The lace pattern was easy to read and memorise. The design, as I recall, had a variant with gold bobbles at the centre of each diamond, and a big floppy collar. Very Eighties.

Lace from the Auvergne

Last summer we were holidaying in th Auvergne and I came across this wonderful lace doiley at a flea market. It was three Euros, which I find astounding as bobbin lace is much prized in the region - but of course this is knitted. It measures about fifteen inches across and does remind me of a particular shawl in "A Gathering of Lace".

Pompeii Jacket

The pale version of the Kaffe Fassett jacket. this must be about twenty years old and has seen hard wear. It's a really comfortable shape. When new, it went over a beige dress to look really smart. Now it never leaves the house.

This is the curous thing about some knitwear: it becomes indispensable while other, equally credible, items fail to endear themselves.

Comfort zone.

Jaeger Shetland Style is the yarn used in this very easy shawl. It's such a soft yarn, but I was still not sure what pattern to use. I tried a small cable and then a catspaw. In the end the tweediness of the yarn suggested a double moss stich, which works well with such a bulky yarn. I'm not really a shawl person, but it is very useful as an extra wrap on cold evenings, or on car journeys.

Print of the Wave Stole

The Pattern for this came from Gladys Amedro's book on Knitting Shetland Lace. It is lovely as a piece of fabric but I am not sure whether it does not look like a bedjacket in reality. Partly it's the colour, but there is something about the texture and the way it hangs over the shoulders which suggests the grandmother in Red Riding Hood.

Tumbling blocks

A Kaffe Fassett jacket, originally done in very pale colours as from a mosaic in Pompeii. This version used a variety of evening yarns some with glitter.
I wore it to the V. and A. exhibition of Kaffe's designs in, I think, 1988.

Not really wearable now, but I can't bring myself to throw it out.