The Sasha Kagan Experience

It's the early 80s suddenly. I go intoLondon and am totally blown away by the sweaters in the Sasha Kagan Sweater book. At one time I had a flatmate who was into Patricia Roberts but I never liked that sculptural look with the bunches of grapes and so on. But Sasha Kagan! Such great colour combinations, such clever designs. Then, she had a wider range than the floral motifs one sees from her now. And almost all of it in 2-ply jumper weight from Jamieson and Smith in Lerwick. For some reason their yarn remained ridiculously cheap for a very long time, and discovering them was a revelation.. Their shade card was - and still is - a thing of beauty.


I knitted a little waistcoat with running dachshunds on it, now gifted to the Knitting and Crochet Guild collection. I knitted a cardigan called Ribbons twice, once for my sister and once for my friend. The yarn for these came from Art Needle Industries in Oxford, now long gone. Then my friend saw the white cardigan with the pansies running across it. Such a satisfying and luxurious project since it had stocking stitch bands of silver lurex and white mohair running across it.