Two works in progress

 This is tv knitting - a cardigan in Sirdar's Haworth Tweed, in simple stripes.  I've used most of the colour range, but not the light oatmeal which tends to shout against these more muted colours.  It's some while since I used a regular commercial pattern from a mainstream yarn company, and even longer since I used the specified yarn.  

I did query a couple of points on the pattern, which is described as "triple-checked for accuracy " on the front page.  In a little inset box is a Tip about how to do intarsia - not a technique needed here, I'd have thought.  The Customer Service person replied that the sample, using nine colours, was knitted with the yarns carried up the side until needed.  Imagine what a cord that would produce!

This, on the other hand, is not tv knitting.  It is a pattern called Kilronan, a densely cabled DK cardigan with asymmetric cables.  Blink and you have to drop down a couple of rows to remedy your mistake. I chose a vibrant colour to make the most of its show-stopping qualities.  It could take a while.

Now, if, like me, you are interested in social history as well as knitting, you may be interested in my new blog, focusing on the history of the small Essex village where I live.  I am tracking what the censuses from 1841 onwards have to tell us about changes in this small community which was once dependent on wool and woollen cloth but by 1841 had moved over to silk and silk velvet production.

Here's the link: Coggeshall Chronicles