My Yarndale Uniform

Reflecting back on my Make 9 for 2019 made me realise I hadn’t shared any photos of my finished yarndale uniform*. Which is actually one of the few projects I intended to do & actually did, allowing me to tick “Berry cardigan” off my list!

I have always enjoyed seeing everyone’s Yarndale uniform projects collected together in previous years, however this was the first year I joined in.

I liked the knitting pattern selected, the feather and fan texture on the bottom did it for me, but the cardigan as a whole wasn’t my cup of tea so I decided to adapt it quite a bit.

My initial plan was to make it shorter, fitted on the waist and continue the feather and fan pattern up the whole body and have plain sleeves. Which I did to a certain extent…

I knitted the whole cardigan in one piece and incorporate the shaping into the sides; I cast on the size that would fit my hips and planned to decrease enough stitches by the time I got to the waist to go down a couple of sizes. This took a little bit of thinking, ripping back and head scratching/discussion at Knit group, (the latter is always useful). Helping me decided to just decrease the width of one pattern repeat over the hips and not try and keep it in pattern as that was causing me too much of a headache – I really liked the result.

Once I’d knitted past the waist and split for the fronts and back, I discovered I didn’t have enough stitches to do the v-neck and arm hole decreasing as I’d planned, but then had a mini light bulb moment and moved the neckline decreases to the side of one pattern repeat allowing me to continue the pattern up the front. I kept the garter stitch row of the feather and fan pattern to kind of keep it in pattern and I think it worked.

I much prefer knitting sleeves top down, as it’s much easier to adapt as you go, so I used Knitionary’s very useful tutorial, particularly for me on this occasion it was a sensible approach as it was looking like I’d not get my full sleeves knitted in time for Yarndale so I just cast off, wore it to the show and then later ripped back the cuff and re-knitted the sleeves longer.

It looks ok with 3/4 length sleeves however as someone who permanently has cold hands I like my cardigan sleeves full length especially in a dk weigh one that I’ll be wearing though the winter.

Looking a little tired, coming to the end of Yarndale. Thanks for the photo Jem Weston

I was really surprised by how many people complimented me on my cardigan at yarndale and asked for the pattern where I had to accompany my response with “though it bares very little resemblance to the actual pattern now”.

The finished garment isn’t perfect (the fit around the top of my arms isn’t the best), however I don’t mind, I learnt stuff & enjoyed having to flex some brain cells to make my adaptions and since finishing the sleeves (again) in November I’ve worn it a lot, which is always a good sign!

Yarn is Sirdar No.1, pattern is King Cole 5365 both bought from Knit Nottingham I have also listing the project on my Ravelry page here.

Isn’t this a happy bunch, all wearing their own version of the Yarndale uniform!

*Where customers from Knit Nottingham vote on a knitting & Crochet pattern to create and wear to Yarndale.

Yarndale 2015

Last weekend, was a great weekend, spent with lovely friends and friendly strangers at Yarndale – what I believe to be the best yarn event/festival I’ve been to. Admittedly I’ve not been to them all (yet!) but Yarndale is a high bench mark. I wish I had taken more photos, but at least these capture some of the colour and variety on show.

I wanted to go this year anyway after missing it last year, but when my friend Jem Weston, had her stall confirmed she asked me if I’d be able to help out and I was very happy to do so. This was Jem’s first solo event and she did incredibly well, I’m sure anyone who saw her stand would agree – her staging and attention to details was great, there’s more photos of her lovely work over on her blog.

What I enjoyed most about the whole weekend was just how lovely and friendly everyone was, from consumers to other stall holders and the organisers. I’ve not chatted to so many different people in one weekend before – it was fantastic! It was also a joy to see so many people wearing their wonderful creations and I was very flattered by the many compliments I got on both my Hedgehog Jumper and my colour affection shawl and how many of those people were impressed to discover the jumper was my first 4ply, first fairisle garment that I also adapted (originally Kate Davies Paper Dolls) and (don’t get me wrong, it’s far from perfect, with visible jogs up the sleeves and a slightly too tight neckline – but I love it and I’m rather proud of it).

I set out with a goal for Yarndale – a new challenge – I haven’t really knitted much lace before, I have knitted the odd pattern with a little bit of lace involved, like the clover lace wrap cardigan, but I wanted the challenge of a complicated lace pattern with different elements – I thought a shawl would be a great place to start. I tend to wear shawls more like a scarf, wrapped around my neck, rather than over my shoulders, so I knew I wanted a long thin shape rather than a triangular one. I found a lovely pattern on the Sylvan Tiger Yarns stall called Anisoptera by Petitchoufleur knits, in my desired shape and incorporates 3 stacking lace patterns – definitely a challenge for me! I searched for some lace weight yarn and narrowed it down to a few but it actually came down to colour, I decided on a jade green colour and the best match for that was on the John Arbon Textiles stall and I got 2 skeins (I’d hate to run out and it was only £5) of organically farmed Merino lace weight yarn in what’s called Teal Blue, which in reality I think is the perfect green jade colour. I think this may have to be a pattern that’s done alongside something a little more straight forward as I don’t fancy my chances of it going very well if I take it to Knit in Notts with me.
Being surrounded by yarn has done me the world of good I’m feeling very motivated to get knitting again, and since Yarndale I have knitted one of Jem’s Lazy Lace Cowls, the pattern and yarn was a  present from Jem for helping her out at on her stand and it was a delight to knit. Being able to knit an entire item in less than a week (albeit a small item) was much needed after my last (slightly frustrated) blog post about things not going to plan. Jem chose colours she knew I’d like – my finished cowl will go very well with my beloved handbag and be a good contrast with my grey winter coat, I just need to sew in the ends and give it a little press.

Now to get stuck back into finishing my other projects. I tried to rescue my cross pockets cardigan by blocking the outer pockets, which unfortunately wasn’t successful (but worth a try) however I have accepted the fact that the bottom of the cardigan will have to be ripped back and re-knitted. While I was blocking the cross pockets I did re-start my Blaithin so at least I’m a little bit further on with that now too! PROGRESS at last!

Thanks for reading!

Yarndale & Amy Singer

 

The past few weeks for me have been rather busy, the nice kind of busy, a big Family birthday, playing with friends kittens, local & national Knitting events.

The lovely owner of Knit Nottingham, Eleanor, organised a coach trip to Yarndale last Saturday, so 49 yarn enthusiasts headed up to Yorkshire to the first ever Yarndale event. I already had plans, so wasn’t able to go….or so I thought! It was also my Dad’s 60th Birthday, so all Family & friends descended on my Parents house for the weekend. However, thinking that I wasn’t able to make it to Yarndale I hadn’t paid too much attention to where it was & as I arrived home one of the first things my Mum & Dad asked me was did I know there was a ‘Yarn show’ on in Skipton that weekend….which is only 40min drive away, so off a pottered for a few hours!

Yarndale was held at Skipton’s Auction Mart, which I felt was rather appropriate, I arrived only a few hours after it opened & already the car park was full (fortunately I was just getting dropped off close by) & there were helpful signs telling you to follow the bunting to get to event – perfect start!

More advantages of a knitting show in an Auction Mart…you can bring animals like these very friendly Alpacas

The wonderfully colourful work of Attic24’s brilliant blog!

Great artwork for Yarndale’s knitting area set up in one of the Auction Mart’s theatres

Very cute Angora bunnies

I got the general impression that far more people attended the show than were expected, it was very busy, with long queues for the few catering areas. However there was a great atmosphere (not as claustrophobic as some much larger knitting shows can be), there were chill out areas, workshops & loads of stalls, so not a bad day out at all. I was very well restrained & kept mentally reminding myself of the size of my yarn stash at home and bought very little.

As well as organising a trip to Yarndale, Eleanor has organised several workshops and a talk by Amy Singer of Knitty.com (a rather brilliant free online knitting magazine) while Amy has been oven in the UK. On Thursday evening I attended ‘An evening with Amy Singer’ and the slightly croaking Amy (she’s picked up a British cold) chatted to us about how Knitty began, its contributors and its growing popularity and how just a few yarn enthusiasts blogs helped propel the magazine into the limelight. It’s quite a humbling story really and I personally loved finding out a little more about a website I’ve taken for granted for so many years.

There is one knitting pattern I have knitted many times from Knitty.com, Fetching, a lovely pair of hand warmers with some simple cable detail. This was an ideal project for me when I was trying to find a few projects to advance my skills without being overwhelmed. I have knitting several pairs now and they have made great gifts.

Fetching hand warms from Knitty.com – click image to be taken to the pattern!

For a novice knitter you should never get put off my things being too hard. When Amy was asked about how the difficulty rating is set for patterns on Knitty, she had a great answer… that knitting isn’t difficult; it just has different concentration levels, which I thought was very apt. I regularly have a few projects on the go, one with low concentration for pub knitting & nattering, then a project that requires higher concentration for knitting at home with far fewer distractions.

I would highly recommend browsing around knitty.com. You can keep up to date with all of Eleanor’s knitting exploits, future workshops and events by following her blog & checking out Knit Nottingham’s website or facebook page.