I have realised that the television show The Game of Wool is going to be useful source of subject matter for blogs for the next few weeks. I hope you will bear with me.
In the last episode, the individual challenge was for the knitters to create a coat for a small dog along with a little hat. I’m not going to detail each dog coat or hat, suffice it to say that they were on the one hand cute and on the other hand excruciating. I am not a fan of dog coats and I definitely do not think that dogs should wear hats. However, there was a lot of skill and imagination demonstrated in this challenge and even I had to admit that the winning coat was both clever and really pretty. I still didn’t approve of the hat! If you are into creating coats for dogs, you will find a wide range of possibilities on Ravelry. My sister knitted her terrier, Misty, the Dustland Dog Sweater using some West Yorkshire Spinners Colour Lab DK (machine washable at 40° in case you want to know) and I have to say that the result was very cute. I’m not sure that Misty was that pleased about her coat but she looked lovely.
The team challenge was to knit an 80s style mohair jumper with an intarsia pattern. Intarsia is a form of colour work, different from the stranded colour work featured last week. It allows knitter to create big blocks of colour. Again this was more interesting and less stressful than the team challenge last week. I do not remember wearing mohair jumpers in the 80s (perhaps I was too young), but a lot of my customers have mentioned that it was pretty scratchy. I suspect that is because the quality was not too high. I will say that the program has inspired me to do some research into finding fluffy wool that has a thicker ply and can be more easily knitted into jumpers without being held together with another yarn as is the current fashion. At the present time, the closest we have is Knitting for Olive Soft Silk Mohair, a laceweight blend of mohair and silk which is usually held together with another yarn to create a fluffy effect, and we still have some gorgeous Melted Baby Suri from Qing Fibre which I know knits up beautifully into a jumper without being held with anything.
Intarsia (described in a previous blog) was, like mohair, hairstyles and shoulder pads, huge in the 80s. The designer Kaffe Fasset in particular created the most fabulous intarsia designs, and people were knitting jumpers with pictures on them – from Dennis the Menace to elaborate floral arrangements. I have a sense that it’s beginning to come back – for example I have spotted a lovely pattern in the latest Laine publication, The Art of the Sea which uses Intarsia. I cannot recommend it as a technique for creating colour work on socks however, I have really struggled with the one that I’m doing at the moment and, to be honest, I’m about to give up on it.
I have talked to lots of people (again) about The Game of Wool, and many of us, including some people who commented on my last blog, have come to the conclusion that the people setting the challenges may not be knitters. In addition we are concerned that this programme is stated to be with the aim of finding the best knitter in Britain but it seems that the next episode is going to be about crochet which is not the same at all! However it will feature my favourite crochet designer, Janie Crow, and I will definitely be watching it while, perhaps, catching up a little bit on her Persian Tiles blanket that I have been crocheting for some two years now. Mandy tells me that blankets don’t count as work in progress and I believe her!
I loved hearing your thoughts about the programme last week – keep them coming!