Some Pretty Pictures

Excellent progress is being made on A Stitch in Time Vol 2 and it will soon be going to the printers. In the meantime I'm excitedly looking forward to the arrival of samples to pick our cloth cover for the book. I've always wanted to publish a book with a hard back cover but wanted even more to publish a book with a cloth cover like the Odhams books etc so am thrilled with this. I also think it will make the finished book even more special.

I know I've been quiet on the blog for several weeks as I have worked on the book day and night so thought I would share a couple of the designs from the book with you:

Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

This gorgeous coat is officially known as 'The Swagger Coat' and is from the 1930s. It may be more familiar to many of you as Miss Marple's coat, worn by Geraldine McEwan in the TV series. It has also been seen far more recently, for approx 5 seconds, in the film 'The King's Speech', so a bit of a celebrity!

To create the smooth, slightly shiny fabric the pattern required and also getting the uncommonly big tension for the period, I used Fyberspates Scrumptious Aran in Water. It knits up beautifully, extremely quickly and with its high silk content, has exactly the right amount of sheen. The first size shown here takes 8 skeins. It will be available in a wide range of sizes from 30-52 inches.

Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

This garment has had quite an impact on everyone who has seen it. She's called Kasha and is from the 1940s. I have a separate blog post all about the intricacies of multi sizing this little lady as she is quite a challenge so I won't dwell on that today. This beautiful cardigan jumper is knitted in Skein Queen Blush in a very special shade created by Skein Queen herself called Vintage Gold. The largest size is knitted in Lotus Cashmere DK. The lace motif is pretty complex but has been charted for the book making the knitting a lot easier. The button band is knitted as part of the fronts with the collar and little shoulder pads knitted separately and sewn on afterwards. Because of the complexity of the lace pattern, Kasha is available in a smaller range of sizes but is still available in sizes 30-44 inches.

Copyright Susan Crawford 2011

And one final reveal before its back to work for me. This is the Pretty Frilled Jumper, again from the 1930s. This is knitted both vertically and horizontally and with delicated frills knitted separately and sewn on afterwards. The stitch pattern is very simple but made more intriguing by the unusual construction. This design seems to look good on everyone who has tried it on despite being a little underwhelming in the original pattern. I think its the frills, framing the face so elegantly and then adding a bit of glamour at the wrist. It is knitted in Jamieson & Smith 2 ply Jumper yarn which has the right amount of body to get those frills to stand to attention. It is available in a range of sizes from 32-46 inch bust.

I will leave it there for today but will introduce a few more designs next week.

for now
Ruby xx

KNIT NATION 2011

I will be travelling down to London this weekend to take part in Knit Nation at Imperial College London.

I will be teaching two classes "Vintage Fit & Finishing" and "Interpreting and Working from Vintage Patterns". I think both classes have either nearly or have sold out, although there may be one or two spaces left on Sunday for Working from Vintage Patterns.

I will also be having a stand at the event and thought it would be nice to offer a 10% discount on Excelana yarns to any pre-order customers of A Stitch in Time, Vintage Knitting Patterns, Vol2, who buy from my stand. To claim your discount please bring a print out of your order confirmation from the knitonthenet shop (only pre-orders directly made on the shop I’m afraid) and we will deduct 10% off any Excelana purchase.

I am trying to work out how to offer the same arrangement on the online shop for pre order customers but haven’t got it sorted out as yet, as our shop is very basic and doesn’t allow for a lot of ‘fancy stuff’.

This and the potential offer on the shop is in addition to the discount voucher being provided with the book pre-order package.

There will be a lovely selection of the garments from Volume 2 on display along with the yarn usage guide I've been steadily compiling, so if you see something you like and you want the yarn ready to get started when the book arrives next month, you can take advantage of the 10% offer.

I've also been calculating amounts needed for Excelana when substituting it for other yarns used in Volume 1 and Vintage Gifts to Knit so lots of reasons to come to my tiny stand and say hello!

I look forward to seeing some of you there.

for now
Ruby xx