Introducing the Bellringing Jumper

Work on my bellringing jumper has begun in earnest. This follows on from my Cambridge Surprise Minor Headband and the idea is to have it featuring 8 different Surprise Major methods known as the Standard 8. these are Cambridge, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Superlative, Pudsey, Rutland, Bristol and London.

Not the most useful swatching in the world…

I did a bit of swatching to begin with. I tried out a tubular cast on to give a pretty stretchy edge to my ribbing. I used the provisional tail method from TECHknitter which worked brilliantly for me. I also tried out a few vertical border patterns for each side of the cabled method column. At the very top of the swatch I tried out a few simple textural patterns to fill in the top section of the jumper above the complex cables of the lower section. I tried to swatch in the round with loose floats carried round to the beginning of each row. Unfortunately this didn’t go quite to plan so I can’t block the sample properly at all. I don’t want to cut the strands in case I need that yarn so I’m just hoping for the best when it comes to measuring the gauge!

8 changes short of a lead

Despite this I’ve started on a sleeve anyway and am going to cross each bridge when I come to it. At the moment I’m 8 changes (24 rows) away from finishing the cable pattern on this sleeve and when I get there I’ll probably make a start on the next.

Sleeve in action

I’m pretty pleased with how my stitch guesswork has gone so far.

Last Friday Ma’s friend Sandra came and gave me a crash course on measuring and drawing up schematics for knitwear shaping and design so I hope I can put some of that to good use in this project!

FO: Naturally dyed jumper project

It’s done! And surprisingly quickly. I’m incredibly pleased with how it’s turned out and the fit. I knit almost a straight Men’s medium, as I tend to prefer a mens fit in jumpers with the extra length in the body and arms. I increased for the sleeves using the women’s large size grading though as I thought I probably wouldn’t need as much of an increase as the men’s size allowed for.

We wet nout for a walk today and I had hoped to get some decent pictures, but in reality although a lovely  day the sun was a bit too low and bright to get good photos. The body was a bit narrower than I had expected but overall the fit is very good. At the moment it is unblocked and I’m looking forward to seeing how much of a difference that might make as I’m a blocking novice really and have certainly never blocked anything this big!

Here’s a close-up of the yoke section and of the inside – so proud of how neat it looks.

 

I’m already planning my next jumper now!

WIPs and some inspiration

Jumper project update: Most of the body before joining for the yoke is done! I’m on the second ball of brown dyed yarn. The first ball had more of the darkening effect from the iron modifier added after dyeing and resulted in a stripy pattern appearing. The colour from the second ball is noticeably paler but hey! These variations are why I decided to go for natural dyeing in the first place! I’ve also begun both sleeves which will be knit in the round on dpns until all 3 pieces can be joined for the yoke.

The inspiration: At the beginning of the month I visited the American Museum in Britain at Bath to see the Kaffe Fassett exhibition which had been recommended by a friend of Ma. IT WAS AMAZING! I hadn’t actually heard of Kaffe Fassett before, and I have no idea why. My favourite parts were looking at all the colourful knitted jumpers displayed on the walls. I can’t imagine using that much colour in any one piece of knitting!

I do have a vague plan to have a go at one of his pattern designs, and found Kaffe Fassett’s Pattern Library in my local library, which is full of great colourwork motifs that he has used in his work and suggestions of how to apply them… one day maybe :)

In the mean-time though, I’ve begun an improvised cowl using a self-striping kind of yarn to mimic the colourwork effect inspired by Kaffe.

Jumper project progress

So, knitting has begun on the jumper :)

It already looks so pretty and the varied tones in the main colour are great!