Knitting for Men - the Hot Rod Sweater

I love knitting. I love knitting hats, scarves, gloves, and other small projects that only take a couple of balls of wool and can be finished quickly. Even better, I like knitting 'in the round' because less sewing is involved. But when it comes to knitting actual garments to wear, I'm pretty hopeless. I can't begin to count how many jumpers and cardigans I've started and then unravelled because I just got bored with them.

This was nearly the case with a jumper I started knitting for Mr Needles back in August. But after lots of fits and starts (it took at least 6 tries before I was happy with the colourwork on the sleeves), I finally finished it. And here it is!

The pattern was from 'Stitch 'n Bitch Nation' by Debbie Stoller, the woman behind 'Bust' magazine in the US, and who helped kick the crafting movement up a gear. 

Source

 This book is one of several she's written, such as 'The Stitch 'n Bitch Handbook'  and 'The Happy Hooker', (it's about crochet - get your minds out of the sewer!) Even though not many of the patterns are to my liking, the instructions and technique diagrams are great, and I love that she took a craft like knitting and put a feminist spin on it.

Here's a close-up of that troublesome, yet ultimately satisfying colourwork:

 The red flame was added using an intarsia technique, then the yellow was added using Swiss darning, where you embroider the colour on the finished piece.

And here's the man himself wearing it:

As well as the jumper, he's sporting a fancy sling on his left arm, the result of slipping over in the recent snow!

 
One thing I realised making this jumper is that knitting mens garments is so much easier than ladies - hardly any shaping, not too many fiddly patterns (except for the colours in this case), just big square shapes. And Mr Needles is one of those 'always cold' people, so I expect more handknits will be coming his way!

The Making of a Knitted Rock God

Watching 'Lemmy the Movie'

Can you guess who it is yet?

 

It's Slash! When I joined Lakota's blog swap project, I was pleased to get Liza at The Vintage Knitter. Brilliant! I was already a follower, and knew she liked heavy metal, vintage Twinkle annuals, and knitting (of course!) She sent me a great bunch of gifts, so I had a lot to live up to. I hit upon the idea of combining knitting and rock by creating the woolly guitarist you see above. I took a Joey Ramone dolly pattern from Stitch and Bitch by Debbie Stoller and improvised the rest. And I was able to make it out of oddments, so kept it under the maximum spend.


Go check out The Vintage Knitter to see what she thought of it!
 

A Night Out With Churchill

Me, 'Fred' and Gabrielle

My sister and I recently had a jolly evening at the Churchill War Rooms, as part of the museum late nights event. It was the perfect occasion for the first outing of my newly completed red jumper. It's a 1960's pattern, but I thought it still went well with my nautical outfit, and I've never worried about mixing eras. 

 For the evening I wore:

Red jumper - knitted by me in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino

'Blazer' nautical skirt - home made, fabric and buttons from Dalston Mill Fabrics

Navy suede handbag - charity shop, 75p

Beige slingback wedges - New Look, £35

Gabrielle and 'Fred'

Me and Chuchill's panda!

If you've never been to the Churchill Museum and War Rooms, I thoroughly recommend it. They've meticulously preserved the living quarters and map rooms, giving you an insight into the conditions under which momentous decisions were made. There are tiny kitchens, little bedrooms with cots, banks of big bakelite telephones (I liked the green ones for 'scrambling' messages), rooms covered in huge maps dotted with millions of pin holes, and so on.

There is also the adjoining Churchill museum, which charts his life. Whatever your opinions of the man (and the museum is good at presenting him objectively), it's interesting to see the details of his life up close. I was particularly intrigued by this velvet jumpsuit :

 He had these made up in every colour, and would conduct all of his daily meetings in them; the look of horror on my face is me imagining my husband getting hold of this idea......

As for the jumper, this is the pattern I used:

I've always got several projects on the go at once, so I can jump back and forth when I'm bored. This jumper was so easy to knit - the back and front are the same - there is hardly any shaping, and the sleeve is knitted as part of the body. There's a lattice pattern worked vertically through the middle of each piece:

Detail of lattice panel

 I've mentioned before that I like knitting, but hate the blocking and sewing up, because the results are never exactly as I expect. For this jumper, I followed the blocking technique in 'Stitch and Bitch' by Debbie Stoller  which was really easy, as it just involved washing the finished piece, and then laying it out flat to dry:

Jumper drying during blocking stage

 I also used the instructions from the same book to make an i-cord for the flower detail at the neck. The result was this:

Which became this:

I finished it with a red button I had, and attached it to the neck with a press stud.

And this happened while I was trying to complete the jumper:

Bent needle!

I'd washed and set my hair, and was all set for an evening of knitting, drinking tea, and watching telly, when I sat on my needle, bending it totally out of shape. Luckily, I have loads more, as I can't pass a charity shop without buying all needles they have:

A selection of my needles