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