K1.....P1....

We have had a wonderful week of mist, fog and..........rain! Beautiful damp days that force you to stay in and loll around in front of the fire, reading or knitting!

It's funny, but cold, wet, inside days always turn my thoughts to knitting. I love knitting and in my time I have turned out hundreds of different things, some successful and some not! (Sorry kids for those ghastly orange and yellow jerseys and tank tops that came out of the cupboard with horrifying regularity!)

I remember my mum and my Aunty Julia knitting up a storm every weekend in the winter months when I was growing up. Because their knitting was so similar, they would share the task of knitting a jersey or jumper, one would tackle the sleeves and the other would do the front and back. They bought the wool in skeins and then needed to wind it into balls, so either my sister or I would sit with our arms out and our hands stiff, thumbs up and fingers straight out while they hooked the skein round our outstretched hands and wound it into balls. (And our arms ached with the effort!) My aunt had a way of winding the wool round her thumb somehow, and the ball would end up with a neat hole in the middle. I tried that a few times and was thrilled when the skeins were phased out and the ball arrived, ready rolled!

But, I digress!!


Wimbledon, to me, will always be associated with knitting! Every year I would knit. (And still do!) A jersey for me usually, but seldom was it completed in a year! It would become a 'serial knit' with bits being done every year until the thing was completed, or discarded if it started to go wrong or I ran out of wool! I think the normal time span was three years to complete one!

I surprised myself in 2010 when we hosted the Soccer World Cup (tut tut FIFA!!!!) and completed a lovely cable and twiddly V neck, drop shoulder jersey. I think I have worn it twice!! My favourite, completed quickly items include rompers that I knitted for Andrew, sleeping bags and dressing gowns that I knitted for both of them, and my still-loved-and-worn long grey cable jacket! I even knitted two dresses for me, both very successful if I stood around in them, but they had an unfortunate tendency to 'bulge' at the seat!

My Aunty Julia with me in my cable jacket! 2008.

My daughter has long since overtaken me, both in the twiddly regard, and the time taken to complete a garment! She knits beautifully, fair-isle with cables, following little charts with squares and crosses or lines in each square. She has knitted a complete jersey on a circular needle, and her expertise is mindboggling. But, even I have never taken as long to knit a single jersey as Catherine! She began one for herself in about 2007, and hauled it out just the other day to carry on with it!!! (I feel that I should be honest here and tell you that it was in storage in Johannesburg for most of the inbetween years as she was in Dubai, and nobody knits in Dubai!)

The 'hattie hottie', a hot water bottle covered with a hat that went wrong!!

My mum went through a bed-sock stage and had a pattern that I never bothered to ask her for and when I wanted it, it was too late. I searched for it over the years, everyone knew the one but nobody had a copy and this all happened long before Google.

The very ones!! (Pic thanks to Google)

Then, a couple of weeks ago, my friend Pam from Malmesbury was visiting and lo and behold, she had the pattern! Rob copied it for me and I have it safe and sound.

Have I started them yet?

No, but Wimbledon is coming!!