Colourful Knitting

I’ve been out of the knitting scene for a while but recently my sanity was in sore need of a return to this soothing, creative pastime. LINK So I decided it was time I got stuck into some proper big projects. Jumpers, or sweaters if you prefer.

At one time I kept the family in hand-knitted jumpers. I had a total thing for intarsia (that’s when you create pictures or patterns in your knitting) so we all had jumpers with knitted illustrations on them – Barney the dinosaur, Barbie, Bambi, bears (I clearly had a thing about Bs too!), Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, dogs, aeroplanes (a lot of aeroplanes), dinosaurs – you name it, I knitted its resemblance. I followed patterns to start with but soon branched out into creating my own templates – much more fun.

Maybe I’ll get back into that for now I want results – and quick. So I’ve gone for some chunky patterns. During my absence King Cole has emerged as a leading yarn and pattern manufacturer (it was Patons and Sirdar in my day, and then Tivoli after we moved to Ireland) and I’ve plumped for their products. I’m making a cable sweater for Chris and Benj – same design, different colour yarns – and a trendy deep-V-necked top for Caiti. I got the yarns and patterns from a UK company Wool4less.

These all take 8mm needles and I needed more than one pair. So for the first time for a long, long time a I bought a new pair. Until now I’ve got by with my large selection of mismatched secondhand needles acquired from various sources. Knitting needles have moved with the times too. I knew bamboo needles were popular now, but I’ve gone one better. Look at those beauties in the photo! They’re Harmony wood knitting needles made from laminated birch wood in waves of diffrent colours. They’re very light but tough with lovely sharp points. They’re a real delight to knit with.

Two of my new multicolour yarns

And to finish, some more of my creations, the ones we still have anyway – a mini-gallery of intarsia knitting. I’d put more pictures up but the Internet is playing up tonight and I’ll be very old by the time I uploaded all the ones I wanted to!