Monthly Meanderings - March 2020

So, then there was march 2020, and what a month that would turn out to be! If anyone had told me at the beginning of March what would be happening by the end I would have though they were bonkers.

- Plants, Pharos & Panic Buying -

So I started my March vlog on a bright sunny day preparing for a trip down to London with my family. Corona Virus was very much in the news at the time, but the governments advice was, as long as you wash your hands as often as humanly possible and don't touch your face, it was safe to travel around as before.

Benn & James at Kew // Greenery at Kew // Dad and mum on the tube //
Pharos tomb tresures // My wonderful friend Alan // Beautiful Mosaic at Chingford STN

Then there was a comedy of errors involving a early morning incident on the main drag in to Hinckley, which meant that we couldn't get the bus to the station and so we missed our train, even after ordering a taxi which didn't show up (I tried six companies before one agreed to even try, Uber is not a thing round here). So rather than spend another £90 on replacement tickets we resorted to driving down. I was already hesitant about our trip, I don't need much to set my panic sensors blazing and the news had been seeing to that, so the extra stress of missed trains, I will confess to have been anxious as hell! I didn't convey any of this in my video.

Despite it all we had a wonderful few days first visiting Kew Gardens for my little brothers birthday and then on to Tutankhamun Exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery and V&A on Sunday. On Monday before heading home. we made a little detour to Walthamstow for some fabric shopping and for Benn to taste the delights of 'Pie & Mash' in the wonderful victorian L Manze, a true Cockney must.

The trip was wonderful and turned out to be a very poignant way to start the month, as merely two weeks later and we were about to enter an unprecedented time of restrictions to our movements here in the UK in the form of the governments Lockdown. I am so grateful that I was able to see some of my friends and my family just before it all began in ernest, and also for having this video to look at to remember the happy times as well as the monumental things that happened in March. Stay safe and stay at home!

Wendy x

Knit It - 'Your Victory' Jumper

Well, it must have been a miracle with all the things I had going on in January, but I did actually finish my Victory Jumper before the deadline, OK it was right up to the wire at 9pm on 31st, but none the less it was finished and I am rather proud of it, and the fact I persevered despite a pair of sleeves that would not behave themselves makes it even more miraculous!

~ Your Victory Jumper ~

Home Notes 1945 Via the V&A Knitting Archive

Pattern: Your Victory Jumper

Size: 32-34″ bust

Ingredients: UK Size 10 & 12 needles

Yarn: 3 ply yarn I swapped for some Stylecraft 4 ply in Midnight, Red & White

Knit stitches: Knit, Purl, S1 K1 PSSO, K2Tog, YO (wool forward) & pick up stitches

The pattern is for a 33-34" bust so I added and extra 18 stitches to the cast on to make it up to about a 38-40" bust, there is quite a bit of negative ease in this pattern (stretch across the row) so I could have probably added a little less, but it's nice to have a bit of extra room  to breathe!

I cast this on on Christmas day and was pleasantly surprised at how quick the wavy pattern knits up, it is really very simple! It is worked over 9 stitches K2tog, K2, YO, K1, YO, K2, Slip 1 K1 Passo.  As well as being very easy to remember once you get into it, its also very easy to correct if you make a mistake, generally in my case it was missing a YO, but with a bit of rejigging it was simple to correct, ripping back was not so easy as those yarn overs are a pest to get back on the needle.

I flew through knitting the body. To both the front and back I added an extra 2 inches to the length which obviously meant it took a little longer on the needles but it was no hardship. The sleeves I started with great optimism, I usually knit both sleeves at the same time, it probably isn't but it feels quicker that way, with this pattern however there was too much tangling of various yarns going on, I am a bit of a tangle queen when it comes to colour work, so I gave that up after the ribbing.



As I worked through the pattern I became more and more baffled as to how long these sleeves were supposed to be. The instructions stated:

 "Change to No. 10 needles and ptn., inc. 1 st. at both ends of  every 6th row until there are   88 sts. Cont, in ptn. until sleeve measures 5.5 ins. from the beg."

Which would mean 8 rows of increase rows, but if I did that with my tension I would have 7" of the sleeve before the shaping, Ugh! So I ripped it back and worked my increases a little more often than once every 6 rows, then commenced the shaping. This with the way the pattern is seemed to be more tricky than it should have been I am sure on some rows I ended up with more stitches than I should have. Ugh!!!!

In the end I decided to wing it and try to line the stripes up, on the shaping with the stripes on the armholes on the body, this mean that my sleeves have ended up much puffier than the original pattern and they were supremely fiddly to fit, but at least they are in and all the stripes line up!



Though it took me three weeks worth of evenings and weekends to fight with them now they are done I am actually really happy with them, but it will be a while before I tackle anything with sleeves with stripes again!

So that's it my Knit for Victory finally out there in the world, only two months late!

If you liked this then do check out Retro Reporter's version she used the Clara sweater Pattern which is a redesign by Rohn Strong, it's totally gorgeous! Plus there are lots of amazing projects to inspire everyone on the Flick Group.

Right now on to Sew For Victory!!

Wendy x