Susan Crawford Vintage at KnitNation 2011, in photos.

We have all been really busy since coming back from Knit Nation last weekend. It has been a whirlwind, make no mistake, including manic sewing up and lots of work on the book. For that reason, I do apologise for the short delay in getting some pictures to you of the Susan Crawford Vintage stand.

So, with no further delay, here's a photostory of some of the things that happened at Knit Nation 2011.

On set-up day I got there a little bit before Susan, to set up her Susan Crawford Vintage Knitting stand, so made the most of my time and knitted like the wind in the quadrangle at Imperial College to finish the last piece of my Jan Sweater to wear on Sunday.

It was great to get lots of new garments from Susan's A Stitch in Time volume 2 out on display for the public to see. It took a whole day's worth of sewing up this lovely nile green Excelana fair isle cardigan, and it was worth every stitch, as it looked stunning on display with the other half of its twin-set.

The grey ribbed jumper with bobble detail was a real crowd-puller, with it's simple lines and easy wearability, as was the mustard coloured cardigan behind it. When  cover model, Theo wore the cardigan on Sunday she really turned heads. I'm only sorry that I didn't get a picture of her.

Julieta from Knitshop came along to help out on the Susan Crawford Vintage Knitting stand while Susan was teaching on Saturday. She modelled one of the new designs from A Stitch in Time 2 which is made from her own mercerised cotton.

Susan's was a gorgeous stand, with lots and lots of garments to look at and try on. As well as showcasing those from the new book, there were four from A Stitch in Time volume 1 and lots of beautiful accessories and garments from Vintage Gifts to Knit. The Perfect Christmas Jumper, which you can just see on the right had an amazing amount of interest for a humid July day!

Look! There was even a digital frame with lots and lots of beautiful shots of the knitwear from A Stitch in Time volume 2. It was a really great way to share a little of the work that has been going on behind the scenes with you all.

Of course, there was Excelana by the bagful. The Jan Sweater, seen here in powedered egg, the slip stitch jumper that can just be seen behind it, and the gorgeous fair isle accessories on the top of the cabinet showed a nice range of different ways to work with the wool. I think that ruby red was the runaway success of all the colours at knitnation. I wonder what you will all make with it?


All images copyright Ingrid Murnane

Susan Crawford Vintage at Knit Nation 2011

It is a busy week here at Arbour House, as we plan our stand, decide on our outfits and gather lots of books, patterns and yarn for this weekend's knitting event in London, Knit Nation.

Jumpers and Hats - see them in their entirety at Knit Nation!
Image copyright Ingrid Murnane

We have a stand this year in the marketplace, so do come over and visit us if you're attending. We shall have lots of goodies on display, with lovely vintage garments from A Stitch in Time volume 1. We shall also be taking lots of new garments and accessories, previously unseen which are from the forthcoming A Stitch in Time volume 2.

The marketplace is open on Friday evening for a class-attendee's preview from 5-7pm, then on Saturday from 10am-6pm, and Sunday from 10am-5pm. Our stand, Susan Crawford Vintage, will look somewhat like our Woolfest one below.

Woolfest 2011, image copyright, Susan Crawford

As you can see, as well as our books and Susan's patterns, we shall have lots of 4ply Excelana, which Susan has used for many of the patterns in A Stitch in Time volume two, including the two garments on the left of the picture above.

In exciting news, Susan thought it would be nice to offer a 10% discount on Excelana yarns to any pre-order customers of A Stitch in Time, Vintage Knitting Patterns, Vol2, who buy from her stand. To claim your discount please bring a print out of your order confirmation from the knitonthenet shop (only pre-orders directly made on the shop I’m afraid) and we will deduct 10% off any Excelana purchase.

Come and find out what this is at Knit Nation!

Image copyright Ingrid Murnane

We shall have a guide available for all of the garments that we have on show to work out how many balls of Excelana you'd need to knit them up in your size. Please do just ask, if you'd like to be ready for the book coming out, or would like to knit something in Excelana from Vintage Gifts to Knit or A Stitch in Time volume 1. We can work it out for you and advise which projects would be suitable.

We do hope to see you at Knit Nation. Do tell us in the comments if you're going to be going too.

Happy knitting

Ingrid x

Made So Quickly: A Stitch in Time Retrospective

As the name suggests, this lovely jumper really is a quick knit. Originally published in Women's Weekly magazine in September 1936, it appears in the Fitted Tailored Look section of A Stitch in Time, volume 1.

 Image copyright Arbour House Publishing

Made so Quickly is knitted in double knitting yarn; the garment in the book uses organic cotton for a lovely drape. It has an easy-to-knit stitch pattern which would lend itself to knitting in front of the tv or whilst listening to a podcast, but is involved enough to keep your interest. It is knitted from the bottom up, in sections and the front is divided for the look of a cardigan. This is a great jumper to show off some beautiful vintage buttons too. 

Image copyright Arbour House Publishing

I've no particular swatching tips this time, apart from please remember to wash and block your swatch before measuring it in the same way as you'd wash the finished jumper. This will show you what will happen to the yarn you have chosen once you wash the whole garment. It would be terrible if the colour ran or it felted like mad!

 

Image copyright Ingrid Murnane

There are lots of lovely Made so Quicklys to browse on Ravelry, so you see what it looks like in different colours and on differently shaped people. I always find that helpful, don't you? Here's Susan herself in a fetching blue version.

Image copyright, Susan Crawford

The original pattern describes it as 'a pet of a jumper in easy knitting' so why not give this lovely pattern a go.

Happy knitting
Ingrid x

Mother's Day is nearly here

...are you ready yet? If like me, it is all a bit of a flying panic or you're just struggling for ideas for the lady who has everything, fear not. We have some great offers available from the knitonthenet shop.

A Stitch in Time, Volume Two is still available to pre-order with a fabulous package of goodies including yarn, a signed copy and a project bag as part of the pre order package. Save £5 on the retail price by ordering now, and take advantage of our Gift Certificate emailed to you to print out and give to the recipient.

We also have some other excellent savings in-store. For a limited period A Stitch in Time, Volume One is available for only £20 - saving £7.99 on the retail price.

And Vintage Gifts to Knit, featuring 16 designs for women, men, children, baby and home, by Susan Crawford, is now only £10, saving £4.00 on the RRP. And for the next 48 hours Susan is signing any of her titles ordered through the shop.    Purchase either of these great titles by 3pm on Thursday for guaranteed delivery for Mother's Day (mainland UK addresses only).

Looking Back and Looking Forwards

As you no doubt know, the second volume of A Stitch in Time will be published later this spring (can't wait!) In the meantime, I'm going to be writing a series of posts looking back at the first volume. There are some wonderful patterns that have been interpreted brilliantly by lots of people, so we'll get to see some of the different ways that you can wear them too.

We'll start next week with Sun-Ray Ribbing, a wonderfully flattering design from the 1930s.

If' you're new to A Stitch in Time, do take a look at both some of the miriad of designs therein, on Ravelry by clicking here, or at the knitonthenet shop, by clicking here. It is also now available to buy via amazon US as well.

Well, that's the looking back, how about the looking forwards I hear you ask.

Well, Arbour House Publishing (that's us) now have a Facebook page. We have always had a knitonthenet page there, but sometimes it was hard to let you know what was going on in the rest of the company without overshadowing knitonthenet, the magazine.

We will be bringing you all the latest updates on A Stitch in Time volume 2, special offers on other books that we've published, and any other new developments as they happen, so please do join us over on Facebook.

Happy knitting
Ingrid x

Thoughts needed on A Stitch in Time, Volume 2

Hello everyone,

As you know, Susan is working hard on producing A Stitch in Time Volume Two, but she needs a bit of input from you, the reading and knitting public, so please do chip in and tell her what you think in the comments.

Hi Everyone,

I wonder if you could help me make a decision with Stitch in Time 2. I currently have too many projects than are allowed for the number of pages for the book (already bigger than SIT 1) and am having to make some big decisions.

The main issue I have is with the number of crochet patterns. It keeps resulting in either:

1) Too many crochet to knitting patterns for knitters to be happy.

2) Not enough crochet patterns to justify it being classed as a knitting and ‘crochet’ book.

My gut instinct is to suggest something completely different which is this -

Remove the crochet patterns from Volume 2 giving me the right project and page count and put together a separate volume of the crochet patterns, which also gives me the room to add some beauties which I just can’t include in the main volume. This book would obviously be available as a separate purchase but we are looking to have it ready at more or less the same time as Volume 2 and include a special offer price for buying both together. (It would be a smaller volume so also cheaper).

I feel this then gives crochet the respect it deserves rather than as a foot note to the knitting patterns, and gives all purchasers knitters and crocheters exactly what they expect from whichever book they purchase.

I would be really grateful if you could all give me feedback on this by either agreeing or disagreeing (in the comments). If you disagree or have any additional ideas could you also comment.

The decision will have to be made in about the next seven days so do let me know how you feel as soon as possible.

for now
Susan xx

Thanks for your help, chaps

Ingrid x

PS We shall have a proper catch up post soon, and if you don't have one yet (you don't... I'm shocked!) and would like to buy a copy of A Stitch in Time Volume One, click here!

A Stitch in Time through the generations!

In honour of Vintage at Goodwood this weekend, here is something just brilliant that one of our readers, Jan, sent to us.

She has had the 1970s A Stitch in Time book for a good while, and during the 1980s, knitted these two garments from it. Here is her lovely granddaughter, Monica modelling them today.

Jan says: "I wore blackberry in the 80s with a gray/red check softly pleated skirt (M&S) boots and a white blouse with a pussy cat bow....thought I looked pretty snazzy."

These patterns are truly passing through the generations. The Blackberry Stitch cardigan, below from the 1940s has been made in the 1980s and is still worn now in the 2010s. Not bad going!


Many thanks to Jan for sending us her story. Here's her blog, A Passion for Vintage Textiles, if you'd like to read more.
...and if you've been inspired by these lovely sweaters, you can purchase your own up-to-date version of A Stitch in Time, at Arbour House Publishing's Knitonthenet shop.

Happy knitting,
Ingrid

Technical Bits: The Trials and Errors of the Tension Square

I'm cross posting this article from my IngridNation blog because I thought it might be useful to some of you to read a bit about tension squares and swatching. I resolved this year to knit more swatches. I'm terribly lazy about this most of the time and sometimes it does not matter so much, such as with scarves, but it is very true that being just one or two stitches or rows larger or smaller can make a substantial difference to the finished garment. I've recently been knitting up tension squares for the Sun-Ray Ribbing jumper Knit-Along on knitonthenet's sister group A Stitch in Time - 2008 on Ravelry and it has brought home to me how important it really is.

The Trials and Errors of the Tension Square

No, not the Gauge Swatch, my friends across the Atlantic: the Tension Square. Must be properly British, you know…

Actually, that comment was prompted by my Mum asking me what on earth I was talking about when I mentioned that I was swatching for a jumper last week and then made comments to the effect that my Nan (who taught me to knit) would ‘turn in her grave if she had one’ to hear me say it! So, for my Mum and my Nan, I will be talking about tension squares.

Stack of Tension Squares for Sun-Ray Ribbing

If you’re a member of the A Stitch in Time group over on Ravelry, you will know that we’re starting a Knit-Along (KAL) on Friday 8th January. We’re knitting the pattern Sun-Ray Ribbing from Susan Crawford and Jane Waller’s book A Stitch in Time. The garment is a lovely 1930s jumper with the quintessential sun-ray pattern, popular in design and architecture of the period. I’ve been knitting up tension squares to test out different yarns for the project over the past couple of weeks and after quite a bit of heartache ( more of which later) have come up with my final decision.

Swatches for Sun-Ray Ribbing

These are the same swatches as in the first photograph, above. You can see from this photograph the importance of making tension squares in deciding the final yarn and needle size to use. It really is essential to make sure that your square is knitted to the right size, as a little bigger or smaller at this size (generally 4 inches) could make a difference of one or even two sizes in your finished garment. The pattern instructions will ask you to knit a certain number of stitches and rows over a desired size. Below are my attempts to get the right tension, the right yarn and the right needles for this pattern.

The square top left is knitted in Rowan Cashsoft 4ply, as called for by the pattern. I used the suggested needles but as you can see, it came out rather too big, as I knit a little loosely. I had a number of other yarns to try out, and on the top right is the same yarn in a different colourway, knitted on needles a size smaller. It came out just right, but I’m not so keen on pink for this jumper and decided to keep it for a cardigan. I was set on a green so tried out some double knitting yarn that I had in my stash (bottom left) with the smaller needles, and while the density of the knitted fabric was better the tension square was much too large. My last attempt (and in all honesty the yarn that I really, really, really wanted to use) was with some Artesano Aplaca 4 ply. I knitted it up with the smaller needles again, but despite my best efforts to talk myself into using it, the tension of the fabric was really too loose and holey. It is a rather thinly spun 4ply in contrast with the much bouncier Cashsoft.

Bearing this in mind, and revisiting my stash yarns, I found that I had enough Sirdar Country Style DK in a warm mid-brown to make the jumper. It is a wool/nylon/acrylic mix which and I wasn’t sure if it would have enough spring to retain the shape of the garment as wool would, the tension square turned out quite well, so I’m going with it. Although my previous attempt swatching DK yarn turned out rather large, this is more thinly spun and similar to the American sport weight yarn. Using the smaller needles it actually knitted exactly to the right tension, so that is what I’ll be using.

Final tension square (middle)

There’s still time to join the Knit-Along for Sun-Ray Ribbing if you’re on Ravelry, and if you don’t fancy that pattern, we’ll be having another in April, so do join the group and get voting for your favourite pattern from A Stitch in Time and get your tension squares on the go.

Ingrid
editorial assistant