Addison Embroidery
at the
Vicarage

Cardigan knitted Debbie Bliss Fair Isle cardigan

Just as cooks produce recipe books with similar recipes under different names (made an almost new dish with the addition of one or two ingrenients), so – I now learn – do knitting pattern designers.

Knitting sample of three colour variants of the same Fair Isle patern

I had previously knitted two Fair Isle cardigans from a pattern in  Debbbie Bliss’s Baby Cashmerino collection of 2002. A blog reader recommended Debbie Bliss’s The Baby Knits Book, also 2002 (Ebury Press) and when I found a copy  I was attracted by the pattern for the beaded Fair Isle cardigan,  although I wasn’t particularly keen on the beaded bit. Comparing the decreasing on the yoke rows in both patterns I realised that if I wished to I could shoe horn a Fair Isle pattern of more rows into the yoke for the beaded design and this excited me.

Yoke detail (Debbie Bliss Fair Isle Cardigan)

In the end, creativity on the wilt and wanting the cardigan to be given as a Christmas present, I knitted it up just as in the book! As I worked through the pattern I realised all the numbers given for stitches were very familiar and were in fact identical in both patterns (though as I say the yoke Fair Isles were different). No problem there as I love the end result. If anything, this has perhaps taught me a bit about reading a pattern through more intelligently before I begin – steep learning curves can appear at any point in life!

Back yoke detail (Debbie Bliss Fair Isle Cardigan)

Having a pale blue and a pink cardigan already, one in navy seemed a good idea. I have, however, found it more difficult to photograph navy, in spite of  rushing round multitudes of locations in not one but two houses.  The close ups are an ok  approximation to the real thing but I struggled unsuccessfully to get a good photo of the whole garment.  As the pattern only goes up to 1 year and the 8 month old is very long in the body I may never get to knit it up with a different yoke pattern. Wish I knew how to adapt patterns for bigger sizes as I could go on knitting this until the child’s thoroughly sick of the sight of it!

Below are the first two cardigans I made. The blue one has a yoke different from that in the pattern.

Fair isle cardigan (pattern Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, 2002)

Fair isle cardigan (pattern Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, 2002)

Shoe bag with hand embroidered butterflies (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Shoe bag with appliqué felt

Two shoe bags for a brother and sister. Loved doing the butterflies which started as appliquéd felt and ended up being completely covered in embroidery. Simple appliquéd felt tools were appropriate for the boy recipient. I know from my grandson’s shoe bag the felt washes well on an ordinary coloured wash, so the bags should stand up to a certain amount of wear.

Shoe bag with hand embroidered butterflies (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Shoe bag with appliqué

We’ve had an indulgent time – for me that meant day time sewing by the bedroom window while the light was good, followed by evenings of knitting in front the the television or the various catch up channels on the laptop. This is regularly followed by my reading for a couple of hours as one day changes into the next. At the moment I’m feasting on my happy charity shop find of a book I’ve been after for ages, the novel,  This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson. British readers may remember Thompson as the first producer of Have I got News for You, from its beginning in 2000 until just before his early death from lung cancer in 2005. His first, and only, novel is about Robert Fitzroy and Charles Darwin on board The Beagle and at 600 plus  pages is a brick of a book. The first hundred pages describe the Beagle’s first eventful voyage under Fitzroy’s captaincy, brilliant and stern seamanship, early practical weather forecasting, ‘adoption’ of 4 native Tierra del Fuegans and the first hints of the mental illness that was to, much later, claim his life. Darwin only sailed with Fitzroy on his second voyage and, accordingly makes his first appearance in the novel only around page 100 which is where I am at the moment. Much more to enjoy!