Friday, August 17, 2007

Vogue Knitting International

I received my copy of the Fall, 25th Anniversary issue of Vogue Knitting International this morning and was delighted to see that there is a little article about my running and knitting exploits at the London Marathon on page 28. This all came about because the lovely Leslie Barber from VK heard about what I'd done and went to the trouble of tracking me down. She even gave details of my blog. Knitters are simply the best!

In case anyone new comes to read about my exploits, you can read all about it in the post from April entitled "London Marathon Day" to save you ploughing through all the other posts. I tried to do a link but couldn't get it to work.

It made me think about what I was knitting 25 years ago. I don't usually save things, tending to unpick them and rework them into something else when I've tried of them or passing them to a charity shop. Then I remembered seeing a really interesting sweater that I knit back in the 1980s when I was having a rummage around recently. I'll try to find it and take a photo as it's fascinating to see how fashions change.

So here it is. It was a kit from Georges Picaud that I purchased in a knitting shop (Johnsons, I think it was called) in Blackpool, Lancashire whilst I was working there in the mid 1980s. It was the the most wonderful yarn store, vast by today's standards, with a massive selection of unusual patterns and yarns. The kit was really expensive at the time as the yarns used were unusual. The main body is knit in something called 'feu d'artifice' which is a metallic sort of yarn (which is a bit scratchy, truth be told!) and there is some angora and a silky tape yarn too. It was really interesting to knit as it was done in strip sections then pieced together. The bits around the gold lace panels have scalloped edges. I used to love wearing it with black trousers for evening.

When I made it I was several stones lighter than now so I will not have my photo taken wearing it! Instead, here's a photo of a lovely slim model doing it justice.

3 comments:

Team Knit said...

Congradulations on your extreme efforts! You're knitfamous!:)

-j&j

Annie said...

It's so inspiring to read your blog and I really admire what you're doing. I work with elderly people and the devastation wrought by dementia is just unbelievable - I know I find it upsetting on relatively brief contact so how families deal with it 24/7 I just don't know.
Love your willow-weaving - what a fab birthday present.

Joanna said...

what an interesting thought, 25 years ago I was 12 and knitted my first jumper on one huge needle and one thin needle, mum must have done all the shaping and casting on for me!