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Knitting Stories
Something Fishy’s Going On..
It feels like far too long since we’ve had a pattern round-up, but pinning down where to pitch things knitting-wise during these last days of August has turned out to be harder than expected. Take a look at the forecast for the next weeks – the end of summer, this is definitely not! The big heat of a few weeks ago has gone but we are now stubbornly stuck in what used to pass for normal summer. The trees are weirdly shedding their leaves but in other respects, autumn seems reluctant to even give us a wave in the distance. So I’m abandoning my normal seasonal compass, and have decided to go fishing instead. Now safely home from the stormy seas of Ravelry, I’m anchored back down in Clapton, and have a fine catch of fishy knits to share with you…
There’s a magnificence to ES’s salmon – it’s glorious hulk fully encircling the cowl. The pattern details say the knitting is both seamless and stranded so it’s a super opportunity to put newly acquired ladderback jaquard skills into practice as your floats will be long. On the yarn front it’s a DK, but as I can’t see past the blues, I would lean towards WD Mota or DN Gilliatt.
I know you can’t wear it and it’s not going to keep you warm, but wouldn’t you just love to have the company of one of these beauties? Plus, NB’s brilliant design includes a range of different traditional guernsey textures to sample and I can’t think of a better way to dip your toe or fishtail in the Guersey-knitting sea than to experiment on a little herring first. Left-overs are ideal here – just scale your needle size appropriately. But if your scraps don’t look herring-ish enough, then all your need is 50g of Guernsey 5ply and you’re away.
I had a bit of a Salmon-Halibut conflict here as CH does them both so well. In the end I’ve hooked her Salmon sweater for the simple reason that it’s a bit less well known than the Halibut. But honestly, if it’s a fishy sweater that you’re after, either would be a great catch. There are also matching cowls and hats if you’re not up for a whole sweater but want to get on board with the fish. Do be mindful of the shape and sizing here. CH’s characteristic low slung underarms are even more so with these designs. And the pattern repeat places some limits on how nuanced she can be with grading different sizes. The answer, I suspect, is to just lean into the sloppy-joe oversized look.
It’s proper worsted in terms of gauge so I’d head straight for WD Mota or DN Gilliatt or if you like the neutral colourways, then Laxtons Aran would be perfect.
There’s something quietly mesmerising about this little shoal of goldfish swimming around a sock top – and worth winding through to cut out the orange-yellow gradient section of a Schoppel Zauberball to get the colours right. You won’t need much, so any orangey-gold left overs from other socks would also work well.
The Herring Hat by Burra Knits
This one had me with those fish tails in the crown but look closely and there are more delightful details to tickle the curious knitter. BK has used beautiful shaped intarsia around the fish heads to create a rare cololourwork patterning, making the hat as adventurous to knit as to wear. I’m seeing it in a proper woolly DK like Laxtons Sheepsoft of RP’s Brusca, but with all so many other DKs on sale at the moment, you could also grab a bargain for this one.
Catch of the Day Scarf by Lili Fae
When is a kipper tie not a kipper tie? When it’s a scarf of course! Super narrow with a little bit of texture and easy peasy stripes, means you’ll get to the head in good time for when the cold finally hits. The pattern says sport-weight, but as it’s a scarf, I think we’ve got a bit of wiggle room gauge-wise. My first choice would be the Kinross – for its lamby softness and a colour pallette that’s got stripes written all over it. But it would probably mean nudging down the stitch size and working on 3.25s instead of 3.5s. Other options that would work beautifully without bumping the pattern gauge around, would be Donegal Darnie, DN Ulysse or WD Cautiva.
In case we needed reminding that fish are not like sheep, Big Fritz allows them to go in different directions..
Mostly, I just feel like there’s a delightful cheekiness in that single wrong-way-round fish. It’s charted colourwork so you’ll need to concentrate but it has the look of being manageable and especially in the bubbles, somewhat tolerant of little deviations. Yarn-wise, it’s a 4ply. I’d go woolly with something like Laxtons 4ply, JA Harvest Hues or Donegal Darnie.
I love tinned sardines and I cannot lie. I love the tins and I love the sardines inside them. Would I wear a sweater with a tin of sardines on it? Honestly, I’m not sure I would, but if ever there was one to make me change my mind about that it would be KN’s Omega 3. The sweater part here is just an ordinary DK drop shoulder, so if that doesn’t float your boat, there’s no reason not to row over to any of your preferred sweater patterns – even ones you’ve made already!, and add the sardines on top.