Knitting: Bow Jumper

Back in January last year, I was whiling away some time in Smiths while I was waiting to catch a train when a little photo on the cover of Knitting magazine (issue 124) caught my eye. It was of a jumper with a colourwork bow on the front, which I thought was just the right level to satisfy my general love of bows, without being twee enough to take it to the point where my sister and mum tell me to step away and leave it alone (which is not an infrequent occurrence!). I bought the magazine, added the jumper to my never-ending list of future knitting projects and little over a year later, here it is!

The jumper is knit flat, and other than the rib at the waistband, wrists and neck, is just all stocking stitch with the bow knitted using intarsia, so it was relatively speedy to knit and was good for evenings in front of the TV when you need something that doesn't require too much concentration. I started it towards the end of October after I finished my polka dot cushion cover, got the back finished fairly quickly, then put the whole thing on hold while I was working on Christmas presents and finished the rest in the first six weeks of this year. That's fairly speedy for me, because I'm not the world's best or quickest knitter. 

However, it does mean that once again I've managed to finish a knitting project just as the season when I want to wear it is coming to an end! Never mind, I've enjoyed wearing it already, spring is only just starting to show its face so I'm sure I'll be wearing it again before the weather warms up more, and it'll be ready and waiting for me next winter. Maybe this year I should try to start winter knits in the middle of summer - but that never seems that appealing! I'm not the only one who suffers from this problem am I?

The jumper is designed to be worn with a bit of positive ease, but I thought I'd prefer a slightly more fitted style so, as my measurements fell between two sizes, I decided to go with the smaller size and I think that worked out fairly well. There's a bit of excess around the waist section, but it's similar to the fit on the model in the magazine so I think that's just the way it's meant to be. At least that's what I'm telling myself, because I'm not confident enough with knitting to start messing around with the shaping of patterns too much. 

I enjoyed knitting the bow section - I really love watching how the pattern gradually emerges as you knit each row. That's not weird is it?! The edges of the different coloured sections aren't entirely faultless, and I did end up with a couple of small holes at the start of the blue sections, but some strategic weaving in of ends soon sorted that out. 

The yarn I used is Hayfield Aran with Wool in shades softmint (741) and navy (995). I saw the navy in a local knitting shop and it felt nice and soft, but was the only shade they had in stock so I switched to an online search. I thought the softmint would be a good match, and I am really happy with how the colours look together, but the softmint doesn't feel quite as nice as the navy. It's not a massive difference, and it's still fine to wear, but it is definitely noticeable. It's interesting how different dyes can have that effect on the same wool. 

Overall, I'm happy with the end result. I do wish I'd managed to get it finished a bit sooner to give me more time to enjoy it this winter, but better late than never! I've already started my next knitting adventure - my first foray into the world of handmade socks. Any tips for me?

Upcycling a jumper into a skirt

For my birthday just before Christmas, a group of lovely friends, who know me and my crafty ways very well, clubbed together and got me a subscription to Mollie Makes. The first issue that they got me (issue 48) included lots of pretty projects, but one thing that really caught my eye was an upcycling project from Rethink Remake Relove to refashion a jumper into a skirt. I was feeling in need of a simple project and the skirt looked great so I had to give it a go!

All you needed was basic sewing supplies, 5cm elastic (which I had left over from making belts) and an old jumper. Now, I quite like all of my jumpers and I wasn't sure that many women's jumpers would give me a skirt with enough room for my hips, so I hit the men's jumper sections of the local charity shops and, after a bit of hunting, found this...

I liked the colour, I thought the cables would provide an interesting detail, it definitely gave me enough material to work with, it looked like it had never been worn and it was only £3.50 - decision made!

The project was really simple - you just remove the jumper arms, cut out your skirt shape from the front and back body pieces, sew the side seams and attach the elastic at the waist, and the ribbing round the bottom of the jumper means there's no need for hemming. I did deviate slightly from the instructions in the magazine by folding the top of the skirt over to make a casing for the elastic instead of just stitching it on. Even with the extra time it took to thread the elastic through the casing it was still a really quick project - the longest part of the process was probably the time I took dithering about precisely how long I wanted the skirt! If you want more details and don't have a copy of Mollie Makes, there are plenty of tutorials online for similar skirts (such as this one from My Poppet and this one from Pearls & Scissors).

I really love how the skirt turned out. Having a more fitted skirt is a bit of a departure from my usual style, but it's good to be different every now and then, and this has to be one of the comfiest skirts ever! It's the kind of thing that feels like you're wearing pyjamas it's that comfy. Plus as it's made from a jumper it's obviously nice and warm for the colder weather.

I'm not sure whether it'll be my most hard-wearing creation (unlike my Malu jacket which I'm wearing here - I've worn it so much this winter!) because I think the ribbing around the hem might stretch out a bit with the amount of walking I tend to do, but hopefully I'll be proved wrong. Even if it doesn't last that long, I'd still definitely use this idea again and I'll be keeping an eye out for more jumpers as possible skirt candidates.

Are you inspired to cut up your old jumpers now? Personally, I'm on the look out for creative uses for the arms that I cut off the jumper - any suggestions?