Vogue Knitting's Enchanted Forest Cardigan

Twenty years ago Vogue Knitting published a DKNY pattern for an oversized, tree motif cardigan with set-in sleeves and ribbed polo collar in their tenth anniversary Fall 1992 issue. When, in their Spring/Summer 1993 issue, VK ran a picture of four of their editors (including the editor-in-chief) proudly standing arm-in-arm in the Enchanted Forest cardigans they'd made themselves, it was only the first indication of just how popular this sweater pattern would prove to be.

Since 1992 Vogue Knitting has reprinted the pattern in three of their books (among them the 2002 edition of Vogue Knitting's The Ultimate Knitting Book) and in the Fall 2007 issue of their magazine, which was also their 25th anniversary issue. As of this writing, there are 81 Ravelry members who have knitted this sweater or who are knitting it. It's also in 113 queues and has its own discussion group on the forums. That's a lot of interest in a twenty-year-old pattern, especially when it is a relatively complex, time-intensive project.

What is it about this sweater that it should have such enduring popularity? For starters, it's eminently practical. It's a simple, classic pattern, yet with enough detail and polish that it's distinctive, and it looks ever so warm and comfortable, as though it were just waiting to be slipped on. It could be worn almost anywhere and for any purpose: running errands, at work, hiking in the woods, or raking leaves in the yard. Notice that my list of where to where this sweater doesn't include "while sitting at the computer and browsing eBay" or "while watching Game of Thrones or The Good Wife". This sweater's design has such an organic feel and such flow to it that it almost promises you that you're going to go outside and reconnect with nature every time you put it on. Almost all the people who make it choose neutral, natural colours: cream, taupe, brown, rust, olive, or soft gray-blues and gray-greens. And it doesn't hurt that the pattern has a beautiful and evocative name. I hope it's not just personal bias that makes me say so — my fourth grade reader contained a story called "The Enchanted Forest", and almost all I can remember of it besides the title was that it was magical and I loved it.

I haven't made an Enchanted Forest sweater for myself, because it always has seemed like a mature woman's sweater to me, and I am not *quite* there yet. But I know I will knit it in the next five years or so, and that once I have it, I'll keep wearing it until wear it out. I've mentally planned it already. I'll make it much less oversized. Twenty-six inches long is a dress on me. Fifty-eight inches through the chest is enormous, and especially when combined with those dropped shoulders, would make me look and feel like a linebacker. I may also make the collar notched rather than polo. But I will use a soft, neutral colour, I will not change the forest motif, and the entire time I'm working on it I'll be imagining myself in it, always in an outdoor setting, and always with crisp golden fall leaves somewhere in the picture.

Not Your Grandma's Knitting Tattoo. Unless it is.

I keep running across a lot of knitting tattoos on the net, and even though I'm not considering getting any ink done (I've never even been able to tolerate a stick-on tattoo for more than a day), and would of course be getting an orange swan if I did, they are interesting and fun to look at. Here are some that I've come across.

The most common kind of knitting tattoo is the ball of yarn with a pair of knitting needles thrust through it, and there are loads of variations on this theme, like the one above.

Here we have the needles, the ball of yarn, and a cat. Cats seem to be a common addition to knitting tattoos. I suppose it's easier to add a cat than it is to add all the members of your book club.

The use of the "Keep Calm" meme is so going to date this person.

For a minute there, I thought "alpaca" was missing its "l". You definitely do not want your tramp stamp to have a spelling mistake in it. It gives off the wrong impression.

This one is a little more knitterrrr girrrrrrlllllll.

This is really quite the piece of artistry, but the idea of having an unfinished project permanently tattooed on my body makes me feel twitchy and OCD.

This one is actually Tunisian crochet (note the hooks on the ends of the needles), but could easily be altered to be knitting. It's another unfinished project, but one gets the sense that progress is being made.

Here's a knitted tattoo that's all finished.

The hands at work here have a few too many knuckles, but otherwise I love this one, which is a beautiful expression of the love of knitting and the love that goes into one's knitting.

I'd be afraid this one would cause my cat to attack my foot.

I don't think I can possibly can get knitting-themed ink when this woman has done it so definitively.

If you want to see some more knitting tattoos, there are some on Tumblr. Or you could just image google "knitting tattoos".

Elegy to a Piano Scarf

Lo these many years ago, or in the fall of 1993 and of my second year in college to be exact, I had a boyfriend who was a composer and a piano player. He asked me to knit him a piano scarf. I thought piano scarves were terribly tacky, but I dutifully drafted a pattern and began knitting the scarf with the idea that it would be his Christmas present. Then we broke up in early December.

I finished the piano scarf shortly after the break up (it looked almost exactly like the one depicted above, though the one I made didn't have the colour reversal on the second side), and then had to decide what to do with the scarf. I sure as hell didn't want to wear it. Normally I'd have ravelled it out, but as a poor student, I'd used some cheap acrylic sport weight, and it just didn't seem worthwhile to spend a couple of hours ripping the whole thing out in order to salvage that yarn. I knew none of my friends would want it, even if I could bring myself to give it to them. I contemplated just giving it to my ex, but he hadn't behaved that well and we weren't really on speaking terms. I finally offered it to my sister, who plays the piano. She took it, but unenthusiastically. I think the scarf wound up in the dress-up box my parents kept at their place for when my nieces and nephews came over. It may still be there, though it would be much the worse for the wear by now.

After the piano scarf fiasco I resolved that I would never again make anything that I really didn't like myself, no matter how much someone else wanted it, that instead I would aim to make items that both the recipient and I would be happy with. I've not only kept that resolution, but enhanced it. I don't think I ever again knitted something with such poor quality yarn, and over the years the patterns I choose have gotten more complex and better designed. Somewhere along the way I arrived at the conviction that I'd rather make a handful of things that I can really be proud to wear or give away than dozens of items that are nothing special.

In late 2006, many years after that piano scarf project ended on such a sour note, my ex and I reconnected via the internet, and after a profuse apology from him, we soon got to be on the friendly terms we still enjoy six years later. In the spring of 2007, when I was shopping for a used piano on Craig's List, I asked him if he'd help me with my purchase by vetting pianos for me. He did, even spending one of his Saturday afternoons to go to South Etobicoke with me and assess the piano I eventually bought.

I promised him something knitted for a thank you present. My ex again asked for a piano scarf. I started laughing and told him about the piano scarf he'd never gotten or even known about, and he was disappointed, saying he wished I'd given it to him. However, he was very pleased with the scarf I did make: a reversible cabled design in a silvery gray yarn that went very well with the black wool pea coat he wore in winter, and that set off his prematurely silver hair.

Over the years there have been a few other occasions when I tried to knit something for a man for Christmas and the project had some farcical outcome. In the fall of 2004, I began to knit a intricately cabled scarf out of a beautiful gray blue wool for a man I was dating, but he called me one night in early December to tell me he didn't want to see me anymore. As soon as we hung up, I sat down on my kitchen bench and grimly ripped out what I'd got done of the scarf, and not long after used the yarn for something else.

In the fall of 2008 I knitted a pair of cashmere socks for a man I cared a lot about (we weren't going out, but had grown close and had what I believe are euphemistically called some "moments"), and sent them to him, along with some other things, as a surprise gift for Christmas. He wouldn't even open the box, and offered to return it, saying he felt it had "strings attached". He did later apologize for his reaction, and added belated, cursory thanks for the gift, but never told me whether he'd opened the box or what he thought of the contents. For all I know he is still staring at it in paranoid suspicion, or just threw it in the dumpster.

Knitters joke about the "sweater curse", which dictates that if a knitter begins a sweater for a partner, the relationship is doomed to end before the sweater is finished. This curse is not supposed to apply to scarves or socks, but then I seem to be especially luckless. Heaven knows what would have happened if I'd ever gotten so far ahead of myself as to knit a sweater for a man I was dating. However, at least I can say that over the years the lesson of the piano scarf has proved a good one, with far-reaching applications.

Knitting for others, like being in a relationship, requires an awareness of and a sensitivity to what the other person wants, but it's never a good idea to lose sight of what you want, to just do what the other person wants, or to put in too much effort and give too much of yourself to someone who won't even give you respect in return. Keeping these principles in mind won't guarantee that all my projects will turn out well or that I'll never get hurt, but it does mean I can count on feeling some pride and satisfaction in what I've done, and that I'll be able to salvage something from the situation. While I might very well get left alone and with an unfinished project anyway, at least I'll know I've done right and can put the experience and yarn gained to good use. And I won't be left holding a piano scarf.

Show Those Neighbourhood Crocheters Who's Boss

If you really live to knit and want the whole neighbourhood to know it, you might make this wreath to hang on your front door this Christmas. The instructions are on the Styrofoam site, which makes sense as this product requires forty-one Styrofoam balls of assorted sizes.

The wreath is kind of cute in its way, though rather too kitschy to work in any but a very country and craftsy-style décor. I think I'd only make this wreath if I owned a yarn store and was preparing a Christmas display for the shop's front window. Since I have neither a country-style décor nor a yarn store, I'll be sticking with my existing wreath, which is a traditional affair of artificial pine needles, pine cones, cranberries, raspberries, winter berries, and tiny white lights. I fear the yarn ball wreath might make me look as though I'd gone a little knitting mad, and perhaps even was no longer someone who could be trusted to wield two pointed pieces of metal, lest I start sticking them.... just anywhere.

The More We Knit, the More Things Stay the Same

If you love vintage knitting patterns like I do, you might want to check out Iva Rose Vintage Reproductions. This online store, which ships internationally, carries a vast selection of knitting, crochet and other needlework pattern and instruction books reproduced from original patterns dating from 1850 to 1950. The reproductions appear to be quite high quality as the store owner goes to a lot of effort to restore the appearance of the very old and often very worn and fragile original patterns. And the prices aren't unreasonable. The highest-priced book I've seen so far was under $25, and there are many booklets selling for under $10.

Even if you don't knit, or even if you do but have sworn on your own grave to NOT buy any more knitting patterns because you have so many already and your project list is already insanely long, if you are at all interested in what people wore in the first half of the twentieth century, this site is a must-see because of the array of beautiful photos for each of the many booklet offered for sale. I've barely begun to explore the listed titles, and so far I've seen patterns for Victorian outfits for 18" dolls, Edwardian capes, flapper-style beaded bags, thirties sports wear, and forties swing coats that are all perfectly usable by today's standards. And I've discovered one book containing a pattern for the famous fair isle worn by King Edward VIII.

Anne of Blue Cardigans

I've recently finished re-reading the first volume of L.M. Montgomery's journals, and as a long time L.M. Montgomery buff, I found myself wondering if there were any L.M. Montgomery knitting projects out there. After all, there's an Anne of Green Gables Cookbook, compiled by her granddaughter, and Aunt Maud's Recipe Book, which is a selection of Montgomery's own recipes. Montgomery was by all reports an excellent cook, and she was also a very able needlewoman. Montgomery, a minister's wife, once remarked in her journals that the one good thing about having to make endless tiresome calls on her husband's parishioners (many of whom she found very boring) was that she could do fancy work during these visits, because otherwise as a famous author with sons to raise and a household to run, she would not have felt she could take the time to do the needlework she loved. I've read that there are examples of her needlework in various archival collections.

But I'm sorry to report my internet research turned up no possible L.M. Montgomery knitting patterns. If you're a die hard Montgomery fan and knitter, the best I can offer you is some screen caps of sweaters in the eighties-era CBC Anne of Green Gables mini-series, and there are no patterns for them online or in a published volume. However, I will say there were quite a lot of hand-knitted items worn in Anne of Green Gables, many of which are quite wearable by contemporary standards, and that it would certainly be possible for a good knitter to write a patterns for them based on the pictures below, and to turn out sweaters that are very close replicas. Otherwise... well, searching out similar patterns is possible if you've got the time and patience, especially with Ravelry's excellent pattern search functionality. If you know of any patterns very similar to any of the items shown here, please feel free to share links or publication information in the comments.

Beautiful, classic sweater pattern. This is probably my favourite of all the knitted items in the miniseries. I wish I'd written this post before I chose the pattern for the cardigan I am currently knitting.

Another nice pattern. I wish we could see more of it.

Another pretty cardigan on Anne in a similar colour to the first.

This mini-vest would perhaps not be so flattering on some women (you'd need to be small-breasted to wear it), but it's attractive enough in its way.

This one is also wearable. I'd make it in any colour other than that dreary tan and skip the tie underneath, since ties for woman fortunately haven't been in since Dress for Success was a best seller. A lacy camisole would make for a more attractive overall look.

Another classic cardigan on Marilla.

This one, on Katherine Brooke, is actually quite contemporary-looking - it's a lot like the drape-front cardigans that are in now.

Cute little vest on "Emmeline". You might not want to make this one if you're a Montgomery purist though, because the "Emmeline" character was an invention of the screenwriter's, not of Montgomery's.

Too bad we can't see the front of Matthew's sweater, but it's probably a cardigan with the same pattern on the front. Making his tuque is another possibility.

Classic sweater vest on Matthew. The man in your life might like this one even if he refuses to so much as listen to you talk about Anne of Green Gables.

Mmmmm. So handsome. And the vest on Gilbert is nice too.

Classic gray vest on Gilbert.

Of course we all hate the petty, tyrannical and general disaster of a schoolteacher, Mr. Phillips (stop flirting with your sixteen-year-old pupil Prissy Andrews, you perv!), but this is a nice, classic man's sweater. I'd knit it in a sharper colour. Almost all the shades of yarns used in these sweaters seem so drab, with the exception of the soft, pretty blues on Anne. Yarn dyes have probably come a long way since the 1880's, when Anne was a young girl.

Did you wander in off the set of the Kids in the Hall and wind up in a classic sweater vest before you knew it, Bruce McCulloch? No, wait, I forgot, this was before the Kids in the Hall got together and Bruce become a household name in Canada. It's still pretty funny to see him here as Fred Wright, Diana's fiancé. Although I suppose it's no odder for me than the fact that an ex-boyfriend of mine is an extra in this movie. To get back to the knitting analysis, it would be dead easy to make an exact copy of this vest.

If nothing else, you can always make an Anne doll, adapting a knitted doll pattern to include the red braids and old-style dress and pinafore.

Tangled Fall 2012: A Review

Tangled is another knitting magazine I have discovered thanks to my research for this blog. It's a webzine and its patterns are available via download for $6(USD) per pattern. Let's take a look at their most recent batch of patterns, shall we?

The designer of these socks comments that she wanted to use "striped yarn to the max". And did she. These are a lot more fun and more eye-catching than the usual horizontal striped sock.

This is... okay. I very much like the concept but something about it isn't quite working. Maybe it's that a solid colour yarn, or at least one without a horizontal variegation, would have shown the buttoned princess lines to better advantage. Maybe it's the styling, that it looks more like it should be worn over a blouse than by itself — it's a bit heavy-looking to be worn with a summery outfit. And it doesn't help that it's definitely too small to fit this model — see how it's gaping between each button?

I got all excited about this waistcoat when I saw the beautiful back view, and then an "air hissing out of all four tires" feeling when I saw the front. I'm not a fan of the draped-front style in cardigans, let alone the side-wing effect. It's not terrible, but it just looks impractical and kind of sloppy to me.

I haven't seen too many cowl patterns yet, because it's still a relatively new concept, but this one is definitely my favourite so far. I love the ruched pattern and I love the idea of making it long enough that it can be worn either as a scarf or as a cowl. This item is both beautiful and practical.

I really don't like this "military jacket". The neckline looks awkward (one side is pulling up higher than the other). The mismatched buttons are too kitschy and the shade of brown too understated for an item that's aspiring to a military-style smartness. And the jacket just doesn't look flattering on the whole, although that may be because it's a size too small, which is enough to sabotage any design. I would have made this jacket single-breasted (the double breasted look isn't the most flattering on women at the best of times and doesn't look good at all when worn open), and in a sharper colour, and reworked that collar so that it sits right.

I'm including this cardigan pattern even though it's crochet because it's too pretty to be left out, and anyway there only were six patterns in this issue. It really is lovely, though again... it's a half-size too small on this model. And I'd make the sleeves full-length. Elbow or three-quarter sleeve lengths can look good on some women, but they tend to create a horizontal visual line in places where such a line may not be desirable: a woman's midsection or bustline. Before you decide what length to make the sleeves for your next sweater, think about where the line will fall and whether you want it there.