I try to design beautiful knitted articles but they may not be considered interesting. All of my designs are meaningful to me but of course they will not be meaningful for others. All of my patterns also have a story embedded within them often from inspiration of place, people or colour But my stories are also not that meaningful to other others.
And big yarn companies that make patterns like Rowan or Sirdar, don’t genuinely take inspiration from real places or people that they’ve met. They often start with a mood board which has no integrity within the finished article so how do independent designers like me make a living from our creative practice?
Well, the answer is we don’t. I work at the university 2 1/2 days a week to pay my bills then I do my house jobs, care for the cat and manage the car and daily tasks and try to fit my creative practice into the time left for me, which can be hard when so many other other things take up my time
Independent designers do their own marketing, promotion and social media – responding to comments on Instagram and writing for the website to promote my creative practice. But then if I do sell a pattern for say, £4 Ravelry take 10% and then so do Paypal so I get about £3.20 for probably three months work to design Knit, test knit it, write the pattern – And that’s if I sell any at all.
I don’t have funding like a lot of creative practitioners, nor financial support so I want this post to say a big thank to you if you have ever bought a pattern or been on one of my workshops with me which showsme that the hard work that I’ve put in over the years has not been wasted and now, when I do finally get time to sit down and knit – my cat sits on top of me.
Here is a spotlight on my favourite pattern that I have ever designed at the moment and it’s the kaleidoscope jumper with add-on sleeve pattern and matching hat. I love wearing this jumper and always receive so many beautiful little comments about it so from one independent designer to whoever it is reading this Thank you for supporting us
Finding Colour Confidence: Trusting Your Eye and Your Yarn
I often have comments on my posts about how people like the colours that I choose. They look at all those colours — beautiful, bright, blended or contrasting and say that they don’t know how to choose their own colour combinations successfully.
I used to feel the same way. Choosing colour felt like a test I hadn’t studied for — as if there were secret rules I hadn’t learned.
My colour journey started after I went to Shetland to stay on Fair Isle with Mati, then at Brindister just before Christmas of 2019. At Brindister, I found Sea Urchin shells scattered on the hill beside the voe. I began to name the place Sea Urchin Hill and really took notice of the colours and form of the dried Sea Urchin Shells after the sea gulls had eaten the urchin.
In Jamieson’s of Shetland, in Lerwick, I bought colours that I felt worked for me for a new hat project. By then, I had started sampling colours but still didn’t know what I was doing. When I got home from Shetland, I started the Sea Urchin hat pattern with light background and a darker coloured Shetland Tree and Star Motif. And that is where the story of my colour blending started I laid two yarns together on a whim: a stormy and washy blue skies and a flash of dark reds and purples from one of the shells that I had seen.
. It shouldn’t have worked — but it did. It looked alive. And that was the start of learning to trust my inspiration and eye and I began to blend the colours.
What Changed
It wasn’t that I suddenly “understood” colour blending – my swatch book will show you that but it was that I stopped trying to get it right and started trying to get it interesting and understand the changes in tone and colour. I began to notice colour in the world around me — the copper of old bricks, the green of moss after rain, the pink glow of dusk. Nature never worries about matching. It just works.
That’s when I realised: Colour confidence isn’t about knowing rules — it’s about paying attention, and being willing to play.
Small Steps to Build Colour Confidence
1. Start with Inspiration, Not Theory Forget the colour wheel for a moment. Go for a walk, look through a photo album, open your wardrobe. What colours feel like you? That’s where your palette begins.
2. Work With What You Have Lay out your stash and make little “yarn bouquets.” Mix fibres, tones, and textures — even scraps. Sometimes the most magical combination comes from leftovers you’d never thought to pair.
A Palette from the Everyday
This week I took a walk through Sheffield woods — everything was damp and glowing. There was soft lichen green, deep bark brown, a sudden flare of orange leaves against a grey sky. When I came home, I pulled those colours from my stash and swatched a few rows. Instant calm. Sometimes, the best palette comes from the ground beneath your feet.
Confidence Comes with Play
Colour confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something you knit into being — loop by loop, swatch by swatch. Every “wrong” colour combination teaches your eye what it loves. And every small experiment builds courage for the next.
looking at all the colours to really see them
Ready to find your own colour confidence? If you want to learn more now, and would like to join my exclusive small Colour classes of 6 people, then, I do teach colour blending workshops online and the information is here.
You’ll get the Sea Urchin Pattern free to work with after your workshop. Many people have joined me in the Colour Blending sessions from my first workshop in January 2021 – held in the window sill of my window in Shetland looking out to sea.
Now, I still teach but not often, so if you would like to grab a space, there is only one left for Friday 9th Jan and 4 left for Saturday 17th Jan. So please get in touch using the form on the workshops page.
If you have knitted the Sea Urchin hat pattern, please tag me on instagram because I do share other people’s knitting using my patterns.
Above is an image of the alternate sleeve to the one that is included in the Kaleidoscope Jumper pattern. It is a Bolt on pattern called – Tree and Star Sleeve. Below are reasons why I published the pattern with Tree sleeves charts only and why I am producing a 2nd bolt on sleeve pattern.
Why is the Kaleidoscope Jumper pattern one size only?
It iis one size because the motifs of 44 stitches, dictate wherre the pattern lies – to increase the size, I would have to add one more motif, change where the neck lies in the pattern and calculate additional decreases at the shoulders and it would go on and on. I t would take e 6 months to make different sizes. I am just one person without tech support. It is actually easy to increase the size by knitting the jumper in UK 3:5mm needles rather than UK 3mm
Why did I knit the sleeve in the round from cuff up then graft it into the armpit? Here’s the reason that I did the sleeves this way. Initially, I picked up the stitches around the arm hole to knit the sleeve in the round from the shoulder down to the cuff but I realised that if I knitted the tree motif, from the trunk first, as usual, the trees would be upside down, ending with the tree top at the cuff. So, I turned the motif around and swatched the tree from its top down the trunk base so that I could knit the Tree only sleeve from the armhole. But, knitting this way resulted in the stitches of the tree motif being visibly upside down starting from the shoulder, and I didn’t like that either. You can see the swatch on the right and how the stitches are visibly the wrong way. It is possible to do it this way but it will always look somehow upside down. But, if you want, you can knit the Tree sleeves from the armpit down to the cuff, with upside down motif stitches, it is your choice.
note upside down stitches
So, I knitted the sleeve in the round from the cuff up then joined it at the arm hole by grafting it expertly into the armpit hole. I needed to explain why I knitted the sleeve this way as it might seem a little weird but the result is perfect trees knitted from the cuff up and all the stitches are perfectly the right way. I thought that doing the sleeve this way is worth this extra consideration in the name of neatness and accuracy
Why does this jumper pattern only have Tree sleeve charts?
I did a poll on Instagram and my website to ask what people which sleeve they would like for the jumper pattern. Hundreds of people answered. The options were: – 1: – just Tree sleeves or 2: – just Tree and Star sleeves which are the same as the body, or 3: – Both sleeve charts. Most people said that they would knit 1: – Tree sleeves only, but some wanted both charts, just in case. When asked if those people would consider paying more for the option of both sleeves to be included in the one pattern, even though there was more work charting a 2nd sleeve, knitting it, and writing a full pattern, they mostly said no. So, I have happily knitted Tree sleeves in my Kaleidoscope jumper because most people requested this and the Trees look a wonderful companion pattern and compliment the body.
What about the Tree and Star sleeve? Where can I get it?
My test knitter has knitted the Tree and Star sleeves, which are the same motif as the body. The Tree and Star sleeve chart pattern along with the Sanquhar alphabet pattern to enable you to add your initials and year of knitting to personalise your work, will be released separately to the jumper pattern, as an add-on so that the knitter can make their own choice of sleeve. The name of the bolt-on pattern will be, Tree and Star Sleeve Pattern. The reason that this is a separate bolt-on pattern, is because of the extra work to design, create and knit it as well as write the intricate charts and pattern notes. Plus it gives the knitter the choice to just pay for the original pattern or pay extra if they want and extra design.
So, if you would like to buy the Kaleidoscope pattern, it is here
I am also knitting a swatch of how to add your initials and the year when the jumper was made, into the sleeve, just above the cuff, in the Bolt on Tree and Star Sleeve pattern that will be out this week.
Thank you to everyone who has bought the Kaleidoscope Jumper Pattern it is here, if you want to go check it out.
Let me know what you think about the options for a 2nd sleeve pattern.
If you buy my kaleidoscope pattern when I release it this weekend, please do not forward or share it with your friends or family or knitting group.
This pattern has taken 4 months of my life. I started at the beginning of May and have spent between 4-6 hours every day, either charting, designing, knitting, promoting, writing blogs, sorting yarn for test knitter, liaising a lot with test knitter, rewriting, printing, reading the pattern, updating charts,altering pattern and constant knitting and figuring out ways round things. When the pattern is released, ravelry charge about 10% and then PayPal always take 10% from the payment. So, my life has been poured into this pattern.
It and I have a value. PLEASE do not share patterns. Everyone is happy to buy lots and lots of wool, so please think of the actual design. End of Frank and honest discussion. Let me know what you think in the comments
I am releasing the pattern at the weekend, however, there may be a soft release earlier and I think if you are signed up to my Ravelry, as a ‘friend’ then you hear the moment the pattern comes out.
I would love to hear your comments, and follow me on instagram for lots of regular updates
After the release of the kaleidoscop jumper pattern, there will be the release of an add-on alternative sleeve pattern for the jumper. I am excited about that. Here is ravelry
here is information on why there will be an add-on pattern
Why does the Kaleidoscope jumper pattern only have Tree sleeve charts? I did a poll on Instagram and my website to ask what people which sleeve they would like for the jumper pattern. Hundreds of people answered. The options were: – 1: – just Tree sleeves or 2: – just Tree and Star sleeves which are the same as the body, or 3: – Both sleeve charts.
Most people said that they would knit 1: – Tree sleeves only, but some wanted both charts, just in case. When asked if those people would consider paying more for the option of both sleeves to be included in the one pattern, even though there was more work charting a 2nd sleeve, knitting it, and writing a full pattern, they mostly said no. So, I have happily knitted Tree sleeves in my Kaleidoscope jumperbecause most people requested this and the Trees look a wonderful companion pattern and compliment the body.
What about the Tree and Star sleeve? Where can I get it? My test knitter has knitted the Tree and Star sleeves, which are the same motif as the body. The Tree and Star sleeve chart pattern along with the Sanquhar alphabet pattern to enable you to add your initials and year of knitting to personalise your work, will be released separately to the jumper pattern, as an add-on so that the knitter can make their own choice of sleeve. The name of the bolt-on pattern will be, Tree and Star Sleeve Pattern. The reason that this is a separate bolt-on pattern, is because of the extra work to design, create and knit it as well as write the intricate charts and pattern notes. Plus it gives the knitter the choice to just pay for the original pattern or pay extra if they want and extra design. I have also test knitted the Tree and Star sleeve with my initials and the date above the cuff, as a swatch. But, for now, I am most pleased to present you with, by popular demand, my Kaleidoscope jumper pattern which has only a Trees sleeve pattern and instructions.
About 4 months ago, I put a call out for anyone who has knitted my Sea Urchin hat pattern or my Tree and stars hat pattern and would like to do a test knit of my latest design, then, to get in touch. A lot of people got in touch but had not knitted any of my patterns, so didn’t know my style of writing, or when they found out the project was a jumper, they pulled out.
my trusty Test knitter, Mary stepped in and I sent her a box of yarn.
test knit yarn box.
It’s costly to test knit and the yarn that I sent Mary to use or choose, would have cost me over £100. I have supported Mary with alignment and will help with the mitred V neck and graftin the sleeve into the arm hole.
So, she learns too.
I put a poll out for which sleeve should I finish my jumper with? Normally, I would do 2 different sleeves to both test knit and because I like to design that way but the overall winner for the choice of my 2nd sleeve by over 100 comments was for me to knit a 2nd sleeve in the trees design. So, Mary, will knit the test knit in tree and stars ( I think I will do a 3rd sleeve in completely different colours to test it also)
The thing that came out of the polls were that some people wanted just trees but said that I should add both charts for both sleeves and that set me to thinking about all the extra time taken to chart, swatch, test, hand knit, alter a 2nd sleeve just to give an option in a pattern. I don’t think that pattern buyers think about the time taken to write a full pattern and to add extras is doing it for love.
My pattern will have 2 different charted sleeves. It will take longer and more work. But I hope that you will all find that it is worth it Because I am absolutely loving this jumper as it grows.
Over the weekend, I added a 10% discount offer on the Tree and Star hat, if anyone wanted to Get Ahead with learning how to knit the Kaleidoscope Jumper. I forgot to add the offer to my website followers so I have just extended the offer until midnight tomorrow night.
the pattern is in the link above and there’s no discount code, the discount is taken in your basket.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on which sleeve you will be knitting, but, until then, here’s the armhole, waiting for my 2nd sleeve and here is the matching hat. I can’t wait to wear them as a twin set when I hope to visit Japan in December.
Last week, I painted the walls in my sitting room. It has been difficult to get the exact right colour because of the light in the room – Finally, I landed on a Little Greene paint by the name of Bassoon. It is perfect, deep in tone but light in colour – it’s the colour of wet sand – good wet sand.
The colour has completely elevated the room and opened my eyes in a different way as well as bringing joy to the space that I haven’t felt in a long time (if ever)
Tiggy watched over my labour and didn’t budge an inch – he hasn’t faired well in this heat, so I have been a little worried about him
This morning, I am not in work until after lunch time, so I have taken time to spend with my new design, updating the pattern, rewriting the sleeve and staring at my beautiful yellow wall. I am really enjoying my new design. It will have at least 8 pages of charts to help you as an aid with decreases and shaping. There will also be 2 alternative sleeves so that you can personalise it in some way to suit your own tastes. So, on my workdesk at home this morning, are swatches of sleeves and how they will knit up and fit in, updates in my design book and I have started planning a meet up saturday morning here in my ground floor flat in Sheffield for knitters to come together, talk, learn, share and I will also be on hand to offer advice, share patterns and yarn. If that is something that you are interested in – then get in touch via the contact page.
here’s the latest pages in my design / swatch book
It would be lovely to do this full time – so if you would like to support me, please buy my patterns here, join me in my online workshops or you can buy me a kofi in this link 🙂 and I will name you when I buy the drink
Big love from Tracey – constantly learning, constantly knitting, constantly trying to make exciting work. If you enjoy my work, give me a comment 🙂
I’ve made something completely different to what I normally knit and instead of it taking 3 months or more to make, it took me 3 days. It is a very easy, quick knit vest. There is a lot of pleasure in such a fast growing knit and I have made a pattern so that you can also knit it. The pattern uses your stash yarn.
If you want to look quickly Here is the link to the pattern, and for the first 24 hours of sales, I will donate £1 per sale of each pattern to the RSPCA in Sheffield – because that is where Alfie cat, was rescued and they are a wonderful animal rescue centre.
alfie
The pattern for the Chunky Yarn Vest is made by using stash yarn. I made mine by using some that I have had for 10 years or more. Anyone with a stash of yarn can make this vest. It is a very sustainable project – using what yarn you already have but if you would like to make it but don’t have a stash, then I have listed some of the yarns that can be used and given examples in the pattern.
But, I thought it would be good to use what we have already. You have bought your stash because you have loved it at one time or another. If you collect yarn, now is the time to have a go and use some of it to make something that you’ll love wearing. This is the perfect project to use lots of bits up. Any amount of bits of chunky or plied wool will work. For my yarns, I tended to go soft and fluffy
The vest is made by using one chunky yarn or by plying 3 – 5 yarns together to make a chunky yarn. Please be aware that what you make with your plied yarn, may be thicker or thinner than what I plied, which makes precise pattern writing for everyone impossible, so, I have written this pattern for the exact stitches and size used to create the two vests that I have made.
You will need to swatch to get a gauge similar to or the same as the one I made up. My test knitters managed to make the same gauge for their knits and No two vests will ever be the same.
The knitting pattern works best with extra chunky yarn or for you to play around and ply 3 or 4 strands of thick yarn together or one extra chunky yarn with a strand of mohair or 2 strands of Aran yarn together or 2 double knitting yarn with 3 strands of mohair, or by mixing yarns together to give a marl look.
What I was aiming for was a variety of beautiful colours to use up my stash and to have fun whilst making something to wear that I love.
The end result is VERY FORGIVING and it stretches width ways.
The pattern gives you information on brands of yarn that I used from my stash and photographs of the yarns and how I mixed them. But really, this stash buster project is for you to use your yarns, which will be different to mine and it is a very personal project – you can see that by looking at the test knit image of her vest made by Annie against my striped chunky knits.
Annie’s test knitthe two vests I knitted
The pattern also has photo examples of how to knit the neck area, easy to follow written instructions of how to decrease the stitches around the neck as well as measurement and stitch conversion table giving you exactly how many stitches I used to make this vest.
There is another thing that I think will unexpectedly happen – which is that you will feel it is cathartic to use up yarn that you have had for years, so that it is not wasted. In this case, the project will cost you nothing now – just what you have put away for some time.
I knitted my 2nd vest after my cat, Alfie died. I found it very calming and relaxing to make it, when I was feeling very sad. I bought the yarn for this vest so that I could knit it for a 2nd time alongside my test knitters. I loved the outcome. I made it a little hand sewn label for the back.
I will be selling my 2nd knitted vest, which you can see in the photos above. It fits a 36 – 42 chest easily. When flat the front measures 20 inches but stretches to 22 inches. It has my little ‘Doxey’ hand sewn label in the back and it is really comfy and warm. If you would like to buy it, please get in touch for a price – traceydoxey@hotmail.com
This week, I finished my 2nd Fair Isle Pullover worksheet to make a vest for my sister. The finished vest, has been made for and about my sister, in that she chose the colours and she did not want arms. These decisions, as well as others, set the vest apart from my jumper, which uses 100 colours. I am now interested in exhibiting the two knits, side by side, as a piece called – I cannot Reach You.
Below are some of the instructions in the worksheet, which is easy to adapt into your own signature story in knitting.
Included in this worksheet, are 2, A4 sized complete, full colour charts used in my pullover / vest. Chart 1, is my full body chart and the sleeve is chart 2. All of the, (more than) 90 colours that I used in this jumper are listed. I am giving you the tools to make your own road map for your own vest or pullover, or scarf, or hat.
You can incorporate any of these 11 large Fair Isle OXO motifs and 12 peerie motifs into any of your own projects and use any colours that you have or even just use 2 colours.
The 190 row pattern charts, knitted in multiples of 24 stitch repeats, included in this work sheet, is not a jumper pattern, nor a vest pattern. What I have produced is a worksheet including the entire range of Fair Isle OXO motif bands that I have knitted. I have built them into 2 large full charts with a clear centre stitch line marked so that you too, can either replicate my jumper entirely, or move the patterns and colours around to your own taste. One sleeve of my project is knitted in traditional OXO Fair Isle patterns – the other is knitted using Aran twisting, following how I sometimes braid in my hair in French plaits. I have been asked many times, why I knitted an aran sleeve – why not? and people often have their opions on this sleeve, which is fine, but it is my knit and anyone can knit however they choose to – You don’t have to stick to EVERY rule. I have not included the Aran sleeve charts in this worksheet but the neck aran pattern is included.
The motifs and colours within this worksheet, are a treasure trove of endless possibilities for you to be creative and make your own vest or pullover by incorporating them into your own favourite vest or jumper pattern. Use any colours that you have, use any wool that you have, use 2 colours, or like me, use over 90 colours in your jumper. In the vest I used 9 colours. I am giving you a recipe for you to enjoy and work with in whatever way you want. I am giving you the tools and the freedom to make your own design. This is more than a pattern bank, I lay out how the patterns are aligned. I also explain the importance of a centre alignment.
Recently, I have been reminded of how Kaffe Fassett, in the 80’s made beautiful patterns in books and wrote, ‘ choose 9 balls of varied light colours and 9 balls of dark colours’ and people ran with that, me included. Sometimes, he would write – use double knitting yarn, sometimes he listed the yarn and the exact colours. This worksheet is similar. It gives you all of the tools to knit your own beautiful projects and to be free with your own decisions. It gives you the chance to grow in your own understanding of your knitted projects.
I would love to see them on Instagram. My jumper is knitted in Jamieson’s of Shetland spindrift using – some small lengths, some longer. These colours I have had left over from previous projects or workshops or designs. I just worked them together and alongside each other. I did swatch some colours to check how they worked, and I do recommend that you do that too. As my colour choices are not often repeated in this project, not great lengths of yarn for each motif are required. But you can knit your own project differently.
Use your stash or buy just 4 colours or even 2. The choices and permutations are endless but this relies on you. It relies on being excited to try this idea and to develop your ideas. The project requires you to use your own favourite jumper or vest pattern and figure out the centre front (which in my case, mirrored my centre back) and I knitted multiples of 24 stitch pattern to fit my size. Make sure that your motif bands align with the centre front. I have made this easy for you by outlining the centre front line. Developing your sense of colour is achieved by enjoying colour, swatching to experiment for colour combinations.
It took me nearly one year to design and make this jumper – it took me 3 full days to map out all of pattern repeats in the motif bands and to chart every stitch used in the body and in the sleeve of my own knitting project that so many people wanted a pattern for. It has taken 2 more days to pull it together here. It took me a lot less time to knit the vest.
I knitted my jumper and the vest, in the round up until the arm holes, then I split it and worked on the front and back separately but at the same time so that I used the same colours. Make sure that the centre front stitch is the right one so that the motifs bands align above each other. In the chart, stitch 12 (out of the 24) is the centre stitch of the first large OXO motif. The charts are in multiples of 24 stitches.
The worksheet is a roadmap for you to experiment and live freely within your own colour / motif / pattern choices. I would love to see any projects that have been knitted using the worksheet which is here
One hundred colours, or just ten in your Fair Isle projects?
I am knitting in preparation for the workshop on Friday – to show how alternative colours will look to my normal many many colours that I normally choose for a project.
This time, I am working with the colours that my sister likes but she doesn’t know that I asked her her favourite colours just so that I could knit them for her.
My pullover – the workings you can find in the rich tapestry of resources in the Fair Isle Pullover chart worksheet, is made up of about one hundred colours.
My next pullover, knitted to the same charts as the first, will use about ten colours – with variations of greys, shetland black, madder, navy, mustard and a cyclamen colour. I’m already enjoying how it is turning out. – my sister has far more subtle choices in colour.
If you would still like to join me at my free online workshop on Saturday 22nd Just 3-4pm UK time, then buy the worksheet and I will be sending emails with joining instructions up until Weds 18th June.
Let me know what you think to just the black and grey version of this project.
Also – access to online facebook group for everyone who has bought the pattern too.
I have knitted something that is recognised as a jumper but it isn’t only that. The knitted piece now sits well within the intersection between craft / skill / materiality / woo/ textiles/ conceptual art / family / heritage and cross cultural discussion. It is nearly finished and it has a name. It is named, ‘I cannot reach you.’
The garment, because it can be worn, has one slightly longer Fair Isle sleeve than necessary, reaching out, ending into a knitted cuff with a thumb. The other sleeve, knitted in Amber coloured yarn in Aran patterns, crosses and plaits the stitches. This style of knit for this sleeve was chosen because of how I sometimes plait my hair. So, the indication is now that it is not clothes but craft or art. Most people who have commented on the Aran sleeve don’t like it – they cannot work with the idea that the sleeve is different to the Fair Isle patterning of the body and other sleeve. Me, I like it.
The Pattern of Life isn’t all perfectly matching or symmetrical or neat or predictable. So, changing the length of a sleeve, adding another style of knit to the other sleeve, working with patterns and motifs for about one thousand hours, has enabled me to Knit an evolving story. First, it was a wearable vest, then I ripped the arm ribs back to start sleeves. I don’t mind if I never wear this garment at all, and yet it is wearable, it is also showable as art, it is passable to be open to a discussion about clothes, knitting, women’s work, materiality – why we knit, why we make clothes, what becomes art, a concept, a thought and why we bother at all.
In my 60th year, I am figuring out what is the stage of my creative journey, today. I have a valuable story / experience to share – having an MA in knitting when I was 58, a Fine Art Degree at the age of 35, I’ve travelled across some of the largest countries in the world by train, to get to a tiny place in China. I’ve sailed across land and sea to live in Shetland. I knit but I am not a knitter. I can crochet and sew too. I’ve taught English, I’m a coach for apprentices at Uni, I have been a PA, a Contemporary Dance tour manager, and events manager, a gallery building manager – but none of this really matters and yet it all matters greatly because it has brought me to this point in my life – to figure out exactly what is the value of my creative practice and where do I want to take it?
I am not an emerging artist, I am firmly placed in an underrepresented demographic of an older Women still making conceptual art under the guise of a knitted project.
What I would like to do is engage with other women to knit this piece, as they feel fits them. I want everyone to use their own colours choices, yarn decisions, size of the project so that we may talk about the work of women.
I am really proud of being able to knit this ‘thing’ because, let’s be honest, I have been in a privileged position to do so but I haven’t always been so. I could not have knitted it when I returned to the city from living in Shetland, without home or job, crying on the kerb stones. My creative practice was far from my priority then – I needed stability – take Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, for example. When I returned from Shetland, didn’t even have the physiological needs – without home or sleep. Since that time, I have built myself back up and for now, I am around the esteem level with a subliminal eye on Self actualisation. I’ve also been here before and know that it is not a sure thing nor is it a prolonged state and I know where it goes after – that is down.
I think, what I am writing is that my jumper is not a jumper – it is an art piece about my feelings about my beautiful Sister and I cannot always reach her – which is why I have called it ‘I cannot reach you’ And, weirdly, to this end, I am thinking of knitting a 2nd jumper, in exactly the same way as the first but in different colours because when we were children, our mother dressed us in identical clothes for about 12 years ,when we were, and still are, like chalk and cheese.
For all the lovely people who have bought my Fair Isle pullover worksheet, would you like to join me in some kind of knit along. I will not be teaching you how to do your project but I would love to see your projects and hear what you are making. I think it will be wonderful to share what we are doing. I will be slow, I am not in a rush. I have many other things on the go including finishing this piece, I also have work and workshops and a crochet piece for my daughter and somewhere along the line, I would like to live a little – go see places
I am also thinking of ways to display this piece and have been in contact with The Head of Fine Art at SHU to see if we could show the piece and she had better ideas – so there are maybe a few things being mulled over. I want to show the piece because I would like to be back in the Fine Art arena because I want to go to Japan to do an artist residency and showing work is part of that process.
Have any of you read this far 😊 ?
Would any of you like to join me in a knit along so that you can knit your own pullover or use the charts to knit something for yourselves? leave a comment or join the group.
Do you have any thoughts on this whole thing? Positive or negative.
tracey doxey 
