A story of lots of mitred square garments, including my very favourite finished object of all time.
Author: Alice Neal
Polly Socks! Pattern available now…
Welcome to the new Polly sock knitting pattern from Alice in Knittingland, derived from my Dolly socks, with several changes. Read about the processes here.
Gone fishin’ – new boot sock pattern release!
So, continuing my desire to produce simple but striking patterns, patterns that relatively new knitters might look at and think “I could have a crack at that!” this pattern contains lots of photos of the socks in progress and is designed to be easy to follow and simple and quick to make. They were knitted top down, one and a time, have a Dutch heel and contrast toes, both of which are reinforced.
New socks, new obsession?
Well, look. First things first, hi! It’s been a while. With one thing and another (and massively glossing over what a very peculiar place the wider and smaller worlds are at the moment), like most I’ve been busy keeping my head above water while my own little part of our planet settles back into some kind of semblance of normality (I laugh out loud at that word!) But I’m sticking my toe gingerly back in the water – do people read blogs any more? – and aiming to document the small part of it that is more or less within my control 😉 I have, after all, never stopped knitting / drafting / designing, but not yet managed to write everything up…
Whilst the intervening years have seen most of my boys find gainful employment and leave home, some of you may remember my Teddy – he starts a SEN college course next month and I’m really not sure where to put myself about it. My tiny Ted is 6 foot 3 and magnificent. He has spent most of the summer modelling Pokemon out of polymer clay, and is a major fan of overworking a piece until it is large enough to mean a substantial loan may be necessary if he wishes to continue… And our little granddaughter (now 3) came to live with us back in February 2024. A funnier pair you never did see.
And so to begin! I took a deep dive into my old posts on various social media platforms. I needed to find where I first came across the lovely Laura (aka The Lonely Knitter now also Folk Yarn Studio). It turns out it was 4 years ago, shortly after my family and I landed up on the Suffolk Coast, and when I was very excited to learn that she was local and organising a mini-yarn festival in my new hometown.
I found these images:
Fast forward four years, and a fortuitous chance meeting with a lovely lady who attended a couple of my workshops found me joining Laura’s Stitch Night. It has become the thing I look forward to most in the week.
Laura’s hand-dyed yarn is beautiful, but even better she runs occasional workshops at her studio and I signed up to dye some myself. It’s been many years since my mini-foray into dyeing my own with natural dyes (onion skins, blackberries etc) and the world has taken many twists and turns since then, pulling me in other directions. So I was delighted to sign up for a few child-free evening hours with lovely (friendly, welcoming) like-minded people, splashing squirty bottles of acid-dye into tubs of virgin yarn awaiting transformation.
It looked a little underwhelming to me, especially when I saw what everyone else was creating, but literally 24 hours later, at our Stitch Night, Laura had it dried and wound into skeins ready to collect. And I was utterly thrilled.
Needless to say, other WIPs took a back seat (mostly… I mean… come on… let’s be real)
I started with a lot of texture (top pic above), but once I got to the plain stocking stitch and saw the beautiful natural stripes, I decided to frog it back and just leave a little eyelet lace top to allow the colours to show themselves off more fully (bottom pic above) and my first pair of socks is now complete. (Meeting up with Laura seems to end up with knitting socks in heatwaves – it’s an August thing?)
The contrast heel is a Dutch heel and, obvs, they’re a top-down sock, in this case knitted one at a time.
I’ve written it up here, if you fancy making a pair of your own 🙂
I also now have the wherewithal to experiment with a little dyeing of my own at home, but that’ll have to wait until spaces have been created: physically by a little shake-up we’re currently plotting, and mentally by nursery and college starting in a couple of weeks time.
So, if it interests you at all, watch this space…
In other news… when the aforementioned space does finally arrive, I am going to get my head around writing these up:
Inspiration
Longer ago than I can remember – a few years at least – I decided to try not to buy anything new for a year. No new shoes or clothes. The only exception was undies (for obvious reasons). And it became second nature. It stuck. Even better, it has become very much the go-to position in our household, and I am very grateful for that. Clothes are generally bought in local charity shops, on online auction sites, and wherever we can find them. Or they are made. Sewn (my husband’s forte) or knitted (mine).
There were a couple of reasons for making the switch; the first being a burgeoning sense of horror at the waste in our society. I’m generally and genuinely shocked by the throw-away mindset actively encouraged by consumerism. And the second, hand-in-hand with the first, was a growing disillusionment with the poor quality of what was on offer in the shops, not to my mind reflected in the ridiculous cost. Expensive crap, not to put too fine a point on it, and mostly plastic-based (which we all know is the bane of our environment, right?)
This isn’t remotely an attempt at evangelism, just an explanation for my own journey into the preloved, upcycled and handmade. Though if it happens to inspire similar in anyone else, I shall consider myself doubly blessed.
Long before this particular turning point came knitting. And as I learnt to knit, I realised that I had very particular ideas about what I wanted to wear / create. I began with modifying patterns that were almost what I wanted, and ended as you see me now: designing my own. My designs are seldom terribly complicated – I like things to be quick and easy to make, and to design pieces that relatively inexperienced knitters feel moved to have a crack at. And they don’t always make it to published pattern stage. I have a life full of demands on my time and I have to be quite focused and decisive about what I will or will not follow up on.
The result of this is that along with a gazillion WIPs, I have a LOT of one-off pieces. Some I will keep, but I simply cannot justify keeping them all. So there will be, in due course, occasional items of clothing and accessories appearing in my shop here. I will put out a warning that they’re coming on my social media before going live, to give anyone who would like to snap something up a chance to get there in time for a browse.
And here is a picture for today’s inspiration. The preloved Boden skirt I bought on eBay, and I am about to start one of my striped cardigans to match it – aren’t the colours perfect?! The striped cardigan, incidentally, is a pattern that WILL be coming, in time for Spring.
If you can’t find it, make it. And if you can’t make it, pay a knitter what they’re worth, (or understand how much you’re loved if someone knits it for you for free…) 😉
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(All arranged on a coffee table covered with a decade of Teddy’s scribbling off the edge of the paper, and a mug of turmeric and cumin tea in one of my most prized possessions – a beautiful coppery mug covered with mountains and trees, made by Dwyryd Ceramics, in case you were wondering.)
Have a glorious week, and happy knitting.
More exciting news!
Back in October, I took the loooong train ride from Lowestoft to Devon to film an episode of Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas 2021.
Two Chaotic Weeks
Well, hello my long-neglected blog. Perhaps it’s time we got reacquainted.
Tomorrow marks two weeks since my quiet little world went a bit bonkers. Two weeks ago tomorrow, I woke up to my phone blowing up, to hundreds of new Instagram followers appearing by the minute, out of the blue. Through my 6am -bleary eyes, it was baffling. And the timing was just impossible. Knee-deep in half-packed boxes, as I prepared to move with my husband and five sons 300 miles south to Lowestoft, from the sleepy ex-mining village that had been my home for 9 years, I fielded a call from a gentleman reporter at The Times.
“Tom” I nearly said, “stop doing a silly voice,” so convinced was I that it must be my brother winding me up.
“Did you know?” Mr Malvern asked me. “How has it affected you?”
Erm, I’ve had moments to process this! Plus, not to put too fine a point on it, my head was a little thick with the late night last hurrah I had just spent with the ladies I call friends, before I was due to leave them all behind.
I had by this stage, of course, twigged though. That Tom Daley, that diving legend, had been photographed, a picture globally distributed the night before, knitting my pattern at the Olympics.
And he had tagged me.
The debate was hot: what was he knitting? Some confidently professed it a hat.
But no. It was my little Juno’s jumper.
I had had a couple of brief exchanges with Mr Daley, who had told me he had used my pattern to knit a few dog jumpers for friends already, and thanking me for “such a great pattern”. As if that wasn’t amazing enough!
It’s always been my most popular pattern. And I don’t think it’s hard to see why. The photograph of my feisty little princess looking like butter wouldn’t melt is kind of irresistible, especially in such a rich and beautiful coloured jumper. (Those in the know are fully aware she’s waiting for the treat just off camera…) And it’s a speedy knit, without being complicated.
But I certainly didn’t expect it to become news.
Sure enough, the next morning an article appeared in The Times online. “Alice Neal, 50” Come on, Mr Malvern! I’ve only just turned 50. Give me a chance to process that, too! But sure, perhaps that’s not the bit to be focusing on. And besides, it gave my friends something to rib me about.
That same day, I had an email from the Sun, a message from someone at the Daily Mail (the less said about that particular experience the better. Let’s just say: lesson learned) and an email from the Mirror. I’ve never had a faster, more precipitous lesson in the crazy world of ‘strike while the iron’s hot’ journalism. And all the while, those boxes weren’t packing themselves.
I managed to squeeze a pattern for an Olympic-themed scarf between packing up the sitting room and the last of the kitchen (“I literally have nothing to sit on”) and it appeared in the Mirror that Sunday.
I am more grateful than you can know for the outpouring of enthusiasm for my designs, the pattern sales, and the little messages of encouragement from fellow knitters around the world.
Now that the dust is settling the other side of the move, now that I’m only ankle-deep in boxes, and they’re being tipped out rather than filled up, now that I can walk regularly along the seafront, breathing it all in as deeply as my lungs allow, I am looking forward to an autumn of new patterns, old favourites, and getting to know a little bit more about all the people who have come to share in my good fortune.
With love, gratitude, and bundles of yarn,
Alice x
Warm toes, warm heart. Pair 4 of 26 pairs for 2021
So, socks number 7 and 8 of my 52 socks for 2021 are now finished.
They’re knitted in the same brand of socks as that last gorgeous stripy slouchy pair (Novita 7 Veljesta) but this time, the heels and toes are worked with 7 Veljesta Pohjola, which also contains 30% Finnish wool and is DIVINE.
This pair (hence the title) will be part of my beloved husband’s Valentines present, helping keep his tootsies toasty in this crazily snowy winter we find ourselves surviving.
The pattern is the same as the slouchy ones, without the decrease before the heel, and with a rather experimental boomerang heel that doesn’t go all the way around the sock in the middle.
I think they came out rather well! Roll on 14th ❤️
Socks 5 and 6 of the 52 socks of 2021
I’m quite excited about these, for a number of reasons.
Let me list them for you:
- They are super cosy and snuggly.
- They are bright and cheerful.
- They are, technically, worsted weight and therefore not quite as bulky as my other boot socks
- THEY ARE MACHINE WASHABLE
- They knit up really speedily.
They’re knitted in Novita 7 Veljesta Raita (self-striping) and Lappi (solid colour) on 4mm needles and one ball of self-striping, knitted as I did, does EXACTLY one pair. You’ll only use around 35g (around 70m) of the ball of solid colour.
Let me show you how much of a yarn chicken winner I was with these ones:
I’ve written up the pattern and it is available for a nominal fee of £1 for a while over here.
The Novita Raita self-striping yarn you can find here, and the Lappi solid colour is here.
Do share your pictures with me if you have a crack at them!
Happy knitting <3
Noro Shinryoku Jumper: how I made it.
How to knit my Noro sweater.