Pam Alison Knits

I recently had a chance to catch up with a family member I don’t see frequently. Our mums were cousins and grew up close to each other, but my mum became an Army wife so there was a lot of travel before finally settling a fair distance from her family home. For ease of use, we refer to this family member as a cousin, though I think in fact she’s our second cousin. Anyway, this isn’t the important thing. The crux of the matter is that she brought some knitting patterns to pass on to me and I thought it would be fun to take a trip through some of them.

I think the patterns are a conglomeration of collections from a few knitters as they span knitting eras and exhibit varying tastes. There are some I will keep and knit, others I will keep for specific details rather than the whole pattern, and those that are destined for charity donation.

The ones I’m releasing into the wild

Ah, the summer tops – not my style at all. The booklet (which was free with a magazine in 2020) is very fuzzy and kind-of just off-key for a relatively recent publication. In fact, I would have dated it in the 1960s if it hadn’t been in such good condition. The other two are simply too crinkly for my taste, made using slubby cottons or linen mixes.

This next group took a little more thinking about as, at their core, they are all good, basic patterns. A point against them for me is that they have raglan shoulder shaping which I tend not to gravitate towards. Also, I have a ton of good, basic patterns and these don’t fill any kind of hole in my collection.

The textured cardigans on the left are copyrighted in 1972. We could have surmised that from the price (8p dates it as post-decimalisation, but is quite cheap) and by the extended collar on the lady’s blouse. I’m actually in two minds about this one as I quite like the textured stitch and I could use it on a pattern shape that suits me better.

The Copley’s pattern is a bit later – 1978 to be precise – by which time they’d moved away from printing the price on the pattern itself.

Two of this group are actually really nice patterns, though I can’t bring myself to comment on the festival of fuzz to the left. Sirdar’s website dates this to the ’80s which was where I was presuming it would sit.

The King Cole pattern in the middle has been released since 2012. I can’t quite put my finger on why this and the grey cardi don’t ring my bell, but neither of them is calling out to me. I think the grey cardi is a bit too “straight up and down” for me, but now I’m looking at it closely I wonder if it might be nice cropped at the hip and without a ribbed border. Hmm, I think I may be moving that one into my “keep” pile to carry on thinking about. Even the multi-coloured one could be nice knitted in a plain wool.

Well, I’m definitely getting rid of the fuzzy one!

The ones I’m keeping

These three are in the “stay” pile mainly because of the format: they are printed on heavyweight paper with actual photos printed and stuck on the front. Not your everyday mass-produced patterns. The Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Shop doesn’t exist any more, though you can still buy copies of their patterns via Ravelry and print them out yourself. In view of that, it would be a shame not to give these physical patterns a home for the next few years. Anyway, you never know when you may suddenly hit your Vicar of Dibley phase!

Of the three patterns, I’d be most likely to knit the one on the left, a textured cardigan/jacket. I like the jumper on the right, but the pattern is completely charted and I doubt I’ll be bothered to write it out. I’m 66 years old and perfectly capable of embracing the knitting chart – I simply choose not to!

Now things are getting harder. I pretty much discounted these two patterns when I first looked through because they are, frankly, just too 1980s. In the intervening fortnight, I have been indulging in a run-through of “Demsey and Makepiece” and suddenly looking at these in a totally different light! Let’s say I’ll keep them, if only for the nostalgia.

Whilst on the Dempsey and Makepiece track, I’m sure she had a penchant for the Enny shoulder bags. A couple of the bags from the first and second series seem very familiar to me! Lady had style.

Now we are back to pretty basic patterns, but these one just have sleeve shaping that suits my preference, so they’re definitely ones to add to my collection.

You can’t beat a good bit of Aran patterning! But who on earth thought that blue and that red would work together? Perhaps if they hadn’t added in the strange beige blouses? Then that brown and mustard hat just adds insult to injury! That said, I can feel the challenge of knitting up a long red sleeveless cardi just so that I can show it working with a whole variety of outfits.

Now these are much more like it. I could see myself knitting the cardigan on the left and the one in the centre, although I’m really keeping that because I love the styling: something about that blouse and skirt and then the cardi buttoned at the waist only. And that’s how to make a brown cap/beret work! My immediate reaction to the pattern on the right was to send it away, but there’s something intriguing about the sculptural stitches. Keep it, cogitate on it, let it marinate.

I really just love this whole outfit – the textures, the layering, the single colour even though it’s creamy-beige. No, I’m never going to knit that slinky straight skirt (though I bet Makepiece would have worn it!) but I’ve been wondering about a voluminous knit skirt for a while now, so never say never!

And, okay, I’m saving the best ’til last. I am going to make this twinset. It may well be the next thing I knit after I’ve finished my sister’s cardigan and the myriad of other little items I’ve been distracting myself with. I think this is just perfect. In fact (and I’m never going to do this so I don’t know why I’m suggesting it) it would look lovely for summer in a mercerised cotton. I don’t know if they mercerise cotton any more because I don’t think it was eco-friendly, but it gave cotton yarns a fabulous silky finish.

I’m surprised at how hard it will be to part with the majority of these patterns, even the ones I think won’t be practical to knit. I should make a note to revisit these in a year to see if I’ve actually used any of them.