Last week at the monthly meeting of the Huddersfield branch of the Knitting and Crochet Guild we had a ‘trunk show’ of embroidered items from the guild collection. These included several Tyrolean style cardigans, a fashion from the 1940s and 50s. The beauty of these blew me away, and as so often when I attend these meetings, I came away inspired.
One of our members, Elizabeth, is going to lead a workshop at next month’s meeting in which we will learn techniques for embroidering knitting. She gave us some handouts for “homework” to prepare for the workshop, either knitting swatches that will become lavender bags, or fingerless mittens that will have embroidery applied to the backs. Since then in a burst of enthusiasm I have already knitted three swatches to become lavender bags. I followed Elizabeth’s pattern for the first, then freestyled to produce a swatch that includes a diamond of the bobbles that feature on most of the Tyrolean cardigans. These are very like the nupps that are a characteristic element of Estonian lace. However, they are formed around the strand between stitches rather than in a stitch (the Estonian method), and are decreased together two rows later rather than in the subsequent row. The working yarn is carried behind each bobble in the subsequent row, slipping the bobble stitches. This float behind the bobbles makes them stand forward, creating an excellent result. I love them!
Impatient as usual, I couldn’t wait until next month to embroider my bobble swatch. So here it is before sewing up, which I can of course wait to do! ☺️
