Orange fluffy jumper

I knitted this jumper whilst recovering from the hip replacement operation. I needed to do something creative and was unable or rather not allowed to do sewing, so knitting seemed a great option.
 yarns were

The orange fluffy mohair type yarn - I say type because I do not think there is actually any real mohair in this - was bought from Ebay a few years ago when it came back into fashion. Its meant to be original 1980s yarn. I believe the seller because the modern stuff is usually much more boring and pastel colours than the older 80s yarns were. They were BRIGHT. Because there were no labels I was unsure of the metre-age and I had two very similar yarns so alternated with 6 rows of the darker colour and 4 rows of the brighter but the knitted pattern had a repeat of 16 rows so the colours are not on the same part of the pattern each time giving a more random look. I like the overall effect though it turned out when I finished I could have stuck with just one of the colours. Never mind I can make something else later. Now I have an idea of metre-age too so it will be easier to esimate. The original magazine pattern uses a yarn with small slubs or bobbles and thats what this stuff has too so it was a good match.

I collect yarn. Similarly, to my fabric stash, but I rarely do anything with the yarn whereas I do use the fabric regularly. Mostly, my yarn lives in two large storage boxes in the loft. And by large I do mean large. One is actually a plastic box meant for storing garden implements in (outside in the garden) so is a mini shed. It does work wonderfully as a yarn box 😊. I put it together up in the loft. There is a window in the loft though it has never actually been converted into a room, so I need to keep the yarn etc in the dark. Luckily all this yarn does not really weigh much!

Well whilst recovering I was unable to get into the loft and my lovely long suffering Mick went retrieving it all for me. I mention this because it really not a small thing, and for him was difficult and loads of hassle, but he did it for me anyway. If I ever need the other hip replacing I will have to think ahead better and make sure everything I may need is within easy reach. This last time I never did. It meant for lot of explaining about things and where stuff is stashed. Also, he now knows just how big my yarn stash really is and thats never a good thing!

The jumper is from an ancient 1980s knitting magazine - Sandra - which I bought new (in October 1985) and have never knitted anything out of. Until now that is. I own loads of these.

Just look at the price!

You know I thought this was expensive back then. I was 21. I thought buying one of these took a big chuck out of my available spends. can you beieve that?

Yes, its something all the oldies seem to say, but its also true.

One of this years resolutions is to make something from every sewing and knitting and crochet mag I have lugged around with me for most of my life. Many I have never even tried to use. They just collect dust and take up space. Time to make it worth owning every single one of them. 

Even with Burda I seem to just use a couple of mags. The 11/2016 I have nearly made everything from, yet I must own 40 more that I have never used. This year I am using all of them to justify my owning them. Or at least I am going to start working through them because I suspect using them all in one year may prove a little too timeconsuming for the available time I have to sew and knit. I am giving this a go anyway.

This is the magazine picture of this jumper which is somewhat deceptive. I normally just knit until it fits and is the right length etc. This time I exactly followed the pattern. It measures what it should do though it looks longer in the above picture. Maybe the model was short?  It looks a bit shorter on me thats certain. I had enough yarn to continue but lost confidence and followed the pattern rather than measuring against me. Its probably much better for work to have it as it has turned out really because it will look good with work clothing, but I had originally intended to make a large baggy play jumper to lounge about it. Of course it may stretch a bit though hopefully not too much. When I began I expected this to be harder to knit than it turned out so that was a big plus. Its just a lace pattern really and no cables which I thought would make the zig zags.

If you own this magazine there is a mistake in the pattern chart - see below:

I am now going to make a few other jumpers from different Sandra issues. Hopefully they will all turn out this wearable.

Bracken