Seemingly a long, long time ago I decided to knit Mark a new jumper from some locally grown and spun yarn that I bought at Bilby Yarns in Willagee. I loved the cream colour with grey undertones and thought that a vintage cabled jumper would provide that Aran feel and be warm to wear as cables and texture really add to the thickness.
I chose a pattern designed in 1949 from one of my vintage Vogue Knitting books but decided to omit the turtle neck and make it a high crew neck instead.
I carefully swatched the wool and began to knit. At some point on the back piece I realised that I wasn’t going to have anywhere near enough wool, so took some back to the shop and asked if I could get some more spun. A sample was taken and the request to incorporate the grey made. Then I waited. And waited. I chose not keep knitting and moved on to other makes, and thank goodness I did.
The day came when my wool arrived and I knew that it didn’t have enough grey in it. It was much creamier in colour than my original wool, and as soon as I started knitting it really showed up. If you look at the top of the knitting you’ll see what I mean.
I had been enjoying the striped effect caused by the natural colours in the wool and this worked to my advantage when problem solving the colour issue. I took a ball of the original wool and a ball of the new wool and knitted them alternatively, every two rows. 
Of course I occasionally forgot to alternate the balls meaning that my stripes were a little more random, and that was fine too.
In terms of the knitting, this was a simple, although slightly tedious knit. I find moss stitch (also known as seed stitch) slow and I occasionally have to check that I haven’t started ribbing. I also kept putting this knitting away and making other, more urgent (ie for me!) things, which meant that I had to work out where I was, even though I did keep notes. Apart from these little inconveniences, I pushed on and finished the jumper in time for our summer. Doh!
However, this did mean that it was done in time for our trip to the US and here it is in action on the man himself. It’s the perfect attire for sitting in coffee shops and reading a digital issue of the New York Times (Mark’s favourite newspaper). As a side note, I also made the red neoprene cover for his iPad.
The jumper has quite pronounced drop shoulders, although it does have shaping in the armscye. I can’t decide if this is how it’s supposed to be or if I have somehow got the sizing incorrect. However, Mark loves it, so that’s all that matters.
He is standing on our hotel roof looking at the Empire State building in this photograph. He is also wearing wool trousers lined with silk that I made for a previous trip to Iceland, and the very first shirt I ever made him many years ago, which I’ve always thought was a bit small, but which he finds really warm as it’s a magnificent wool/silk blend.
One last photo, this one taken down by the river in Georgetown, Washington DC. It was a magnificent day and we had a lot of fun exploring this really lovely part of the city.
