Foxgloves and vintage knitwear

Foxgloves are beautiful flowers and very easy to grow.  They look wonderful in gardens or growing wild in fields, where they can look amazing mixed amongst other wild flowers.

The foxgloves in the photographs below are growing at the bottom of a large garden, where they have self-seeded and are just growing as wild flowers.

Foxgloves growing wild at the bottom of a Suffolk garden

The beauty of the plants is that they come in a great number of shades of pinks and white.  I love their tall spikes.

Wild foxgloves in a Suffolk garden

These great flowers have also been the inspiration for designer knitwear - such as on this vintage hand knitted cotton cardigan.  It is covered with vases filled with flowers - jerberas, muscari and foxgloves - with climbing wisteria flowers twirling round the top part of the front and back.

Hand knit cardigan covered with vases of flowers and climbing wisteria

3-D foxgloves are growing round the lower part of the body and sleeves on another vintage hand knitted cardigan.  This time clematis twirls around the top part of the cardigan, with bees dotted between the flowers.

Hand knit foxglove and clematis cotton cardigan

The amazing group of tall, spiky, pale pink foxgloves in the photograph below was growing in the garden of a house I visited some time ago.

Flower bed full of light coloured foxgloves

Don't they just look absolutely incredible?

Pandas on knitwear

My love for Pandas inspired designs for knitwear.

A PDF knitting pattern is available from my Ravelry store for a pair of 4ply fingerless mitts with a panda holding a piece of bamboo across his tummy.  The gloves can be hand knitted in any 4ply weight yarn - wool, cotton or cashmere.  Knitting instructions include typed pages for the shaping and graph charts for both left and right mitt.

Panda fingerless mitts

The panda also features on a hand knitted cushion and it is surrounded by a circle of flowers similar to those shown in the graph below.  There are also flowers on the  back of the cushion, with a buttoned fastening in the centre.  A PDF knitting pattern for the cushion is also on Ravelry

The graph below shows a design which was used for the body of a child's cardigan/sweater.  A selection of different sizes were made for stores in the USA.

Graph showing pandas and flower design for child's sweater

Another panda glove pattern in my Ravelry store is for a pair of 4ply mitts with a panda's face on the front.  The palms of the mitts are plain.

Panda Face fingerless mitts

I don't have access to the real thing, so the photo below was taken from a non-copyright internet site. The panda looks quite content while chewing away on the bamboo pieces, or whatever it may be eating.

Bewick swans and swan mitts

Living in Barnes Wetland Centre are two beautiful Bewick swans.  They seem to love swimming around together and are very synchronised.

Synchronised swimming for the Bewick swans

Two Bewick Swans

What a beautiful face, with lovely yellow and black beak.

Bewick swan

I have a PDF knitting pattern in my Ravelry shop for fingerless mitts with a Bewick swan on the front of each glove.  The original gloves were hand knitted in denim blue 4ply wool and are available in my Etsy shop.

Swan fingerless mitts

Swan mitt - left hand

Swan mitts - knitting pattern on Ravelry

Swan mitts for sale in Etsy shop

Vintage knitwear - summer/winter looks - hand knits

The hand knitted cream 4ply-weight mercerised cotton tunic below was featured in a woman's magazine in around the late 1980's or early 1990's together with a free knitting pattern.  It features several textured panels, with the centre wide cable panel containing bobbles.  The lacy leaf pattern panel at the sides also features bobbles and the bottom of the tunic is trimmed with a lacy horizontal leaf-patterned pointed hem.  This is a really pretty summer look and, on a trip to Hong Kong a year or so after the pattern was published, I came across a lady wearing a white tunic that she had knitted from the very same pattern - what a coincidence!  

Twin Leaf Cable hand knitted cotton tunic

This pale blue DK-weight mercerised cotton sweater with patchwork textured patterns in triangular shapes includes cables, bobbles, blackberry stitch and bell-shapes.  The photograph appeared in a knitting book, Cotton Knits, that was published around the same time.

Triangular patchwork DK cotton hand knit sweater

One year during the 1990's there was a catwalk show at the Country Living Fair in Islington and two hand knit tunics were worn by models in the show.  The tunic on the left has a lacy scalloped hem and is covered with intarsia-knit vases of flowers.  The tunic on the right also has a scalloped hem and features panels of different cable and bobble patterns.  Both were hand knitted in 4ply-weight mercerised cotton.

Hand knitted cotton floral and textured tunics

The autumn/winter look below was in a catalogue produced by a clothing company in the early 1990's.  The cardigan is hand knitted and the sunflowers, clematis and lupins are all decorated with bobbles.

Hand knit DK cardigan with bobble-covered flowers

I think that all of these styles are timeless and could still be worn today.

Oystercatchers and Oystercatcher fingerless mitts

Last year, in September, I went on holiday to Penrhyn Bay in North Wales.  The self-catering holiday home directly over-looked the beach, which was not suitable for swimming but was suitable for wading birds such as these two Oystercatchers.  This photograph was taken from the outdoor terrace in front of the house.  Unfortunately the Oystercatchers were too far away to get good photographs and, if you tried to creep near them, they flew away!

2 Oystercatchers on the beach at Penrhyn Bay

One day, I went for a walk on the beach and managed to get a bit nearer, so got some slightly clearer photographs.

Oystercatcher on the beach in North Wales

Oystercatcher looking for food on the beach

On the last morning of the holiday, I had time to kill while waiting for the train in Colwyn Bay so I went to investigate what was happening on the beach.  It was fairly early in the morning and I came across a group of sleepy Oystercatchers.  When I got too near, they woke up and flew off.

Sleepy Oystercatchers on the beach in Colywn Bay, North Wales

 I love Oystercatchers and, after I got home, I decided to design some fingerless mitts with an Oystercatcher on the front.  They were hand knitted in mid blue Drops 4ply Alpaca.

Oystercatcher hand knit fingerless gloves - left mitt

Oystercatcher fingerless mitts - background blue 4ply alpaca

Pansy hand knits - I love pansies

 I love pansies and have used them as inspiration in the past for intarsia hand knits.

Pansy patterned hand knitted cotton bolero

I am not growing any of my own pansies at the moment, so have taken the following photograph from the internet.

The following photographs show various pansy designs on vintage hand knitted cardigans and sweaters from around the early 2000's.

Pansy and cable patchwork squares on hand knitted cardigan

Pansy and rose intarsia hand knit sweater

Cream Pansy hand knitted wool sweater

Pansy and Cable hand knitted wool cardigan

Pansy cashmere hand knitted long gloves

I still love pansies and have designed a knitting pattern for a pair of fingerless gloves with pansies on the fronts.  The PDF pattern is available from TwistedClassics shop on Ravelry.

Pansy fingerless mitts

There is also a pattern available for a matching scarf that is covered with pansies.  This is also available from the TwistedClassics shop on Ravelry.

Hand knit black cashmere scarf covered with pansies

http://www.ravelry.com/designers/twisted-classics