June 2017
This is only the second thing I have made for my Dad in all of the years I have been knitting, which is a shameful thing to admit. He is a little bit on the fussy side, and he does have a wife who knits too, and so he doesn't always occur to me as a suitable knitwear recipient.
When the two of us have agreed on a pattern, though, so far it's always been a stunner. The predecessor to Machrihanish was an all-over cabled cricket sweater which is still frequently worn, despite not really being what it once was, due to careless washing (not his fault, as far as I know). Still, credit to him for being so happy to wear actual proper wool, and British wool at that (at the moment my son insists on merino - it's a sore point).
So I happily embarked on Machrihanish, safe in the knowledge that I love Kate Davies' patterns, and to knit one in Baa Ram Ewe's beautiful Titus would amount to treating both the yarn and and pattern with the respect they deserved. I'm not convinced Titus is next-to-the-skin soft (I always add an under-layer when I wear my Northdale for example) but in a way that only makes it all the more perfect for a tank top like this one.
There was one potential bogeyman contained within this pattern and that is the fact that it features steeks. For most knitters these go hand in hand with buttock-clenching anxiety, and rightly so, as what kind of a psychopath would take a pair of scissors to their knitting anyway? However, I found that using the delightfully toothsome and fibrous Titus put my mind at rest to a great extent. It was never going to fray. It simply couldn't.
For anyone interested in that sort of thing I secured the steek using a sewing machine rather than a crocheted reenforcement, as it's so much quicker.
I dragged my heels over the finishing work one this project, as steeked projects do require a lot of sewing and tarting up after they've been cast off and I'm terrible for loosing interest at that stage. Eventually, though, I covered the cut steek stitches with navy blue velvet ribbon, just in time for Christmas 2017.
Thankfully I dealt with the frequent colour changes using spit-splicing, because if there had been loose ends to sew in as well, this may have become a New Year present instead.
Pattern: Machrihanish by Kate Davies
Size: Smallest
Yarn: Baa Ram Ewe Titus
Colours: Endeavour, Filey, Bantam, White Rose, Crucible, Dalby
Needle 3.00mm
On ravelry: here
This is only the second thing I have made for my Dad in all of the years I have been knitting, which is a shameful thing to admit. He is a little bit on the fussy side, and he does have a wife who knits too, and so he doesn't always occur to me as a suitable knitwear recipient.
When the two of us have agreed on a pattern, though, so far it's always been a stunner. The predecessor to Machrihanish was an all-over cabled cricket sweater which is still frequently worn, despite not really being what it once was, due to careless washing (not his fault, as far as I know). Still, credit to him for being so happy to wear actual proper wool, and British wool at that (at the moment my son insists on merino - it's a sore point).
So I happily embarked on Machrihanish, safe in the knowledge that I love Kate Davies' patterns, and to knit one in Baa Ram Ewe's beautiful Titus would amount to treating both the yarn and and pattern with the respect they deserved. I'm not convinced Titus is next-to-the-skin soft (I always add an under-layer when I wear my Northdale for example) but in a way that only makes it all the more perfect for a tank top like this one.
There was one potential bogeyman contained within this pattern and that is the fact that it features steeks. For most knitters these go hand in hand with buttock-clenching anxiety, and rightly so, as what kind of a psychopath would take a pair of scissors to their knitting anyway? However, I found that using the delightfully toothsome and fibrous Titus put my mind at rest to a great extent. It was never going to fray. It simply couldn't.
For anyone interested in that sort of thing I secured the steek using a sewing machine rather than a crocheted reenforcement, as it's so much quicker.
Thankfully I dealt with the frequent colour changes using spit-splicing, because if there had been loose ends to sew in as well, this may have become a New Year present instead.
Pattern: Machrihanish by Kate Davies
Size: Smallest
Yarn: Baa Ram Ewe Titus
Colours: Endeavour, Filey, Bantam, White Rose, Crucible, Dalby
Needle 3.00mm
On ravelry: here
