Thursday 7 November 2013

Knit It - Victory Beret

I headed down to the Isle of Wight a weekend or so ago to celebrate my mums birthday and also to watch my little brother take part in the Great South Run. I had a lovely time, though it was a bit more stressful due to the wild and windy weather we had, not being the most sea fairing of folk I did struggle with the four ferry trips on increasingly choppy water needed to get there and back and there and back again over the weekend!


My brother did very well in the run and beat his time from last year even with the strong winds, which made me feel very proud of him and all the other amazing people who take part in such events, raising money for charity. So much so that in my swell of emotion I think I agreed to do a 10K with my brother next year! Considering I struggle to even run a bath, this could well kill me, but we will see, I do like a challenge!

Whilst on the Island I had been hoping for some lovely weather so that I could coerce my brother to take some snaps of my newest knitted, as it was there was only a 5 minute window of sunshine and typically on the one day I hadn't done my hair, but my locks are not the attraction here it's the knitting your supposed to be looking at and this is a very special bit of knitting indeed!

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...- .. -.-. - --- .-. -.-- Victory ...- .. -.-. - --- .-. -.--

Pattern: Victory $5.00 on Ravelry
Designer: Tasha Moss
Ingredients: 
  • Style Craft Special 4 ply:  50g Midnight (1011)  Deramores
  • King Cole Big Value 4 ply : 50g Red (667), 50g Green (675), 50g Mustard (671)
  • I've forgotten the brand but also 50g of White
I was contacted by the lovely Tasha from by gum by golly in September asking if I would like to take part in a bit of test knitting for a new style 1940s Beret/Tam pattern she was planning to release. I as you can imagine was over the moon with the opportunity, firstly the chance to help on such an amazing project was too good to refuse, and secondly, and much more selfishly, it meant I could finally have a bit of fabulous 40s Fair Isle (say that three times, fast) for Meee!!

My, this pattern is so gorgeous! This is not just any 1940s style fair isle beret oh no, this is a very well designed 1940s beret. Just look a little closer at the pattern, and you'll see a sweet little row of V's for Victory around the brim and above that a row of Morse Code which spells out the letter 'V' for... you guessed it Victory! What a wonderful touch! Plus there's lots more wonderful fair isle goodness to keep your eyes and your hands interested!



Something just as wonderful, is the fact that the fair isle pattern has plenty of 'breather' rows, by this I mean there are here and there a row or two of plain one colour knitting, which after following the fair isle pattern for a while (which is never more than two colours at one time,so never too taxing) comes as a welcome little holiday for your hands and more importantly your brain, and then it's back to the pattern work which your now looking forward to again.


For my version I used the odds and sod of leftover yarn from both my brother and my dad's pullovers, all acrylic and all 4 ply, making this a stash buster which is great, though there is a downside which is the acrylic doesn't hold the shape quite as well as the lovely Exelena wool used on the original (no lovely crease) but I'm OK with that. It also is a little bigger due to my forgetting that my gauge increases when knitting in the round, I did my test swatch on DPN's, but due to having short needles I realised I was going to have to move on to a circular or quickly lose my marbles as well as my stitches.


Victory is a very quick and fun little beret to knit up, I genuinely believe that it could be done in a weekend if you put your mind to it and have done some colour work before. Mine, in fact, would have been finished much sooner if I hadn't decided to be all grown up and have a nice glass of wine one evening whilst starting the crown decreases, all would have been fine if I had still been working on the main section, but I had reached the crown and well it gets a bit more attention grabbing and so it turned into a bit of an odd-numbered-dropped-stitch-sweary-mess which had to be undone the next morning so I could start over again! Don't drink and decrease people it can't be done!

I am very happy with my new beret & here you get a sneak peak of my latest serger dress!
I think you can tell that I love it, I did worry it might be a bit too bright as I was working on it but now it's done I think it's wonderful and there is no way I am going to get lost in a crowd. It's certainly perfect for long country walks in the crisp autumn air!  I must say I am already keen to knit another for the Knit for Victory challenge...something to go with my Lightfield's Blouse..pinks and blues, I think I'd better get cracking...now knitting on a treadmill...hum...that's certainly a challenge!

Wendy x

6 comments:

  1. I love it! The colours you have used look great together too. I've bought the pattern, just have to choose the wool now :-)

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    1. Thank you Lucy!! Ooooh I'm looking forward to seeing yours! xxx

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  2. I bought the pattern too. You look very pretty in the beret it really suits you.
    Julie xxxxx

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    1. Thank you Julie! Glad you bought the pattern I look forward to seeing your version! xxx

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