My knitting, a secret & an invisible zip - GBSB episode 4

While following last year's Sewing Bee, I realised there was a lot of interest in Anne's handknits. There were various tweets and Ravelry discussions all trying to decide which pattern she was wearing, and in which yarn. As the weather turned colder between mum (Lynda) filming episodes three and four, I thought it would be fun to see if the same would happen again if she wore some of my handknits on the show. Anyone who remembers the following photo on Instagram, might like to know that they were hanging on the line ready for her to choose something for the 'Bee'...

I'd tried to select patterns that would be fairly easy for knitters Ravelers to recognise on the TV, including Pogona, Color Affections number 1 and number 2 and Nuvem, but Mum chose Whippoorwill, which I'd finished about a month before.

Credit: BBC/ Love Productions

Within a few moments of the programme starting last night, messages started coming in via Twitter, Facebook and Ravelry. Numerous people were trying to find out whether it was indeed a handknit, what the pattern was, and who had made it. If you are visiting the blog for the first time as a result of such a quest, congratulations and welcome! Here are the details you are looking for:

THE PATTERN: Whippoorwill by Carina Spencer

THE YARN: I used 126g of Kauni self-striping 100% wool yarn, which was most of one gigantic skein. I buy my Kauni from Etsy and I always get great service with fast free shipping from Aljona and Misha in Estonia, although I am told it is available in other stores too. 

Despite it's size, it didn't take very long to knit as the yarn is a complete joy - the colour changes are perfect and I wanted to keep knitting to see them blend one into the other.  The project was delayed a few times  - first when I knit too much, then when was too hot to carry around over the summer, and finally when I didn't want to bind off in green, but actual knitting time wasn't anything like the four months the project notes suggest!!! I've written more about the yarn in a previous post, so won't repeat it here.  

Source: BBC/Love Productions

I'm cautious about saying too much more about last night's show as many readers don't watch it live and will not yet know the outcome, but I will tell you that the 'secret' model hinted at last week was in fact Emma - the only one in our family (she's not technically a family member, but as good as) who was young enough to model the 'teenage' prom dress. I've lost count of the people saying they expected it to be me, and can say that my sister and I were very relieved to be too old for the challenge, especially as Emma was made for it - those legs go on FOREVER! (As it happens, Mum was expecting one of the challenges would include a family member as the model - that happened last year too - and had been grilling us to find out if myself or my sister were doing anything on the days she was away, but she really had NO idea that we were plotting for Emma to be there instead - I don't think she'll ever trust either of us again as we did it so well!) 

So I won't give anything else away, except to share a quote from mum "I've been labelled as loving children's clothes, but actually special occasion dresses are my favourite makes!" and a picture of her invisible zip *groan* You can catch the rest on iPlayer - enjoy!