Cable. Strong and stable. A sign of the times. Who even wears cable-knit jumpers now anyway? Oh yes, the tourists buy them from those fancy-looking shops. But even those are machine made more often than not. Poor workmanship too. Strong and stable my foot.
Well, I made this one, and it’s the warmest jumper I’ve got. I like the springy feel to the texture, and the bits where I lost concentration and cabled the wrong way. I noticed too late the change this made to the pattern; an arch where there should be a twist. It was too much work to unravel everything and do it again, so I left the mistakes. Arches among twists, rainbows among rivers.
I’ve never told anyone that I made this jumper. I don’t look
like a knitter. I see a little group of ladies knitting in here sometimes, with
their coffee, all friendly. Maybe one day I’ll ask them if I can sit and knit
with them too.
We could talk about patterns. And share yarns.
They might say yes.
Red Box Jumper Number 1: The Cable Pattern
This jumper was brought to you by Hannah Sanguinetti, working with: Malabrigo Sock yarn in Ravelry Red 611 on 3.25 and 3.00mm double-pointed needles, monoprinted paper collage, pen and pencil.
I am lucky enough to have a fantastic yarn shop on my road, Be Inspired Fibres, and this acts as my extended yarn stash. All of my yarn for this project is sourced from this beautiful shop. For those of you who don’t have a yarn shop near by, why don’t you come to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival this March? There is more yarn than you can possibly imagine, and you could pop in to Red Box and take a look at my red jumpers too.
With thanks to the wonderful Ravelry online knitting and crochet community, my choice of yarn here is dedicated to you all.
You can go and see this jumper as of TODAY on display as a table-number bottle in Red Box Coffee, 2-6 Spottiswoode Rd, Edinburgh EH9 1BQ. And if you can’t see it out, ask the staff!
A new project is beginning! This one combines many elements that are important to me: knitting, community, story and coffee.
Our local cafe, Red Box Coffee, decided that it wanted some new table-number signs to give to customers when they ordered at the counter. I have been meeting with friends to knit together over coffee in Red Box for years now, so I was delighted when they asked me about their new table number plan. Would I be able to knit 16 small red jumpers with white numbers on them to fit on the beer bottles?
To me this was not only a local and rather entertaining comission, it was also an opportunity to practise my design, illustration and story-telling skills all in one go. Each jumper will be a different design, each will have it’s own tale to tell and each will be modelled by a different character. How much fun is that?
So here we go. I have my project basket ready with a selection of red yarn, my notions and needles, and of course an empty beer bottle to dress. Each design and story will be posted here in my blog, two per week for the next eight weeks. The original jumpers themselves will appear on bottles in Red Box cafe, working hard to unite you and your coffee order. Why not follow us along the journey? It’s going to be a blast.
I am a member of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI); an fantastic international organisation which started in the USA in 1971 and now has branches in many parts of the world. SCBWI supports both emerging and established children’s writers and illustrators, and I joined the SCBWI British Isles branch two years ago to see what they got up to. I have learned a huge amount from the group, gained a lot of support, made many new friends, and I coordinate the area picture book critique group. In November 2018, I was awarded the Margaret Carey Illustration Scholarship to attend the SCBWI British Isles annual conference. Read on to find out how it went…
Four o’clock in the morning felt hideously early to be waiting for a taxi to Edinburgh airport, and my suitcase seemed excessively large for just a weekend away. It was packed with two A3 portfolios, two A4 sketchbooks, notebooks, picture book dummies, posters, drawing materials, a large pair of black wings, the odd piece of clean clothing and my toothbrush. I was off to the SCBWI BI 2018 Conference.
At the airport I met the first SCBWI delegates of my trip, and so began a weekend of meeting, greeting and feeling welcomed and included by a truly fantastic crowd. Arriving in Winchester early on the Friday enabled to me join in with some of the conference fringe events, starting with the sketch crawl. I sat atop a flight of steps drawing passers-by and buildings until my fingers were numb then joined other illustrators in the museum cafe to share sketch-books over soup and coffee. Many of my new illustrator friends were also taking part in the portfolio critique group that evening, which was a hugely informative process.
Saturday morning started abruptly with the hotel fire alarm going off at 5:00 a.m. The first encounter I had with the industry professional giving my portfolio one-to-one, was in the bleary-eyed semi-darkness outside the fire escape; dressed only in my nightie and knitwear. At breakfast, someone I didn’t know sat down next to me so I greeted her and introduced myself. I learned that it was her first SCBWI conference, that she was a YA historical fiction writer and that she wasn’t too sure of the way to the conference venue. So, we walked up the hill together; me feeling pleased at having met another relative newbie (or so I thought), whilst trying to remember her name. When registration was done and more coffee was drunk, the opening talks began and I learned that my friendly breakfast companion was in fact Catherine Johnson; a very experienced and widely published author who was the inspiring key-note speaker opening the conference!
Catherine Johnson and Benji Davies presenting their work.
Benji Davies talked about his beginnings, his working process and his picture books. Jake Hope led an inspiring and insightful workshop about the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal, discussing the challenges of selecting and comparing work in a field that is so subjective. My portfolio one-to-one session with Tiffany Leeson from Egmont publishing was hugely informative, giving me suggestions about what was working well in my portfolio and what I could do differently. The portfolio display was a great opportunity to study the portfolios of other illustration delegates and then talk to them about their working practices. After this inspiration-packed day, the evening held the conference party and mass book launch. This was yet another opportunity to meet like-minded people and celebrate the successes of those recently published. Day two was just as overwhelmingly full as day one, with a double-length workshop on story beginnings run by Benji Davies. Everyone was encouraged to draw this time, with sketchbooks and pencils provided for writers and illustrators alike.
It will take me some time to digest all of the
things I learned during the weekend; I have a lot of new things to think about that
I am eager to get back to the drawing board and try out. I applied to the
Margaret Carey Scholarship because I was looking for opportunities to learn
more, develop my work and move closer to being ready to submit to agents and
publishers. Many factors combined mean that traditional university programmes
are not an option for me so I have to look for alternatives ways to learn. This
conference has been truly fantastic and I feel extremely privileged to have won
the scholarship that enabled me to attend. I have been reminded once again of
what a wonderfully welcoming, inspiring and empowering organisation SCBWI is.
Hannah Sanguinetti 