Machine Knitting and hand -knit history

 Hey there, so I am back and with a new craft that I am trying to re-master: KNITTING!
( sorry for the absence I have been sewing and also DANCING and WALKING a lot and have lost 18 lbs to be below my WW goal weight, this with family and work has been keeping me very busy for many months)
The fair-isle jumper above was knitted in about 1974-1976 by hand by my good self with acrylic yarn sold in big balls from the HEMA . I bought it out of my pocketmoney which was very little, and designed and knitted it all by myself. My granny MIMI had taught me the basics of knitting and I did the maths and a tension piece, sourced a diagram of the key pieces with sizing and went for it!
I used charts from a monthly magazine I had at the time called ARIADNE which I received in Wassenaar, Holland where I was living at the time. It's loosely based on a mix of Nordic ( the ice stars) and Peruvian ( the lamas) charted designs which had been published by the magazine.
The odd choice of colours was due to my wish to be able to wear it a lot, I had pine green corduroy trousers at the time as well as a lot of brown ( mum's choice for me) and a red pair too.
The ribbed V neck band overlaps at centre front as I had not learned to miter the centre point.

 Now we get to 1992 and my first set of machine knitted jumpers made in North Wales in Dwygyfylchi.
This one is in Lilac cotton Cannele from Yeoman yarns with the dark purple which is a Chenille for the tall Irises, soft cotton 4 ply for the yellow daffodils and green ELSA mohair for the leaves.
These photos were taken in MAY 1992 and it is heartwarming to see my much younger self cavorting about in joy at the sunshine, the bluebell fields, the waterfall and showing off the new jumper I had just created and finished. I was actually dancing...in hiking boots my dad bought me in 1973.

 In September that year, 1992 I bought a book by Rowan and Brother and in it was the following pattern: a Nordic design called SETERSDAL.

 The above is the official picture and below is the jumper I made for Simon, my husband, following the pattern exactly. Except I made it in machine washable non tickle pure wool 4 ply. In navy and white.

And I used a ribber properly for the first time making those welts for the body and sleeves!

That DECEMBER: 1992 I designed and made my reindeer jumper, and woulkd you believe I have worn it every Christmas and December since! 1992 to 2016!!!24 years!!!

Alas so much wear has rendered it quite frail, it has holes and moths have had a go at the neckband so one of my objectives for 2017 is to have REPLACED this jumper with an IDENTICAL replicate in all wool 4 ply before CHRISTMAS 2017!!!

 ALAS however I have lost all my notes, the tension piece, and ALL of the punch-cards so am currently trying to re draft the charts for all these bands and will then need to punch a new set of cards unless I splurge on a Designa knit 8 and cables AND a new lap-top so I can chart these patterns into my Brother 940 instead. ( the original was made on my Brother 840).

 It won best Christmas jumper in the office in a competition in 2008...The prize was chocolate...

moths have had a meal out of some of the inner neckband and I had to repair it by a bit of hand-stitching.

 It had a cut and sew neckband I think....
And the lower hem and sleeve bands are fair-isle one side and plain on the inside. Very well planned out.
The rose red is a jolly chenille but this has not worn well. It has worn out completely in places.