This week I finished off a Max Tank Top. The pieces were knitted some time last year… maybe even a year ago last year, if you get what I mean! They’ve been sitting in a bag and every time I go through my bags, I look at them and think, I must finish that one off. And then what do I do? Cast on a new project of course.
And that is exactly what I did this week. I cast on a Catherine Cowl in the cashmere because I wanted to knit something in cashmere again. Even though I could have knitted a thousand more Howard Neckerchiefs, I’d been talking to knitters about the Catherine Cowl and got excited to cast one on for myself.
One knitter wanted to knit it because it’s such a great one-ball cashmere project and perfect for learning to knit in the round. Another wanted something to keep their neck warm and knew cashmere would be the perfect fibre – and that they could knit one ball over a weekend, just in time for the winter weather that was coming back. When you talk about projects with other knitters, it’s hard not to get swept up in the excitement.
So yes, I cast on something new.
But I also finished sewing up the Max Tank Top. Yay! It feels so good to do that. As I’ve mentioned before, sewing up can feel like it should happen in an hour, but it never does. So I section it up and do a bit each day. I do the shoulders one day – that’s the fun bit, the three-needle cast off. Then the next section is the neck edging. That can actually take a day or two. It doesn’t have to, but I do it slowly, and after picking up the stitches it’s really just another section of knitting – a reward for picking them up.
Then another reward: a few rounds of knitting with cashmere.
I pick up the armholes, again one a day. And then the absolute fun bit – the side seams. Probably because I spent years not liking sewing up garments. I studied a Fashion degree and specialised in knitwear, but I still did tailoring, and tailoring is a science. If you are out by millimetres it can affect the whole structure of the garment. Sewing always made me nervous because I thought it had to be that precise.
But not with mattress stitch. With mattress stitch you treat the knitting as knitting, not as fabric that must be lined up exactly. It feels like magic. And the best place to use it is along a straight line – and we have two lovely straight lines on the Max Tank Top to join together.
So I do one side seam one day and reward myself with a few rounds of cashmere. Then the other seam the next day… and more cashmere.
And ta dah! This week I completed the Max Tank Top and a Catherine Cowl!
I regularly get asked how long something takes and I don’t know, because I don’t time myself. How long did it take me to join a side seam? I did it in the studio and was interrupted several times by lovely knitters popping in. If someone wanted to browse, I carried on joining the seam. If someone needed help, I put the needle down and helped them. So it took a morning in the studio. But if I sat down without interruption? I reckon 10–15 minutes.
And I think that is the great thing about knitting. It’s something you do without noticing you are doing it, and before you know it you’ve finished something and you feel good. No doom scrolling, no sugary snacking – just a warm, contented feeling of calming joy.
The Max Tank Top is knitted in Baa Ram Ewe Donegal Twists DK, which is new to the Purl &Jane family and absolutely beautiful to knit with. The merino and British wool mix is traditionally spun in Donegal and has beautiful colourful kneps that you only truly appreciate when you knit with it. You see colours you don’t always notice in the hank, and even when it’s knitted up it keeps twinkling new shades. It’s £18.95 per 100g hank with an amazing 270m, which means you only need two hanks for the first two sizes of the Max Tank Top.
And the Catherine Cowl is knitted in cashmere – £17.50 – and you only need one ball for a little bit of joyous luxury.