2025 review

I know for a certainty that no projects will be completed between now and midnight on Wednesday, so I can do my review of the year now. I wasn't expecting there to be much to write about but, when I put together the year's montage, I discovered that I've actually completed more things than I thought.

I surprised myself!

Going from left to right, and top to bottom:

My Lothian shawl was my first completed make of the year, albeit most of the work was done in 2024. Style 2703 was another first; my first time reusing a pattern which I had made up when it was newly released.

My brown check skirt was another project which was mostly completed last year, but this one took me until November to complete. It works well with my blue Wondrella cardigan, and I've worn this combination several times. Proving that not everything is a success, though, below it is my first Close to You shawl. Great pattern, lovely yarn, but the colours of the end result just weren't me. It is however getting lots of wear in its new home with my friend F.

I didn't have a photo of my wrist warmers which would fit in the montage, so I had to take a new one. The slight pilling on the thumb is a testament to how much they have been worn, as the alterations I made to the original pattern created exactly what I wanted. Similarly, over several years I went through lots of ideas of what I wanted to make with my pineapple fabric, but I was really pleased with the end result.

My needlecord pinafore, Butterick 6723, has been my sewing make of the year. It's had so much wear, in fact I'm wearing it now. Someone told me recently that corduroy pinafores are 'in' this winter, so I appear to be fashionable by accident! My second Close to You, complete with bead embellishment, was a far greater success than its predecessor.

It wasn't my knitting make of the year, however. That accolade goes to my Reyna shawl. Despite some issues making it, which were due to me and not the pattern, the end result has become a firm favourite - and is frequently worn with my pinafore. My yarn total for completed items this year is 2075m / 1.29 miles (although I don't want to think about how many metres I've added to my stash!). My Wool Fair cardigan meanwhile is hibernating in the project bag I made for it, while I concentrate on finishing my slate Wondrella.

I haven't worn my second version of Butterick 2535 a lot, because first I want to make a co-ordinating jacket with the leftovers, and just haven't had the time to do so. My plans to make another Serpentine hat also fell prey to Real Life getting in the way.

So yet again the Stashometer ends the year in the red.

A familar colour bottom right

At least everything I bought this year got used, and the deficit is only because of fabric carried over from last year. I'd like to say that I have displayed steely self-discipline in terms of fabric buying, but that was only the case for the first half of the year. By the time that wore off however - well, I just didn't have the free time for fabric shopping!

There will be some fabric bought early in 2026, though. I'm not making many plans for the coming year, but I do have one project I want to do. Although I'm currently wondering if I've bitten off more than I can chew with it. All will be revealed soon!

All I want for Christmas is . . .

. . . to reach the ribbing on the second sleeve of my slate Wondrella cardigan. And I'm going to be disappointed.

I know that it's a busy time of year, and that I've got more to do this year than previously, but I'm still in disbelief at just how long this is taking. I'm sure that the first sleeve, which I finished some weeks ago, wasn't this tortuous.

Current mood

I have knitted through films. I have knitted through costume dramas. I have knitted through podcasts. And I've still got a long way to go.

The second sleeve laid over the first

Obviously the rounds get shorter as the sleeve narrows, but even in terms of total number of stitches I'm less than halfway through. Sigh.

So all that remains is to wish everyone who celebrates a very Merry Christmas. And if you are trying to finish a project for the 25th, may you have more success than I will!

How it all began - part 2

When I went to the Cecil Beaton exhibition the other week, I discovered that a number of the photographs, and the sitters in his society portraits, were familiar to me - and it's all due to this book.

With my 6" ruler at the side for scale

This history of 60 years of British Vogue was first published in 1975, and my mum received a copy as a Christmas present (probably after some very strong hints to my dad!) two years later. It's hard now, in a world where endless images are easily available online, to explain just how amazing this heavily illustrated book seemed almost 50 years ago. I spent many hours looking through it, and while The Story of Clothes and Costume sparked my interest in historical clothing, my love of vintage fashions can be traced back to these pages.

It's a wealth of period imagery

The book is split into seven chapters. Most cover more or less a decade, but the first one looks at the end of the First World War and its aftermath.

The opening of the first chapter

Each chapter begins with a written account of the period covered, and then goes into year-by-year coverage.

1919, in pictures

There is also a section in each chapter called "The Changing Face", which features famous women of the period, presumably chosen as representative of the ideal look of the time.

Gertrude Lawrence and Lady Ashley in the 1924-29 chapter

For me reading the book in the 1970s, the chapter on the thirties was the first to feature what looked like 'clothes' rather than historical costumes.

1970s me could imagine wearing some of these

My parents married in 1955, and much of our furniture came from that time, so the image at the start of the chapter on the fifties was entirely relatable.

Very familiar chairs!

The images for this decade include both formal, quintessentially 'fifties' dresses, and more relaxed looks which seemed entirely wearable in the 1970s and still are today. (Ideally made in better materials, though!)

London couture, spring 1953

Casual looks in the new wonder fabric - nylon!

The sixties and early seventies didn't hold a great deal of interest for me at the time, and I must admit they still don't.

1960

1969

Some of the last images in the book are from 1974-5, and show the thirties revival in fashion at the time.

Contrasting seventies styles, loose and fitted

But out of the 300-plus pages of the book, it was the images of the 1940s which I liked the most.

1942-43

1944

This was where I first saw Cecil Beaton's photograph Fashion is Indestructible, and I fell in love with the clean lines and pared-back elegance of it all. I was thrilled to see the original in the exhibition.

As it appears at the start of the chapter on the 1940

It's fair to say that this book has got a lot to answer for!

Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World

I have had a day trip to London - quite an event as I haven't been more than 40 miles from home since February! The reason for this jaunt was to see Cecil Beaton's Fashionable World at the National Portrait Gallery, and it did not disappoint.

Setting the scene

The exhibition covers Beaton's life from his early photography to his work designing costumes for the stage and film versions of My Fair Lady. Initially, he photographed family and friends.

Barbara Beaton, c1925

As well as photographs, there are a number of his illustrations.

The Charm of Paris (Gaby Deslys) c1929

His first fashion work for Vogue came in 1927.

Outside Claridge's Hotel

Even as his reputation grew, he continued using the basic camera that he was given at the age of 12 for a surprisingly long time. What made his name initially seems to have been less technical skill and more his compositions and use of unusual props and backgrounds.

Beaton's Kodak 3A folding camera

Princess Emeline de Broglie in raincoat and hat, 1928

Society portraits from, L to R, 1932, 1929 and 1928

The 1930s saw a move to more surrealist images, albeit with a playful slant.

Mona Williams, 1936

Hats are High, 1936

Coats by Charles James, 1936

Although he could still, knowingly, refer back to the illustration styles of the Edwardian era.

Hand-tinted print, 1937

He also spent time in America, where he photographed a number of Hollywood stars.

Alice White, 1929

Despite his extensive work for both the American and British issues of Vogue, he designed relatively few covers. In part this was because he found colour photography tricky and also because, as the exhibition notes tactfully put it, he was "resistant to the art director's brief". The exhibition includes a full set of his covers, both photographed and drawn.

American Vogue covers, 1935 and 1936

Mildred Morton on the cover of British Vogue, 1948

1939 saw Beaton switch to war photography, although one of his best known images from the time mixes war and fashion.

Fashion is Indestructible, 1941

The same combination occurs in this immediately post-war shot of Balmain clothing in Paris.

Wool coat and trousers, 1945

Beaton himself admitted that "I started out with very little talent, but a lot of strong ambition", and this does seem to have prompted fallings out with a number of people over the course of his life. Greta Garbo was allegedly furious when the images from what she believed to be a private shoot were sent to Vogue.

Greta Garbo, 1946

Post-war, Beaton applied himself to mastering colour photography.

The Second Age of Beauty is Glamour, 1946

Late Day Richness, 1948

But it's hardly surprising that someone whose compositions were so theatrical should also get involved in costume design. He designed the costumes for the London production of My Fair Lady, starring Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle.

Julie Andrews, dress for the Embassy Ball scene

And then worked on the film version, with Audrey Hepburn.

Publicity still

Beaton with Audrey Hepburn, 1963

This post only shows a fraction of the material in the exhibition, which runs until 11 January 2026. It is a long way from being the grittiest exhibition I've ever been to, and at least one reviewer has criticised it for this. However, I'm not entirely sure what else they expected from an exhibition which begins with the Bright Young Things of the 1920s and ends with a film which is all about artifice. I for one was happy to be immersed in that world for a day.

The last month

Having finished my Reyna, the urge to start another project is strong. Especially as one of my recent trips to Shrewsbury hospital involved a detour to Ewe and Ply and the acquisition of further skein of their lovely Corrie-Mo yarn. Despite my substantial Ravelry queue, it's now caked up, and calling to be made into another Close to You.

Ready to go

The shade is called Leaf Peeping, and I can see why.

With an autumnal backdrop

But for me the colours are more reminiscent of carousel horses, like these ones.

Blurred, but you get the idea

As if that wasn't enough, I’ve also bought wool for my so-good-I-bought-it-twice cardigan. I knew exactly what yarn and shade I wanted to use for this, so when I discovered that my local fabric and wool shop was selling it at 15% off for Black Friday - well, it seemed rude not to!

King Cole wool aran in shade Cranberry

Despite all this, and the suggestion that there are psychological benefits to having multiple projects on the go*, I am trying to resist adding to my works in progress. Mainly because it's December tomorrow, and I don't feel that I've done a lot this year. So I'd really like to spend the last month of 2025 finishing a few things.

My shirtwaist, Butterick 7729, came to a halt when Royal Mail managed to lose the matching covered belt that I'd had made. Harlequin kindly made me a replacement (fortunately I had spare fabric), but by then it was a bit beyond cotton shirtwaist weather.

With belt, but without buttonholes, buttons or hem

I made a bit of progress on my black 1930s dress, Butterick 7598, but it has ground to a halt again. And my Wool Fair cardigan hasn't been touched since May.

So that just leaves my slate Wondrella. Realistically, I'm only going to have the time to complete at most one project in the next month, so I'm concentrating on this one. I completed the fronts, and to my relief, the cable pattern as I had calculated it fitted in very well with the shaped neckline.

It worked!

Now I'm working on the first sleeve. The sleeves are meant to be full length, but on both my blue and aloe versions, they came out as bracelet length. This didn't bother me as those are both summer cardigans, but for a winter cardigan I wanted something longer. I worked out how many extra rows were needed to fill the gap, and recalculated the rate of stitch decreases to make a smoothly tapering shape. I've also added a cable panel down the centre of the sleeve, to match the fronts. The sleeves are knitted top down, whereas the fronts are knitted bottom up. This doesn't make a huge difference to the cable pattern, except that I initially got the rows where the cable widens and then narrows the wrong way round.

Getting these two points mixed up was 'interesting'!

I've still got about 20% of this sleeve, plus the ribbing, to knit. Then there's the second sleeve, the neck band and the button bands, and the ribbon backing to add. Getting this done in a busy month is going to be a real stretch, but I can only try.

Sleeve progress

* - Dr Anne Kirketerp, a Danish psychologist and author of the book Craft Psychology, claims that having a range of projects to choose from gives you the freedom to select one that matches your energy level. I can see the logic of this; if you’ve had a busy day and just want to relax with something non-taxing, then trying to plough on with your complex lace or colourwork project is unlikely to benefit either you or your knitting. So depending on how things go, I may yet end up casting on another Close to You after all!

Reyna update

First of all, I must say a huge thank you to everyone who reached out to me after last week's post. As clearly many of you know yourself, caring for a parent can feel quite isolating at times, so your kind comments and messages of support meant a great deal to me.

Despite saying last week that a) I wasn't expecting to post many completed projects and b) fixing the mesh section of my Reyna shawl was going to be a major operation, here I am with . . . a completed Reyna. Clearly I should stick to sewing and knitting, and not branch out into fortune telling! To be fair, I was unwell at the start of the week (I suspect it may have been my body's way of forcing me to have a rest), and couldn't do much but sit quietly and knit.

The error which required fixing was nothing to do with the pattern. It was entirely self-inflicted, and due to my fondness for working on straight needles. Even when I had only reached rows of around 125 stitches, the work was starting to look a bit bunched up in places.

This is not going to end well

But I continued regardless, squashing the stitches up more and more. Naturally, the inevitable happened - a stitch slipped off a needle, and because it was in the mesh section, I couldn't work out how to pick it up correctly. My first attempt to fix it went badly, and my second attempt was even worse! The project got dumped in the Naughty Corner, and I seriously considered frogging the lot.

Eventually I decided to have one last go at a rescue effort. The first thing to do was accept the inevitable, and transfer the stitches onto a circular needle. Even on a 100cm circular, the almost completed shawl was bunched in places; there is no way that I could have knitted the whole thing on 35cm long needles.

Note to self - learn from your mistakes!

I knew that I needed to unravel back to before the dropped stitch, but I still had the problem that I didn't know how to do this accurately or what the end result should look like. So I turned to what I can only describe as 'stunt knitting'. Like its namesake, stunt knitting does the difficult bits so that the star of the show - in this case my limited supply of 'good' yarn - doesn't have to. I dug some leftover DK out of my stash, and knitted up a quick mesh sample on 6mm / US size 10 needles. This created large stitches, so I could see the structure properly, and I could undo and reknit it until I really understood what I was doing.

Stunt knitting, wrong and right sides

I unpicked several rows of the shawl (not fun, at more than 200 stitches per row) until I was sure that I had reached a row which was entirely correct, and started knitting again. And to my relief, this time it worked. From there it was plain sailing. I've discovered that long rows of k2tog aren't my favourite thing (although I'm fine with ssk), but the mesh pattern it produces is simple but effective, and really allows the colours in the yarn to shine.

Close-up of the mesh

I added a few extra rows of garter stitch at the end to use up the full skein of yarn. I ended up with a shawl which is 93cm / 36½" along the shorter sides, and 1g of wool left over from a 100g skein.

Blocking the completed shawl

Draped over my shoulders to show the full size

Realistically, I'm more likely to wear it wrapped round my neck.

It's a useful size

And would work well over a coat, too

Although when I'm wearing a shawl with my pinafore dress, I have been known to tuck the ends in like a fichu.

Going (very loosely) eighteenth century

I'm so glad that I persevered with this, and didn't just frog it. I still see myself as a beginner knitter, maybe inching towards intermediate, but every time I manage to fix a problem like this it feels that I am another step forward on my knitting journey.