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It’s an Alice Starmore pattern, originally from her Tudor Roses book. Today in Tully’s coffee shop I met a person working on a garment with these colours and this pattern. We got to talking. I queried her about steeking – not a bother. She is a confident steeker. We might get together when I reach that point in my knitting – I need to build up my courage – and contacts – if I am ever going to steek. Steek=Cut a hole in your knitting=scary.
image for the Tudor Roses book on Amazon. Price used starting at $324. Wow. I don’t plan to get the book or knit the Anne Boleyn but it is interesting to see what’s out there. And it was an interesting way to get to talking with another knitter.
I’m not sure where Alice Starmore is now – Europe? the US? My feelings though are that for a knitting pattern, if I do a pattern, would be to go for one of the patterns in the book I purchased recently from Schoolhouse Press.
Mary Wright’s book is very carefully researched. The patterns aren’t colourful but there is a rich historic context to them.
Cutting a steek isn’t scary at all, once you have done one. You need to have sticky yarn, like the original Fair Isle yarn, and it never frays. My advice – make a little swatch with a steek, cut it, and you will see how easy it is. I cut my first one on Good Friday, a good few years ago, and I demanded that the whole house be utterly silent. I locked myself in my bedroom, made the cut, and then never was afraid again.
That sounds like a good strrategy. I’m glad though that you said the yarn needed to be sticky. I’m currently knitting a sweater using 2 strands of sock yarn. I wouldn’t call that yarn sticky, in fact it’s quite silky and smooth. Now I can justifiably postpone the steeking I was contemplating for that sweater. Hooray.
I have Mary Wright’s book. I like to buy historical well researched books like that when I find them, because they tend to go out of print. Isn’t it fun to meet another knitter like that?