Clanjamfrie

Good morning! It’s Friday, and time for another Making Light pattern release. Please note that we will be closing club subscriptions at midnight, GMT, this Sunday, the 2nd, so if you (or a friend) would like to join us, please head over to the shop asap.

This design is one of my confirmed favourites of this collection. It’s a very “me” style of pullover, and I’ve spent a long time working on it, developing and honing its details – and knitting it, of course. Now I fully intend to spend a long time wearing it!

As you can see, it’s a hoody, featuring colourwork and braids, knitted in two high-contrast shades of Ooskit (Riach and Choffer)

The colourwork is of the banded kind, and is incredibly simple to work (I’m not just saying that: you’ll have the pattern instantly memorised after a couple of repeats). It’s a repeat with several plain rows, and several rows of the 1×1 kind, both of which make the designing (and the knitting) much simpler, because you can execute any potentially complicated instructions (such as joining the body and sleeves together) on a plain row, rather than a patterned one.

This design is all about its light-dark contrasts, and, in knitting, there’s no better way to show that off than with a braid, which I’ve added at the hem, cuffs, hood, and neckline.

If you’ve never worked one of these braids before you’ll be surprised at their simplicity: simply alternating purl stitches, while holding the yarn at the front of the work, creates a pleasing, embossed band with a neatly plaited appearance.

The raglan shaping is worked with centred double decreases, which echo the effect of the garment’s other two-tone braids. You’ll see that it’s impossible to form these raglan ‘braids’ in regularly alternating shades of dark and light (because of where the plain rows sit) but I was nonetheless happy to find a way of shaping the upper body that worked with the pattern, rather than interrupting it (this is always a conundrum when designing colourwork raglan sweaters).

I’ve designed and knitted quite a few hoods in my time, and am very pleased with this one. Working it in a single shade has several advantages, not least among which are the ease of shaping, and size adjustment (this pattern makes it very easy to knit a hood to fit your own head and neck).

The back and top of the hood incorporate a nifty bit of shaping to avoid a pixie-point, and the encircling edging, with the braid and ribbing, lends the whole thing a very pleasing finish.

I like the way this garment’s dark edges – hood, cuffs, and hem – balance out its lively, light-filled centre.

And what of the name? Well, this hoody is called Clanjamfrie, a word all lovers of Scots poetry will immediately recall from its appearance in the last line of Hugh MacDiarmid’s Bonnie Broukit Bairn (1922)

This is a poem about the solar system, the earth, and the planets; it’s a poem about wealth, and inequality; it’s a poem in which there are tears – from the earth, and perhaps for it – but which also counsels courage and commitment – and it does all of this in just eight simple lines! Alan Riach explained MacDiarmid’s poem brilliantly in his open address to COP26 in Glasgow, which is reproduced here. If you are unfamiliar with the poem, I suggest you read Riach’s piece, and then give the recording from the Scottish Poetry Library a listen.

So what’s the link between the poem and the pattern? Well, Clanjamfrie’s circular motifs suggest circulating planets, no less than six of which are currently visible in the night sky, due to interesting alignments in January and February. Stargazing is such a great wintertime activity – something that is completely free, utterly full of wonder, and is guaranteed to prompt a shift in mental perspective if you are feeling low or stuck, in any way. You don’t have to know much (or anything) about astronomy or physics to enjoy the celestial spectacle, and there are some fantastic apps that you can put on your phone to help with orientation and identification. Stargazing definitely ranks very highly among my making-light-of-winter activities, and I promise to share some of Tom’s recent starry photographs with you in a few days time.

I can confirm that with its cosy hood and stranded colourwork, Clanjamfrie makes the perfect stargazing sweater!

. . . or, indeed, the perfect walking-on-the-beach-in-winter-sweater . . .

. . .I’m off to do some more of that right now. Enjoy your day!

We have Clanjamfrie kits in the shop, and the pattern will be winging its way to Making Light club members very shortly. If you’d like to join the club, remember to do so before midnight on Sunday!