In an earlier post I mentioned that part of the reason for knitting the stranded hat was as a practice for knitting Henry VIII. What I didn’t own up to was that I have already started. In fact I started some time ago, knitted about 3 inches and then put him aside to do other things, and he has been languishing in a pile on the lounge floor ever since. He has been there so long that I actually had to vacuum him before his little photo shoot.

Here he is in all his glory, looking not-quite-as-dusty as before:

The yarn I am using is 4ply weight Shetland from Uppingham Yarns. This knits to a slightly tighter tension than the pattern recommends, and this along with the fact that I am between the two sizes written means I am making a few alterations. Also I am picky about how patterns match as the sleeve joins the body at the shoulder so I am not keen on this being a drop shoulder. The current plan is to make it a raglan – but I still have a bit of working out on graph paper to figure out how to achieve a nice flowing pattern up the yoke. I have plenty of time before I get far enough along with the knitting to need to worry about the shoulders!

To add insult to injury for poor old Henry, during his sojourn on the floor my Dad accidentally put a chair leg on his needles and sat on the chair. For those who haven’t met my Dad, he is not a small man, and is frequently mistaken for Father Christmas by small children (particularly in December) – the occupational hazard of having a white beard and looking jolly. The photo below doesn’t show it particularly well, but Henry’s needles got rather bent during the chair episode.

Henry has now been rescued from the floor and is currently enjoying the change of perspective afforded him by viewing the room from the arm of the settee. I haven’t actually got round to finding him a new needle and started the knitting yet but I feel his time is nearly nigh. One has to work up to these things.

One of these days I will own up to the project neglect being suffered by the beaded dress (I think 7 years and counting) but I need a few more cups of tea first.