Argyll sweater for Trendon Elliott the 'evacuee'

Inspired by our roadtrip in the Argyll region of Scotland during August with Laura and Nicholas James, I decided that the sleeveless sweater my 'evacuee' for the Chat 'n Snap needed to use the 200 year old Argyll diamond pattern, rather than be plain grey, which had been my original plan. The Chat 'n Snap is being held in Hertfordshire, England.

Last year when attending the Sasha Festival in Syracuse, I bought all three knitting and sewing books from the Marcy Street Doll company which had been reprinted in time for the festival. In the 'Seventeen Knitting Patterns From Marcy Street Doll Company' (designed by Debby Woodman Ronnquist) is a knitting pattern for an Argyle Sweater for Sasha (pattern no 162). The design was mapped out on a grid, using symbols but to check that my yarn colour choices were about right, I transferred the whole front view to a spreadsheet of tiny grid squares filled with colours to correspond with the symbols then printed it out for my own use. This proved immensely helpful when knitting. I knitted the back first (which was plain grey) to ensure I had got the size right before starting on the slightly more complicated front. Interestingly, the hand written knitting pattern didn't specify how many stitches to pick up around the neck and armpit edges for the finishing, so I worked it out and recorded this in the pattern book, just in case I decide to knit it again sometime.

My printed out colour version of the Argyll design by Marcy Street Doll Company

I already had the grey shorts and knitted socks from when I'd made replicas of my primary school's uniform 10 years ago. For the Evacuee outfit I used a Sasha/Gregor school shirt for the long sleeved shirt under the sweater and some black shoes from our collection of Sasha/Gregor shoes.

I wanted to knit a flat cap with peak but could not find a pattern which was Gregor sized, so instead found a pattern online by Debonair Designs for a Newsboy cap which was for an 18" doll. It was designed to use double knit wool and thicker needles, so I used the same grey 4ply wool and needles I'd used for the sweater and it came out the right size for his head (I made the peak a little deeper than the one in the design).

Close up of the Argyll Sweater and flat cap being worn by Trendon Elliott

Trendon Elliott is the evacuee, so his labels safety pinned on his sweater and tied to his suitcase have his name and 'please look after this boy' written on them (a nod to Paddington Bear). I made his gas mask box from some brown card and string.

Trendon Elliott as the 1940s Evacuee complete with his gas mask box, suitcase and labels

Trendon Elliott is all ready for the Chat 'n Snap 1940s Evacuees theme.