As I mention knitting in this blog’s description, I thought I should share one of my longer term projects, which started in London and finished, 25 years later, in Australia. I’m one of those knitters reluctant to frog something which I might, potentially, maybe get around to finishing at some stage even if not immediately, particularly if I’ve put a lot of work into it already.
This knitted article acquired the nickname of the jurby for reasons related to how long it was taking which some might consider a sign of incompetence. Those who know the works of Douglas Adams will recognise the reference as being from The Meaning of Liff. A jurby, he and John Lloyd declared, is:
a loose woollen garment reaching to the knees and with three or more armholes, knitted by the wearer’s well-meaning but incompetent aunt.
My jurby started out as being a lacy cardigan with the usual number of armholes and not unduly long. It never arrived at the point of reaching the knees nor did it acquire extra armholes but, because I obviously hadn’t done something properly in my calculations and ran out of yarn, it did have only one sleeve. The adventurous amongst you might not be unduly disturbed at the idea but in a cold place, which you’d agree London often is, the usual number of sleeves is much more useful.
Many moves later (back to Australia, interstate, back to the originating state again), the jurby was still not finished but still too pretty to frog when, you know, it might be possible to rescue it. Somehow.
Fashions are constantly changing but a vest or gilet or waistcoat is often a useful extra and their styles fluctuate widely. I decided that the jurby could be turned into one of those by doing a crocheted edging around the armholes. If I’d ever bought buttons, which I probably had done, I’d either used them for something else or put them away safely and forgotten where, so I scouted around in my button box and found some wooden buttons that seemed about the right size. Here’s the finished jurby.
No sleeves at all
So you want some details? It was an Argyll Wools Ltd pattern for their Chameleon range of mohair yarn. The leaflet was number 681 and it’s dated 11/85.
tingledfangers 