During the World Cup I took part in a knitalong in the Ravelry Knit before Wicket group, where cricket and knitting meets, and perhaps it's prophetic that my project really took its inspiration from the longer form of the game, rather than limited-overs-coloured-kit, and specifically, the splendid traditional cricket sweater, as modelled here by the great West Indian cricketer Sir Garfield Sobers.
This design has been a staple of the knitting pattern for many years, from this one in the spirit perhaps of Jennings & Darbyshire...
To a slightly racier his'n'hers version.
What all of these have in common of course is the vast amounts of yarn and knitting required to produce one, so I thought it would be fun to use the signature cables & stripes and make a more accessible version, using ribbed cables to make a reversible scarf, and with the stripes giving you a chance to add your team's colours (or just your favourite colours, come to that). Being a little quicker to knit than a jumper, it would also be feasible to kit your family out in them. As the original project was for the World Cup I chose England's colour - blue - for my stripes, and was very fortunate to get yarn support from the wonderful people at Blacker Yarns. I used their British Classic DK wool in white and navy. Blacker yarns are from British breeds of British sheep, and even spun here, so it was very appropriate for a project to support my team (albeit in a doomed cause - perhaps that's a very British thing as well...?). This wool was also great for the project, warm and hard-wearing, and the cables look fantastic.
The Navy I used is also the main colour of my county team, Middlesex, who play at Lord's,
(to prove it, and in order to have a picture of Middlesex fast bowler Steven Finn in this blog...)
...so I took my scarf along to the first match of the season, Middlesex v Notts, for some photography. Thanks to a vastly unseasonable heat wave, my husband informed me that a cabled scarf would look "weird" with the relatively summery ensemble I was wearing, so we persuaded Lord's' venerable pavilion to act as model instead!
When the usual summer chill descends later in the year, perhaps you'll see it on me, maybe at the Ashes or the traditionally Arctic New Zealand test series.
For the first month I am donating all profits from sale of the pattern to Cricket for Change, a great charity which supports various projects whereby cricket helps to transform the lives of young people - have a look at their page & learn about, for instance, the alternative Inner City World Cup!
