Yarn bought on holiday for a jumper for Dave. I’ve been pondering what to make with it. Then I discovered Barbara Walker’s banjo cable and, since the recipient is the author of Breakdown: Banjo Poems it seemed like a no-brainer.

After looking at a number of pictures of banjos I’ve modified the cable slightly to look a bit more, well, like a banjo. The neck a bit longer and thinner and the body having a vertical element vaguely reminiscent, I hope, of strings.

The plan is to have a plain stocking stitch garment with a banjo panel running down each sleeve.

After some vigorous swatching I have cut my cable to suit my gauge and the size of the planned finished garment. I want a whole number of banjos rather than end up with a fractional instrument dangling near the cuff. Therefore the pattern is over 22 rows and should give eight repeats down the outside of the arm from the neck.

Now to find a piece of paper, write down the numbers and start knitting. Oh, and I’m not sure if I’ll have enough of the brown for the whole jumper so I’ll do the top and the sleeves before the body. I’ve got some sister yarn in a much paler brown left over from an earlier project which could provide a contrasting hoop round the body if the dark brown runs short.

25 November - it has struck me that the cable looks like a leaf stoma too.

30 November - first (left) sleeve done.

3 December - nearly finished the second sleeve, and it looks as though it will very nearly all the first skein. Since each skein is about 400g, and since the Greystone used 750g in total with, it would seem, just over 400g on the body up to the arms, I’m going to gamble on the second skein being enough for the body given that this has fewer stitches.

11 December - five strings run up each side, fifth string starting lower than the other four. Got 12” of body done and plenty of yarn left for the rest. It would be good to get it finished, soaked and dried before departure.

Note to self - fifth string starts about 1/3 of the way down on lhs when looking at it.

(The chapbook, which I highly recommend, is available for purchase from the Seven Kitchens Press website.)