The Golden Rules Project

The paperback was a bit worn along the spine and had an unpreposessing cover showing a colour-washed photograph of a ball of wool with 2 straight needles. It should have probably gone straight into the charity shop pile, but I got distracted by the 3s 6d price label and the rather comically named author. And so Knit! with James Norbury was spared from Brontë’s decluttering of the back office and came home with me.

I pictured James Norbury, in a pin-striped suit like an Edwardian gent in a Jeeves and Wooster jape, or perhaps he could have been Earnest’s dandily dressed 3rd cousin, the knitter, in the less well known sequel to Oscar Wilde’s classic.

In fact it turns out that he published this slim guide to knitting in 1968, so I hastily re-syled him as a slightly older pipe-smoker in a swanky slim fitting 60s suit.

James Norbury lays his pipe to one side and begins..

“First Things First.
Let me emphasize at the outset that this is not a book merely to teach you how to knit or what to knit. It is essentially a concise guide to assist all those who are interested in becoming better knitters.“

Oh James Norbury. I’m definitely interested in becoming a better knitter. Can we start learning right away?

James Norbury obliges by explaining how to cast on, knit, purl, cable twist, and all in a steady, methodical, instructional voice that carries a kindly note of condescension, licensed by James Norbury’s senior years, expertise, and of course his sex.

On ‘turning’ (apparently they didn’t call them short-rows in those days), James Norbury begins with a question which he then very agreeably goes on to answer..

“What is a ‘turn’ in knitting?“

“A turn consists of working across so many stitches, turning the work round and then working back along the needle to a given point without completing the row. These turns are usually used in dart shapings, particularly in garments for the fuller figure.“

At this point I imagine James Norbury giving me a cheeky wink as if to say, ‘You might like to have a go at turning too, Dear.’

By the time James reaches page 68, not only do I feel we are we on the cusp of first name terms, but he has also guided me through seaming my separate pieces of knitting using a fine back stitch (I remain politely silent about mattress stitch as I think he may not take kindly to my newfangled ideas about its superior seaming qualities), we’ve travelled along the stitches on my neckband and have finally reached the back cover, but not before, he closes with his pièce de résistance, the five golden rules for better knitting..

..at which point I have a moment of total clarity. No, don’t worry, I’m not going to begin referring to hand knitted clothes as my knitteds (although it might be fun to do that now and again). I realise that even though these golden rules are a window on a knitting world we’ve left behind, it is nevertheless one that we may well have been a part of, had we knitted and listened to Woman’s Hour in the late 1960s. And that this knitting time capsule is somehow too precious to disregard. Obviously we’d say it differently now: less pompously, (hopefully) with less gendered condescension, (please!) with no references to rough textured skirts, but all the same, most days of the week I have the good fortune to have visits from glorious knitters from all walks of life who leave me with their ‘won’t-ever’ Don’ts and their ‘will-always’ Dos. And with all due respect to James Norbury, the golden-ness of these rules shine just as brightly.

And so with grateful thanks to James Norbury for his concisely guided prompt, here are a few to get us started. Please do send in any that you’d like to add, and I will do my best to keep them posted in a place where they can be useful..

From Christine Biedermann, founder of Rauwerk Wolle:

• don’t use DPNs where there is a danger that they’ll fall and disappear into cracks and gaps
• always pack your knitting away a few minutes before your train pulls into your stop, to avoid your ball of wool getting left behind. 
• never sit next to the steps on the top level of a double decker bus. The ball of wool might make its way downstairs on its own and get off without you. 

From Wendy Peterson, Editor and Founder of Yarnsub.com:

• Be Curious!
• If you’re not enjoying your knitting, try to work out why: the fit? the colours? or perhaps you really *do* need to go back and fix that mistake.
• Knit with needles and yarn that you love.
• Keep your nose out of other people’s knitting unless they ask for your opinion… and then give it to them straight 🤣

From Belén Fernandez, Tejer en Inglés Podcast:

Always keep a note of what size you’re making, what needle size you’re using as well as the yarn name, colour and dye lot. Projects are put on hold, sometimes for months (years??) and it’s amazing how quickly you can forget all these details when you pick it up again or find that you’re short on yarn.

From Brontë Swannick, Knitting Supremo at Wild and Woolly

• If you’ve made a mistake when it’s late and you’re tired, don’t try to fix it. Go to bed and look at it in the morning. It will make much more sense then.
• Avoid spontaneous cast ons – those are the ones that never get finished.
• Knitting is slow. You will spend a lot of time with your project so take time to consider what to cast on and make sure it’s something you really love
• Always keep a notebook in your project bag where you can keep track of modifications and do your sweater maths.

From Me 🙂

• Always cut your tail to no more than 10cm.
• If you’re not feeling it, don’t knit it.
• Gauge matters. Take it seriously. Your fabric and your sweater will thank you.
• Do your short rows section in one sitting. Finding out where you stopped in the middle is not fun.
• If you don’t know how to do it, it doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Ask a friendly wool shop keeper. They will show you how.

Post Script: If you’d like to know more about the real James Norbury, chief designer at Patons in the 40s and 50s, also known as the Dior of knitting needles, he makes a delightful appearance on this 1967 episode of the US game show, To Tell the Truth, at 19’20”