Ch 4 Game of Wool. Britain’s Best Knitter

I saw a clip of the knitted deck chair fabric being sat on. It stretched and sank to the floor. A bit like my childhood knitted swimming costume when wet!

They didn't give it to here. As she was drawing the guitar, she said she wanted to knit the front. Stephanie said she was happy for Meadow to take it on. Meadow said she knew she was inexperienced but wanted to push herself. By the look on Ailsa's face, she wasn't happy about it.

The two more experienced knitters should perhaps have tried to dissuade her or swapped tasks part through but maybe felt she needed a bit of a confidence boost after the judges criticised her work in the first round.

From what we are being shown, nobody seems that bothered about gauge. Imperative I would say when different knitters are working on parts of the same garment.

I think I will keep watching or at least give it another week. What can possibly go wrong with knitted swimsuits and deckchairs other than a lot of sag where it isn't needed?!

ginny

Well there is some talent there but the tasks are misdirected. Dog hats! Blind judging although they seemed to know who had worked on what. Actually I think I might carry on watching just because it is so weird.

I feel the same about watching it. If they water test next weeks knitted swimwear it could get really exciting! 🤣

I felt that in the group challenge both Ailsa and Stephanie hung Meadow out to dry. They are both very talented knitters but Meadow is in the very early stages. However, they gave her the most difficult part of the jumper to knit with stitches she hadn't even heard of. They should have given her the sleeves and tackled the main part themselves.
There are some very good knitters and at this stage Holger and Ailsa stand out but this show doesn't have anything like the same feel that Pottery Throwdown and Bake-Off have. Not even close.

I tried again last night, but gave up after about 20 minutes.

Absolutely dire. If ever a programme missed the mark it's this one.

I don't want to be mean but I really want to give that judge woman a comb to sort out her hair and take those silly needles out.

Poor Meadow .... an intarsia pattern of a guitar with mohair wool. Really hard to do.

Well there is some talent there but the tasks are misdirected. Dog hats! Blind judging although they seemed to know who had worked on what. Actually I think I might carry on watching just because it is so weird.

Once bitten and all that. I watched the first one and it was so utterly dreadful that I decided not to again .... it sounds as though I was right!

I have tried to watch this programme (in spite of the awful Tom Daley) but after 20 minutes today I just couldn't bear it any more.
Sad really. Textiles are a love of mine.

Crimes against dogs. I could see the point of the coats as it tests shaping for something other than a human body but those silly hats???

Crimes against humans. Making them knit with mohair. Meadow is so inexperienced that it was wrong, wrong, wrong to let her loose on the front of an intarsia sweater when there’s someone as good as Ailsa in the team.

I felt sorry for precise Holger in the sweater challenge. I like him but clearly he's a man who would rather work alone.

I still think it's daft to judge the group challenge blind as it misses entirely how well or not they work together. Were they even aware that one team had to contend with one member walking off part way through?

Easy to pick the best and worst this week. Right decisions.

I'm very slightly warming to this show but woolly swimwear next week? Back in the 70s, I crocheted myself a teeny white bikini from a Golden Hands part works pattern. Looked great on but definitely not for swimming in, so why?

It was awful again. Dog coats, chunky tank tops, 80s jumpers, sofa covers - why not make something people might actually want to knit?

I can't be doing with the back stories either. It's as bad as the 'What would you do with the £500 prize money if you win?' questions. It's obvious that they are supposed to say it will change their lives, when it would be a nice treat, but between a team of three is unlikely to go very far.

At times the judges didn’t quite know what to say and either stroked their faces or looked sideways.

I thought using mohair was very unfair on some of the contestants because mohair is a pig to knit with. A couple of them were quite new knitters and probably more used to plain DK yarns.

I didn’t like the idea of dog clothes but they all made a great effort. The dogs didn’t look impressed.

Have gone off the German guy. Far too bossy. Tracey was itching to get some embellishments on their jumper but he was having none of it. The judges saying you could see they were all working together as one! 😂

I am still favouring Ailsa to win.

Tonight’s was so embarrassing, ridiculous dog coats and 3 different people knitting one jumper!
No description of the stiches or technique used.

Really disappointed that again, they've sent a creative one home.

And the guy whose crochet skills are weak decided to wing the crochet bit. Why?

Tizliz

*Watching The Repair Shop, for instance, it seems everyone chosen has to have a back story now about loss or a traumatic time in their lives*

so agree, more story and less repairs.

I know someone that was in a tv programme that was shown recently ( not repair shop) and he told me they had to find an angle for the show, even if it’s a bit obscure. Since then I see some programmes in a different light eg in those auction programmes they always have to have a reason for wanting the money such as a holiday. Whereas they probably just want to have a jolly good clear out.

Anyone else find the tears by the judge embarrassing. It's a piece of knitting, i just don't understand the crying!!!
Perhaps I'm getting cynical in my old age.

This is bonkers.

Those poor dogs with knitted crowns. I'm a bit confused about what's going on.

People who learned to crochet before they learned to knit often stick with the continental way of knitting because they're used to tensioning the yarn with their left hand. I learned to knit as a very young child. When I taught myself to crochet many, many years later I found it too difficult trying to tension with my left hand, so crochet how I knit with yarn and hook both in the right hand. It works for me. Whatever works for the individual is the best way to do it.

Allira

I've just looked on YouTube.
The yarn is held around the fingers of the left hand, the needle pushed through the stitch and the yarn picked up and pulled back through.

I knit by holding the yarn in the right hand fingers, inserting the needle into the stitch and 'throwing' the yarn around then pulling through, without lifting hands off the needles.

Yes. My brain is addled today and I couldn’t explain how to do it. Your way is the method mostly used in the UK.

I've just looked on YouTube.
The yarn is held around the fingers of the left hand, the needle pushed through the stitch and the yarn picked up and pulled back through.

I knit by holding the yarn in the right hand fingers, inserting the needle into the stitch and 'throwing' the yarn around then pulling through, without lifting hands off the needles.

Allira

🤔 I've seen it, tried it, can't do it.
Is it Continental knitting?

Allira. Continental knitting is just using the needles in a different way. It is supposed to be faster. My late MIL was German and she knitted that way and was really fast. I do it from time to time.

I will be watching again tonight.

🤔 I've seen it, tried it, can't do it.
Is it Continental knitting?

I'll watch it again, I suppose. One thing I will not like (from the ads I've seen) is the dogs dressed up like dolls!

I wish we could have seen the actual way each knitter was dealing with a stitch. From my lifelong friend, a lifelong knitter and born in Fife, I learned the way she did it; not to move the wool up and round the needle, but to push the needle in to pick up the wool from the other side.
- I hope this made sense! Is there a word for this method?

www.shetnews.co.uk/2025/11/07/wishart-expresses-extreme-disappointment-game/?fbclid=IwY2xjawN7_tlleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeSfJAmbnoEX-naZHtd3LrrioJ3ocehe3xuAto80cM06HWqpGzC_SHo5m8eF4_aem_Tio3hvHQDMesKq8gh_OJ0A

NotSpaghetti

Allira maybe your teddy would like to make a friend of my husband's old (and special) teddy - who suffered an unfortunate trip to the barbers when quite young ...
🧸 🧸

My Teddy was put through an old fashioned mangle, by my brother. Teddy survived, but my brother broke his finger!