Ch 4 Game of Wool. Britain’s Best Knitter

Stella14

Primrose - I think your description of the judges is disgusting. Maybe think about how you have internalised misogyny and ageism.

Disgusting? 😱
I am female and getting on a bit so maybe it’s touchiness on your part. Loads of women on here and countless other discussions are saying the same.

I dont like Tom Daley .. went off him on Traitors .. he seemed mean ...wont watch it again ..

I didn’t understand why one of the contestants cut the armholes of his tank top.

Steeking (cutting armholes and necklines in tubes of knitting, as well as to separate the fronts of cardigans) is traditional for fair isle. The patterns knit up more quickly and evenly when knitted in the round on circular needles than when done back and forth on straight needles. I assume the contestant had done it like this before, and maybe didn't realise that it works best on fine hairy yarn, which makes stitches 'stick' together and not unravel before the borders are added. Knitters usually add in a few stitches to make a column that can be steered with a bit of wriggle room.

Making fair isle garments out of chunky yarn is such an 'unusual' choice that it is unlikely that there was precedent for it in his experience, but that was the challenge as set.

Having said that, I have never used chunky to knit fair isle, but that's because it just doesn't make sense to do so.

What a disappointment. The poor knitters forced to not be able to show case their talents. Not great judges, poorly thought out. Lost opportunity.

What came up in the Ravelry discussion were references to a Danish knitting show called Den Store Strikkedyst The Great Knit Off. It’s on You Tube.

Contestants sit in a semi circle on hard chairs and make small items: part of a sock, a Christmas bauble, a neck tie, an Alice band. Some of it is depressing not least because there seems to be a lot of “knit your life” challenges just as we had with the tank top on GoW.

The Alice band challenge was to knit something to reflect a dark period in the contestant’s life. Cue lots of stories and about death and dying with everyone crying or choking back tears. It felt horribly intrusive.

But that aside, the various challenges did give contestants a chance to show a variety of knitting skills. One one show, I saw something akin to the transformation challenge on Sewing Bee where they were given a plain white T shirt to transform with knitted embellishments.

I always have knitting on the go - sometimes more than one project at the same time. The chunky yarn that they were using really isn’t suitable for many items. I think it’s okay for pouffes, storage containers and maybe bags, but not really for garments, and it’s certainly not easy to knit with. They could have asked the contestants to design a sampler displaying a Fair-isle pattern, done in either four ply or double knitting. It didn’t need to be a garment. I didn’t understand why one of the contestants cut the armholes of his tank top. The sofa coverings were a failure. They could have made amigurumi characters - nice and small. If they’re constantly going to be using that chunky yarn, I won’t continue watching.

I too watched this and felt quite critical...why did it have to be all chunky? Why couldn't they knit small things in thinner wool? (I'm thinking here of something like the decorative postbox tops I've seen at intervals here, or clothes for a teddy bear, or gloves?)
The showing of the knitting went past far too quickly and didn't show the whole work for some of them.

I can't remember what the judges said at all - so it can't have been anything perceptive. ! Or interesting.

Stella14

Primrose - I think your description of the judges is disgusting. Maybe think about how you have internalised misogyny and ageism.

I don't think what Primrose said was in the slightest misogynist or ageist, Stella14:

I find your comment strange as what Primrose said could equally apply to men or people of any age.

Yes, they are both talented designers but perhaps not natural TV presenters or judges.

I don't know why so many sports people expect to become good presenters. Talent at diving doesn't make someone a 'personality' - in fact a lot of people who have devoted themselves to sport at that level become so single-minded that their people skills are sadly lacking.

I appreciate that a career in sport can be short and that people need to have plan B, but I don't think they should be catapulted into 'celebrity' presenting as a matter of course. Even TD's knitting is not exceptional. It's something of a quirky USP for a young man, but I get the impression his agent told him to learn so that he'd have a way of making money when the diving stopped. His kits are basic - boxy patterns in chunky yarns, and are expensive for what they are. This vest, for instance, is £82 to make oversized as it is meant to be worn. There are many other knitters who could have presented better, I'm sure.

Dull as ditch water, all of it.

This programme was a bit of a lark really. Took the Great British Sewing Bee concept and format one step too far.

Reminded me a bit of Blue Peter. Here is one. l made earlier. Looks cheap and a bit desperate really.

Cutey Tom Daley hair cut awful. He is a real mish mash of umpteen things.

He is not a natural presenter and needs lessons in this area.

Shame really. As knitted garments can be very creative and beautiful.

You wouldn't learn anything about knitting on this programme, only about some poor souls getting very stressed.
It was a badly designed first episode. Can it be rescued? Not by making coats for lapdogs....pppplease

I recorded this so I could forward through the boring bits and ads. I haven’t knitted for ages and this hasn’t inspired me to dig out my needles.

Asking talented knitters to knit with very thick yarn and huge needles was an insult. Better to let them finish their garments over a few days or at home.

At least they didn't throw some inane comedian into the mix !!!

While I’m not impressed with the format of the show, I wish they had come up with something original rather than copy the format of other craft shows, there is no doubt that Di Gilpin is a very talented designer. How about this?

This is a very pleasant podcast where Gilpin and Greenwell discuss the making of the show and many other things.

tjfrog.co.uk/tjfrog-chat-with-di-gilpin-amp-sheila-greenwell/

Both are quietly-spoken, modest women but then Patrick and Esme on Sewing Bee and Keith and Rich on Throwdown are not exactly loud. Nor are Prue and Paul on GBBO.

It was disappointing, wasn't it? The two judges had no personality at all, sadly. Why not have one who isn't a technical knitter but is a designer? I'd suggest Zandra Rhodes. I know people who've done amazing Fairisle work - I'd rather see one they've prepared earlier rather than have them cobble something together against the clock on crazily vast needles. As for Tom Daley - just.. no.

Primrose - I think your description of the judges is disgusting. Maybe think about how you have internalised misogyny and ageism.

I think calling it "the game of wool" is misleading

Or crocheting, rug making, felting etc

That's interesting PaynesGrey it's not really just a knitting programme in concept.. but a lot more with curious and varied challenges. There may even be opportunity for "darning needle" type knitting in the jewellery/sculpture sections..

I think calling it "the game of wool" is misleading as clearly you may find people knitting with (say) old video tapes or wet spaghetti as you might do in a textiles degree or foundation course!

There may be no wool involved it seems to me.

I read the discussion on Ravelry. It’s been going on since last summer when the programme was in development and applications to take part invited. This was the original concept:

www.channel4.com/press/news/more4-cast-new-competitive-knitting-series-game-wool

I have no gripe with Tom Daley but would have preferred Ryan Gosling!

Extracts:

… each episode sees the knitters tackle two challenges: ‘The Big Knit’ where they’ll be working together in teams on an extremely complex project, as well as ‘The Wee Knit’ where they’ll take on individual briefs that will really test their capabilitie [and] skill level …

our formidable pair of experts [Gilpin and Greenwell] won’t be alone, each week they’ll be joined by a celebrity guest judge who’ll help them decide who goes through and who’ll be ‘cast off’ home.

I’m assuming that now means Daley every week.

I’ve been think about why the format doesn’t work (for me anyway) and that’s because it’s too static. It has taken the format of GBBO, Sewing Bee and Pottery Throwdown which involve dynamic crafts and and mapped it onto a static craft. Watching people sitting knitting just isn’t exciting.

Part of the excitment of the other shows is seeing contestants moving about from take to task and dashing to get finished even it’s only from counter top to fridge or slopping on some last minute icing; from sewing machine to haberdashery to mannekin or model, machine sewing bits of garments which should be handsewn, pinning things and hoping Esme doesn’t notice; from wheel to drying room and the jeopardy of the kiln god. Plus on Throwdown, we have the enjoyment of seeing the judges Keith and Rich and occasional guests demonstrate their skills.

I love to knit but it isn’t exciting to watch. What does one do under time pressure? Just knit a bit faster.

And where GoW has copied the blind judging format, it just doesn’t work in the context of a group project. Surely part of the judging should take into account how well people worked together, who put in more effort, who was more innovative. I didn’t watch the whole sofa cover challenge (bored with the frequent long ad breaks) just the end result so maybe viewers did see some discussion as the works were in progress. It seemed to me that the person who went home was judged only or primarily on a bad technical error in the first round but maybe he was equally poor in the second.

I thought both judges were ideal. I am tired of ‘big personalities’ and flamboyance.

Not good. I watched it on catch up last night, won't be bothering with the next episode. TD looked a right idiot, in a poorly knitted rag. The two judges had no personality and did not add anything to the programme.
Silly challenges, no way would anyone knit fair isle with those needles/wools, and the sofa covers - what was that about? Awful.
And next time animal clothes! No.

I stopped watching Sewing Bee as it has gradually dumbed down and got silly over the series, but this started out bad.

I watched the first episode but shan’t watch any more.
Ridiculous challenge ‘covering a sofa’ in 10 hours.
I like Tom but this didn’t do him any favours and , as said, the two old dears were hopeless.

Not for me I’m afraid.

Emeraldforest

I'm not much of a knitter, but I love e all the creative competition shows! I thought Tom Daley was great, he has done so much to promote knitting for the younger folk. I loved how everyone was wearing their own knits! Their tank tops were so colourful, I might try some Fair Isle. My previous attempt was for my daughter when she was about 6...she's now 47...I made her leg warmers in all sorts of colours, Scandinavian patterns,very nice except 1 leg warmer had 6 reindeer running around it and the other only had 4...

If you try fair isle for the first time, for goodness sake don’t use chunky yarn, or superwash/acrylic etc. you need a fine, ‘sticky’ yarn like Shetland wool (Jamieson and Smith Spindrift is perfect).