Ch 4 Game of Wool. Britain’s Best Knitter

I found the two judges dreadfully dull. (Sorry ladies, I'm sure you're lovely people really), but we need judges with a bit of personality, like the great ones on the Sewing Bee programme.
I like Tom though, and hope the series improves .

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...

I watched Game of Wool this afternoon and enjoyed it.
I am a very inexperienced knitter but can understand why purists may be irritated by the chunky knits and silly group project. I thought the judges were lovely and nice to see men involved in the competition.
The poncho worn by one of the judges was stunning.

J52

Why didn’t the first challenge show the ability to read a pattern, like they do on Sewing Bee?

Yes, that would have been better rather than designing in the first programme and that silly sofa task.

Why didn’t the first challenge show the ability to read a pattern, like they do on Sewing Bee?

PaynesGrey

Di Gilpin has a lot of patterns on Ravelry. She’s the founder and creative director of Di Gilpin Ltd, her hand-knit design studio which has been based in Scotland for over 40 years. Sheila Greenwell is her production manager.

Chunky Fair Isle? I would rather have seen the finished objects on mannekins so we could have a closer look. The camera angles were poor and not enough time given to to the judging as far as the viewer could see.

Colourwork in a spiral is going to create jogs so I would like to have seen how the knitters dealt with that. The focus was all on the motifs rather than the quality of the knitting.

Unlike the pattern challenge on Sewing Bee, it wasn’t really a level playing field with everyone doing different neck and armhole finishes. Did Steeking Gordon actually sew along the seam edges before he cut?

Ailsa came across as the most talented and calm.

I didn’t watch all of the sofa challenge but wasn’t impressed with the end results. One was a dog’s breakfast and the other looked little different to draping a throw over the sofa.

Next week, dog outfits. No, no no.

There’s a reason why knitting isn’t suitable as a time-constrained solo or team sport and this showed why.

I hadn't realised next week's was dog outfits. Oh dear. I hope they don't use actual dogs as models!

Just watched it.

Well, it wasn't as bad as I anticipated! The tasks were quite ridiculous, of course and those huge needles? Just why?
I did think it was a waste of yarn!

The other thing that was noticeable was that one of the contestants wore crocheted items and some examples she showed of her work were crocheted too.

Will they be tackling crochet next time? It is called Game of
Wool, not Game of Knitting.

I felt sorry for Gordon; that woman on the cruise was extremely rude and sexist too. I've joined in a knitathon on board ship on sea days - we made blankets to hand to a charity for distribution to charities in cyclone-hit areas.

Di Gilpin is quite famous in the knitting world, in fact I attended one of her workshops many years ago. However, I am too old school to approve of using chunky yarn for Fair Isle knitting but it would have taken a very long time to finish the garments otherwise and I do wish this programme had abandoned the time limit nonsense and allow the knitted items to be properly finished. If Tom has knitted his own outfit then he could do with attending one of Di's workshops to learn about tension and finishing.

Disappointing.
Chunky wool and fairisle is just silly. As is knitting a sofa cover.
I felt it was all a waste of good wool to be honest.

Retroladywriting

I was very disappointed. The 'knitting' was extreme (as the presenters pointed out several times) so didn't reflect the actual real-life knitting we do in real life. The two judges were pretty useless too. They didn't critique the knitting like the judges in the Sewing Bee and seemed to be focussing purely on the design element, which considering what they, and Tom Daley, were wearing, isn't really surprising I suppose. As for covering a sofa in knitting - who would?

No words for whatever that was that Tom was wearing.

I agree about the judges. They seemed confused about what they should and shouldn’t say. Their comments weren’t useful at all.

Maybe they are better designers than they are TV judges. 😉

I'm also not a fan of Tom 'he should have stuck to diving' Daley.

It seems he's trying to promote knitting; good, but secondary to promoting himself; bad.

Won't be watching.

Interesting that the 2 men who tried something 'different' - the man with the steeking (I'd love to have seen a real steeked top) and the lad with the ladderback technique (again information and a graphic to explain would have been good), and wasn't he the sunset designer with intarsia? - were the ones deemed weakest. They were the most interesting.

I knit occasionally, adore fair isle, but I hated the fair isle bit. Why not ask them to design a sweater for a teddy, show off their design skills (loved that bit) but make it in proper fair isle yarn.
I quite liked the sofa bit, but again far too big. Why a sofa? Why not a child's chair? And those ridiculous needles?!
I liked Tom Daley, loved the kilt. I think it's the programme's design team that need to be redesigned

I quite liked the idea of this, and it wasn’t too bad to watch.. However, why in the world did they choose Tom Daley as the presenter? He was boring, clearly not the slightest bit interested in the contestants or their work, and looked a fright! What on earth was he wearing? It was horrendous.
I liked the contestants, and I liked the idea, but in reality it failed miserably. I probably shan’t bother to watch again, unless it’s to see if it improves. It certainly couldn’t get any worse! A change in presenter might help, but I think it is a no-no. I can’t see a series coming out of this.

I think it had no vibe at all, and those two women judges….words fail me. Talk about disheveled. I rather liked Tom’s kilt. They are all the rage in London I hear. My son has a camouflage one.
The knitters were excellent but the program boring.

I have some huge needles which were inherited from MIL but have never used them. They don't look as if they've ever been used, in fact.
The only thing they seemed suitable for was knitting dishcloths.

I wasn't sure if the idea behind this programme would work and it doesn't.

Knitting is something we do to relax and maybe use to reduce any stress. The sofa thing was ridiculous and it's so hard to knit with those huge needles.

I think they need different judges also. Intersia knitting I tried once and thought never again.

I was disappointed too. I usually love any craft/ art type programme but found this dull. Not disputing that there are some brilliant knitters. In my opinion Tom Daley is not an inspiring presenter.

Di Gilpin has a lot of patterns on Ravelry. She’s the founder and creative director of Di Gilpin Ltd, her hand-knit design studio which has been based in Scotland for over 40 years. Sheila Greenwell is her production manager.

Chunky Fair Isle? I would rather have seen the finished objects on mannekins so we could have a closer look. The camera angles were poor and not enough time given to to the judging as far as the viewer could see.

Colourwork in a spiral is going to create jogs so I would like to have seen how the knitters dealt with that. The focus was all on the motifs rather than the quality of the knitting.

Unlike the pattern challenge on Sewing Bee, it wasn’t really a level playing field with everyone doing different neck and armhole finishes. Did Steeking Gordon actually sew along the seam edges before he cut?

Ailsa came across as the most talented and calm.

I didn’t watch all of the sofa challenge but wasn’t impressed with the end results. One was a dog’s breakfast and the other looked little different to draping a throw over the sofa.

Next week, dog outfits. No, no no.

There’s a reason why knitting isn’t suitable as a time-constrained solo or team sport and this showed why.

I thought it was disappointing. Time constraints make learning anything (I’m an average knitter) impossible and the presenters are as dull as ditchwater.
The sofa cover on the left was ridiculous and a waste of air time. Ditto Tom Daley.

I was very disappointed. The 'knitting' was extreme (as the presenters pointed out several times) so didn't reflect the actual real-life knitting we do in real life. The two judges were pretty useless too. They didn't critique the knitting like the judges in the Sewing Bee and seemed to be focussing purely on the design element, which considering what they, and Tom Daley, were wearing, isn't really surprising I suppose. As for covering a sofa in knitting - who would?

No words for whatever that was that Tom was wearing.

This falls well short of The Great British Bake Off and The Great Pottery Throwdown.
Tom Daley is ok as the presenter and the judges are clearly very experienced knitters but it somehow doesn't have the same vibe as the baking and pottery competitions. Perhaps it's early days for the knitters. I will give it another go, though.

I did think, after a while, that it was a bit like watching paint dry. Looking at people knitting, however talented they may be, is probably one of the least exciting things I can think to do!

And, really, would you knit a sofa cover?

I think this is just an attempt to add another hobby/craftsy type programme to the growing list and I reckon they're running out of good ideas!

I'll give it a second chance next week before giving up.

I also heard him complaining that he wasn't allowed to wear his "own brand" commercially available knitwear for the show".

I might have watched this as though not an avid knitter I am a textiles of all sorts fan - however I have been put right off it as it's presented by Tom Daley.

Since his appearance on the Traitors - where he came crossed as unpleasant and self-important. ...and afterwards said he'd tried to persuade the producers to "resurrect" him - I have totally changed my opinion of him.