The story of the Hogs Swatch Cowl KAL

And how thoughts collide

“Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree.” Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

Whether these physicists agree with me or not, the idea for my Hogs Swatch Cowl knitalong did start somewhere due to an unexpected collision of thoughts in Starbucks last December.

But before I go any further, I would like to state for the record that I am a huge sci-fi and fantasy nerd. It all started when a nearly 4 year old first encountered Star Wars, as it was simply known back in 1977. From that moment I watched ordinary children’s films as entertainment with my family, but then there were those where I became immersed, seeking out everything I could about these strange yet comforting worlds and places.

Then came the reading of books! I would practically inhale anything put in front of me, but the book series that accompanied me right from my early teens to now was Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld (and everything else that he wrote!). I remember my friend lending me their copy of Sorcery was I was 14 and that was it! I was in love with a world that was brought to life so vividly by the wit and insightfulness of the author.

Now I don’t know if it’s because I have a photographic memory or the memory of an elephant, but not even the slightest detail escapes me. That’s why I find it so hard to watch film adaptations of books I’ve read. So much never makes it onto the screen and I end up with a profound sense of disappointment. Unless it’s anything Tolkein related, but that’s a different story entirely!

But before you can see why having random facts lurking in my brain about a place I can only visit in my head is pertinent, I have to explain the other element in this story.

I am a knitwear designer. And there is an erroneous belief that to design anything you have to be an expert at everything in your area. But that’s a bit rubbish! I’ve been knitting for 40 plus years and there are still techniques that are alien to me. But I do have the desire to learn new skills and perfect my existing ones to ensure that I can knit the designs I see in my head and, by extension, write the patterns for everyone else to knit.

With this in mind, I set myself challenges to hone and expand my knitting arsenal. Back in December last year I decided to get to grips with colourwork because one of the longer term challenges I’ve set myself is to design a colourwork jumper by 2025. Now I’d tried colourwork when I was younger, most unsuccessfully. Once I’d salvaged the resulting mess, I usually ended up with scrappy scarves! But I wasn’t going to let my past experience deter me because I had ideas to design!

And so with different coloured yarns purchased, I began experimenting with snowflake shapes in the days between Christmas and New Year. I am pleased to report this went well. It was while I was blocking the three swatches that I’d completed at that point I thought, “actually knitting swatches like this could be a bit wasteful!”

The next day, and this is where everything comes together, I went to Leeds to do some sale shopping. But my idea of shopping involves much coffee, lunch, more coffee and perhaps some wine with a little shopping in between! It was on my first coffee stop of the day, where I was seated in a more secluded area in Starbucks, that my ears pricked up.

“Well, it was good that I got the Hogfather on Christmas Day because that’s also Hogswatch,” said a child of no more than ten years old to their father.

At this point my brain did a strange thing. Whilst the nerd part tutted and went, ‘yeah except Hogswatch is on New Years Day not Christmas Day,’ my knitting brain was thinking again about the swatches that were potentially going to end up without purpose in a bag somewhere. It was then that I chuckled to myself. ‘Hogswatch, Hogs Swatch!’ The seed was planted.

This seed grew rapidly and has been nurtured over the last 10 months into what is now the Hogs Swatch cowl KAL. I’ll be writing more about the actual cowl design and the process of getting the KAL to this point and the KAL itself with its cast on date of…you guessed it…Hogwatch New Year’s Day. But, for now, this was the somewhere where my idea started and which then set me off down a very fun path.

Until next time…