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Alan Dart
Trumptonalia.
Camberwick figures designed by knitting guru Alan Dart.
The pic,below .... shows part of the magazine article where the patterns were launched.
If you're approaching these completely cold for the first time I'd imagine the initial reaction might be mixed.
But don't be too quick to judge.
Just remember how small they are,and that wool isn't exactly the material of choice to capture fine detail.
A pen and ink artist can get fantastic detail in a drawing.But that's only with the aid of an ultra thin flow of ink,and a tiny nib.
And the Sistine Chapel would've looked a lot different if they'd only given Michelangelo a 4" emulsion brush and some tins of textured ceiling paint.
In other words,set your expectations accordingly and I think you'll appreciate them a lot more.
Not that I'm qualified to judge,but they seem to be what Alan Dart had in mind.
Until someone tells me different ....
I'm indebted to a couple of contributors who've provided all the information and photos.
Here's what they had to say in the email I received :- "munki" & "nekoglyph" are their www.flickr.com pseudonyms.
Quote " You probably know about the patterns already but they're from a Woman's Weekly Knitting Special,page 68 onwards, from 2006 (I'm guessing the year,because they mention the 40th anniversary of Camberwick Green in a boxout with a link to the Robert Harrop website)
They are original pages clipped from the mag and I bought them on ebay at great expense !
Alan Dart knitting patterns are highly sought after.
You'll notice Mr Dart has erroneously called them characters 'from the tiny hamlet of Camberwick Green' - tsk!
They were a bugger to knit as they are only 18cm tall for the chaps,17cm for the ladies and 5.5cm for the dogs.
Any inaccuracies,such as the pekes looking more like poodles are from the original pattern and of course we had to find suitable colours of balls of wool,copied from the DVDs with varying quality of colour transfer,plus all the trimmings,which is why the Mayor has a rose,not a carnation. " End quote
My thoughts
-The link with the 40th anniversary of the 1st broadcast of Camberwick is probably correct.
Unfortunately,none of the characters chosen actually appeared in Camberwick.They're all from Trumpton.
And,as the email rightly points out,even the "tiny hamlet" comment is wrong.
Slightly pedantic of us both maybe.
But people in the licensing and promotional food chain are paid good money to get these things right.
-Full marks for the rose/carnation insight.
It was actually Ep.3,"Mrs.Cobbitt & the Ice Cream Man",when the tree crashes through Mrs.Cobbit's roof.
Hard to tell from the knitted version whether it's a rose or carnation to be honest. But that's hardly surprising on that small a scale. And I presume it's covered up by his chain of office in the magazine photo,rather than missing completely.
Although it should be noted that Mr.Dart forgot to include a flower at all in his pattern,so any such addition is purely personal preference -even if it is more factually accurate to have one than not.
-The comment that "They were a bugger to knit" is somewhat reassuring.
Because the last thing you really want to hear is "We knocked them out in about 20 mins".
And whilst I don't normally countenance the use of a "b" word on Trumptonalia,it nicely reinforces the view that even some experienced knitters might be better off sticking to a nice cardie.
Although even "a nice cardie" can be a hand grenade in the wrong hands ! cont.below the pic of their handywork
