Regular readers of this blog will have noticed I’ve got a bit of a thing for Australiana in knitting patterns. The 1980’s were a great time for Australian flora, fauna and landscapes rendered in intarsia designs.
The trend became really popular after the Princess of Wales wore a Jenny Kee koala jumper to a polo match where it was an instant hit.
Enthusiasm for Australiana was stimulated by the fashion and art of Jenny Kee and Ken Done, as well as the celebrations and patriotism of the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane and the Bicentennial celebrations of 1988.
It felt like Australia had shrugged off a lot of the cultural cringe of previous decades in favour of celebrating being Australian and living in Australia.
Knitting was still an incredibly popular and common pastime. All the regular women’s magazines featured knitting patterns as a matter of course. Cleckheaton even had ads on the telly during prime time (remember “click-clack, Cleckheaton”?)
So when I came across this pattern leaflet – Cleckheaton Australiana 2 – I was immediately transported back to the 80’s. (I think this one is quite late in the decade, and possibly even the very early 90’s).
My knitting skills in the 80’s were limited to an annual attempt at making a Dr Who scarf and giving up about 20 rows in. I did wear a lot of intarsia jumpers though – mostly from Fossey’s and K-mart, but definitely bold, pictorial intarsia.
I’m going to hunt down the rest of this series of patterns. There are at least 4 according to a quick Google search and I just bought volume one on eBay.
As much as I love these patterns, I really don’t think I’d ever wear them. They might make an appearance as cushion covers though and I think they’d look fantastic.
