So far, so sentimental: filigree grillework, church windows, muted park colours. Time for urban brash, for iconic London. Time for the big red double-decker bus.
There are three that travel the length of Dulwich Road, which lies part way along their journeys from the further reaches of southeast London to the centre. These are buses 3, 37 and 196. There is also the 322, a single decker that touches part of Dulwich Road before turning down parallel Railton Road towards Brixton. (There is also the 201 that comes in from Mordern, but its final stop is at the southern tip of Dulwich Road, and in my view That Does Not Count.)
I’ve been wrestling for weeks with how to represent the buses in knitted squares. Like a lot of my early ideas, the first one was effectively a ‘picture’ of a bus, the outer part of the square bold red, the middle area black with a large off-white number at the centre. I thought I could make four squares, one for each bus. Not surprisingly, this was soon ditched. Might be good for a fun children’s blanket, but would be loud and brutish here, drawing too much attention.
Dropping the bus numbers altogether, I wondered about using three key bus colours – red, black and pale grey – in a purely abstract way to build a satisfying pattern. A houndstooth, perhaps, or a plaid.
I liked that idea for quite some time, and I still rather like it. For now, though, I’m taking inspiration from Emily Medhurst.
Emily has drawn attention in the UK knitting world since appearing on Mastermind to answer questions about moquette fabrics used on seating in the London Underground. She did it wearing a moquette-style knitted vest of her own design which you can see on Instagram. Genius work.
There is complexity and deep colour in the Underground moquettes to preserve against the billions of bottoms that sink into the seats across many long years of service. The carpet-like feel of the fabric is a brilliant alternative to hard-wearing leather or plastic, one that Londoners have always thanked for the comfortable ride it affords.
And buses have it too!
So, inspired by Emily, I thought why not design a sort-of moquette, using a repeated pattern with small differences that nod to each of the buses? Here’s what I came up with, and I like how it looks on the grid.
BUT there are two problems. One is a simple matter of taste. Is it a return to the ‘picture’ idea? Will it look ridiculous? Cartoonish?
The other is the yawning chasm in my skillset. You will see there are five colours in this design and this is not something I could knit with stranded work alone. The grey and red are constants and can be stranded. The blue and black can be Swiss darned. But what of the pale ‘windows’, Pat? What you gonna do about those?
Well, I could knit with 3 strands across the centre of the ‘buses’, although I already know this is outside my comfort zone, with tension all over the place in my previous attempt. I will try it, though. If that doesn’t work, perhaps I can incorporate the windows with intarsia, stranding the red and grey behind them. No idea if it’s possible. Is it even a thing? And if I can work out what to do with my fingers, is there any hope of doing it without rubbish tension and wobbly stitches?
Clearly, it’s madness. And yet for some reason I want to give it a go, so I’ll knit up a little test swatch and see where I get to. If it’s a disaster, I’ll add it to my beginner’s fails and head back to the houndstooth/plaid.
Wish me luck.
Photo credits – Pic 1: Peter Skuce; Pic 2: Andrew Davidson; Pic 3: Secretlondon; Pic 4: Spsmiler. Available in the public domain or under Creative Commons Share Alike licences, Wikimedia Commons.
Knitting chart designed using Chart Minder
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