Cinema Knits

I have been a fan of the Masterpiece show All Creatures Great and Small since the first season aired in 2020. The show is based on the wonderful books of real-like Yorkshire veterinarian James Alfred Wight, who wrote under the pen name of James Herriot. The books themselves are wonderful. They are semi-autobiographical and by turns touching and hilarious.

If you want a treat, try listening to the audiobooks narrated by show star Nicholas Ralph. He does a fantastic job with narration, slipping seamlessly between the voices and accents of myriad characters.

Of course, as a knitter, I couldn’t help but notice all the lovely knits worn throughout the series. This post will focus on the first season of the show. If you enjoy it and want more seasons covered, please let me know.

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Helen

The first time James visits Helen’s family’s farm, she is wearing this very pretty green textured turtleneck paired with green corduroy slacks.

Some nice pattern matches:

Any of these sweaters knit up in a lovely green wool would look fantastic:

To complete Helen’s look, you could try pair your new sweater with these cute slacks from Boden:

Alternatively, if you are a sewer as well as a knitter you could sew yourself a pair of Merchant & Mills Quinn Trousers in green corduroy.

Finally, Helen is wearing her hair bundled up in a black lace thing.

I was not even sure what this kind of hair accessory was called at first, as these seemed to have completely disappeared from contemporary fashion. After some research, I have now found out that this article of clothing is called a ‘snood’.

It looks like snoods are more typically crocheted than knitted, as there are many more patterns on Ravelry for crocheted snoods than knitted ones. But here is a vintage knitted snood pattern from Knitting-and.com. There is a link there to download the pdf of the pattern.

Another sweater Helen wears a couple of times throughout the series is this nice ribbed cardigan with fair isle details:

Designer Susan Crawford is a wonderful source for vintage inspired knitwear. Her Fair Isle Yoke is a nice match for the silhouette and fair isle design, while her Victory Twinset Top has the same type of ribbing as Helen’s sweater. Since these are both knit in a fingering weight yarn, an experienced knitter could purchase both patterns and combine them to create a sweater very like Helen’s.

One more knit for Helen is the navy fair isle twin set she wears at the holiday party in the final episode of the season.

I found two decent pattern matches, but unfortunately both are out of print:

An experienced knitter determined to recreate Helen’s look by incorporating a fair isle design onto a standard twin set knitting pattern. Perhaps you could combine this classic twin set originally printed in a 1940s Australian magazine (freely available online) with this gorgeous Norwegian style stranded knitting pattern by Skeindeer Knits.

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Siegfried’s Feeling Poorly Cardigan

Siegfried rarely wears knitwear in the first season, with the exception of episode six, when he is ill. Otherwise, he is generally nattily dressed in a tweed suit.

But, when home sick, he wears this cozy looking mustard cardigan: It has all-over ribbing, a tiny shawl collar, and a seed stitch button band and collar.

The Charcoal Ribbed Cardigan by designer Kate Kuckro is nearly a perfect match. The only thing it is missing is the seed stitching on the button band, but that is an element you could easy add if you fancy.

The wool that pattern calls for is discontinued, but I think Manos del Uruguay’s Wool Classica would be a nice substitute. A couple of shades for your consideration:

You could always pair your cozy cardigan with a scarlet Sophie Scarf to complete your at home look:

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Mrs. Hall

Mrs. Hall frequently wears this blue cardigan throughout season one. It has a v neck, set in sleeves, and little pockets at the waistline.

I think Sweet Laurel by designer Åsa Tricosa is an excellent match:

Knit in a grey blue yarn, and combined with kind eyes and a concerned frown, you could capture the essence of Mrs. Hall.

Another nice look from Mrs. Hall is this ruby cabled cardigan:

This is such a classic cardigan that there are many good pattern matches out there. Here are just a few to get you started:

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James and Tristan’s Sweater Vests

Both James and Tristan are frequent sweater vest wearers, sometimes under a suit jacket, or, when at home, simply over their shirt sleeves. Here are a few of the sweater vests we see the young vets wear in season one:

Allow me to present you with some nice pattern options:

And there is even a pattern that was designed based on the vests seen in the show! The Darrowby Vest by designer Sydney Crabaugh is a perfect match for one of the vests James wears in the show.

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Jenny

In Episode 3, Helen’s little sister, Jenny, looks very sweet in a colourful fair isle vest.

The Kids’ Fair Isle Vest by Pierrot (Gosyo Co., Ltd) is a very nice match if you would like to knit this vest for a young person in your life.

Here’s a color palette I put together in Jamieson’s of Shetland Spindrift Yarn:

We also see Jenny wear a rose collared jumper during one of James’s visit to the Alderson farm.

The Pogeun Pullover Kids Size by designer Min-Young Han is an excellent match for Jenny’s sweater.

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Dorothy

In episode 5, Mrs. Hall’s cheerful friend, Dorothy, stops in for a visit and lends a hand for the day at the clinic. She wears a close fitting, cropped, cabled sweater.

I think the Monroe Sweater by Sydney Crabaugh is an excellent match:

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James’s Birthday Knits

At the end of episode 6, James’s friends throw him a surprise birthday party and he opens a gift sent by his mother – a coordinating hand knit scarf and hat.

Designer Lesley Booth has published a design patterned after this exact scarf. Here is a mock-up, but there are full instructions on how to knit it and if you check out the projects page, many knitters have successfully completed it:

If you just love the general look of of the fair isle scarf, but not necessarily seeking a pattern match, Marie Wallin has designed many beautiful scarves in this style. Here is a sample:

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This is by no means every piece of knitwear seen in season one. This show, to the delight of many knitters, features so much knitwear worn by the main cast, supporting characters, and the extras. I hope this post gave you some ideas of how to bring a bit of Darrowby to your knitting life. Please let me know in the comments what looks or patterns are grabbing your eye. And if you would like me to write about more seasons, let me know that too.