Tag Archives: yarn

What Have You Fixed Lately?⤴

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Leopard print jacket
Leopard print jacket flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license
Today’s TDC says

Show us a photo of something you recently fixed or made better.

When my SiL was clearing out my MiL’s flat she came across a bag of knitting. Inside was a jacket, half finished. We both remembered it as a project we’d seen a few years ago, quietly cleared away. Shona asked if I’d like it, and I said I would. It’s been sitting on my knitting chest since the beginning of this year while I made sense of where to start on it. There was no indication of what row had last been knitted, so first I had to work that out. This wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped as the pattern has 23 different coloured yarns and Morag had noted down three different versions of how the yarns she had chosen corresponded to those in the original pattern. She’d also altered the pattern to make it smaller, but I did work that out from the markings on the chart. Finally, and this puzzled me a great deal, the last row she’d knitted had started with one row on the chart and finished with another, and she’d dropped a stitch. I think these last mistakes were the ones that made her decide to put it away. Still, on a rainly morning on holiday this year I puzzled it all out and made a start. At the weekend I cast off the ribbing for the last piece of the body and I am now knitting the two sleeves. Wish me luck!

Making Memories⤴

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Granny Squares Blanket

A few years ago I decided to make myself a blanket – something warm and cheery for the winter months. Also, unusually for me, I decided not to rush it. So, over the last 3 years I’ve been acquiring wool as memories. There’s wool from holidays on Mull, a visit to the Shetlands, a week on Orkney, a short break to the Cairngorms. There’s squares knitted in Shetland lace patterns, patterns made by the Uni knitter in residence years ago, there’s a Dalek, a Cyberman, K9 and a Tardis. Then, of course, there are two black cats. I have loved making it, and now it’s finished – and I can’t wait for the cold nights so I can spreda it out on the bed.

Socks⤴

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I like knitting socks. I’ve got a whole drawer full of pairs I’ve made for myself, from plain ribbed ones to fancy designs,  and most of my family own at least one pair I’ve made for them. I’ve got masses of yarn, in a rainbow of colours, and all I need is somebody who needs socks.

So that’s where you come in. If you’d like me to knit you a pair of socks, all you need to do is design a pair and send me the design.

A few things before you start:

  • Socks are knitted in the round. Generally there will be 64 stitches per row for a woman’s sock, and 72 for a man’s.
  • Socks can, of course, be any length. My default is 100 rows for the leg, which is about 8 inches.
  • Knitted stitches are wider than they are tall – the ratio is about 4 stitches to measure the same as 5 rows (so 28 stitches knitted over 35 rows would make a 4 inch square, for example). Knitting chart paper is easy to find online. Here’s some.
  • Patterns can repeat around the sock – multiples of 8 are very common.
  • There can be different patterns on the same sock.
  • Patterns with only 1 or 2 colours per row are nicest to knit (I have 2 hands, and can hold 1 colour in each).
  • If you’d prefer plain socks, or stripy ones, that’s also fine – just tell me which colour (s) you’d like.

So – over to you. This is an open offer – I am a #4life knitter, so whenever I get a request I add it to my queue.