Month: December 2016

Nobody can see your feet: Christmas Knitting Pt 4

December 23, 2016

As nieces and nephews get older I keep getting reminded that they may not be so keen on knitted gifts from their aunt. Now, whilst I firmly believe they have fabulous taste and that my knits would meet any style criteria they may have, I thought perhaps I’d be on safer ground with socks for my teenage nieces. They live in an apartment with tile and wooden floors, so socks are at least useful. So we have … More Nobody can see your feet: Christmas Knitting Pt 4

Raising the Bar…n: Christmas Knitting Pt 3

December 21, 2016

January 2015 saw the birth of my great nephew* and to mark the occasion I knitted a baby sized barnraising blanket. It was well received and I got feedback on how many compliments it had received. Perhaps the most pleasing, if not a little daunting, was that from my 8 year old niece who asked me in the following October if I could make her a blanket like that one for Christmas. I explained that yes, … More Raising the Bar…n: Christmas Knitting Pt 3

Christmas knitting in June? Gift Knitting Pt 2

December 15, 2016

Back in May Susan Crawford posted an image on Instagram of a Shetland shawl recipe from the mid 1880s. It has a two row repeat for the central section to be knitted until ‘enough is done’ at which point you cast off and then you do the edging for which ‘any fancy stitch will do’. At the time I cast on in an undyed yarn and tried it out. It soon dawned on me that a … More Christmas knitting in June? Gift Knitting Pt 2

Afterthought Heels from Yesteryear: Another ‘Nothing New Under the Sun’ realisation

December 12, 2016

I’ve written before about how easy it is to overlook how innovative and creative previous generations of knitters were. Putting it like that I’m sure many of us would say, ‘oh no, not at all’, but then we come across something that reveals, in our surprise, exactly that. Today I want to share a pattern from a book that sparked my interest for exactly this reason. This is an American pattern book by Clarks O.N.T … More Afterthought Heels from Yesteryear: Another ‘Nothing New Under the Sun’ realisation

Socking it to Christmas : Gift knitting Pt 1

December 8, 2016

Last year’s gift knitting experience was a chastening one. The final knit gifted was completed on the 8th January. Whilst the fact that my nephew received it wrapped up with the sleeve stitches on waste yarn does not appear to have dampened his enthusiasm for his sweater, it dampened my enthusiasm for last minute gift knitting. This was reinforced by the fact that my niece never received the sweater I was knitting for her until … More Socking it to Christmas : Gift knitting Pt 1