Can you guess I’ve been knitting? We will have to blame my mum for this.
Hello everyone, how are you? It has been warm here. We did get a bit of rain, but not really enough. When you think about how much rain they are getting north of here, like in New South Wales and Queensland, it is disappointing that they are hogging all the water. Okay, I know they would love to share it, and no one wants flooding. Still, it has seemed that everyone has been getting lots of rain, except for where I live. It has been a pretty dry summer here in my part of the world.
What is happening in Ukraine with Russia invading, I’m not going to lie, it scares the hell out of me. I am so worried that Putin will press some buttons and the nukes will go flying. I have never understood the whole reasoning behind nuclear weapons. Once the buttons are pushed, the war is over, and so is mankind pretty much. We live near an army base so we hope there is a target there. We have decided that we would rather die in the nuclear strike than have to try to survive in a nuclear wasteland. So fingers crossed those buttons don’t get pushed.
Anyway, I thought today I would share what I’ve been up to since Christmas. It isn’t all I’ve been doing, but when I have some spare time I’ve been knitting.
Knitting
I learned to knit when I was a kid. I have no memory of learning, and it often feels like I’ve been knitting my whole life. Of course, that isn’t true, but I don’t remember when my mum taught me.
It is something that I sort of do on and off. I enjoy it, but then I get bored put the needles away, and don’t do anything for a few years. In this case, it has been around 10 years.
Now, my mum was down at Christmas and she brought out some knitting. She doesn’t knit often anymore either. She is more of a quilter.
She was knitting a baby’s blanket. I thought it was weird, as there are no babies for the blanket. She told me she was knitting them for a charity that gives the blankets to premature babies in hospital. I thought it sounded like a great idea. So I started as well.
For my wool, I chose cotton because I thought less chance for allergies. I’m allergic to wool and cannot wear it, so maybe some babies are the same. As I have two cats, did I tell you we got another one? Anyway, I knitted them inside pillowcases to help stop the cat hair.
I committed to four of them. Here is what I did.
They turned out okay. I still have to sew in the ends, but that won’t take long. I might still do one more, I’m undecided right now.
I enjoyed doing them so much I decided that perhaps I could do more knitting.
I had quite a bit of wool leftover so it seemed like a good idea to use it.
I don’t want to knit jumpers, so I thought with winter coming that I could get knitting some beanies.
I had a bit of hit and miss with buying patterns online. Two of the ones I purchased just didn’t make sense with how you were meant to knit them. Mainly the part where you are doing the crown of the beanie. One beanie just didn’t work, but a couple of the others worked by using part of another pattern.
The only way to make those ones work was by doing the same as the following one at the crown.
After all these experiences with buying patterns online I ended up getting some pattern books for beanies. They have been so much better. The following was from the first book I got.
So from that I’ve tried knitting Dave a beanie and some fingerless gloves. The room he works in at home can be a bit cold in winter so he likes wearing these sorts of things to help keep him warm.
I’ve never knitted fingerless gloves before. They were fiddly, but definitely not as hard as I thought they would be. I think I might knit some more, maybe for me.
The second book I got I knitted this from it.
I haven’t finished my knitting kick yet. I know I will knit more beanies and perhaps the fingerless gloves. Though I don’t know how many we need.
I did have a thought about this and found another charity that accepts knitted and crocheted garments to give to homeless people or people who have fallen on hard times. I have to say I love that idea. We give away a fair bit of money each year to charities, but this is a way to give and keep me busy too.
It is a nice idea, though I don’t know how many I will do. You never know how long I will keep knitting. Often something else gets in the way, or my hands end up hurting too much and I can’t do it anymore. I guess I will see. There have been a lot of jumpers started and never finised. My mum has ended up finishing a lot for me.
Do you have a hobby like this? Can you knit? What do you knit?
I always crocheted but couple years ago made myself try knitting. Followed a woman on YouTube THE CASTING On COUCH who does beautiful work and knits stitch by stitch with you. Learned the cable stitch and did a scarf and also found some great free instructions on line. Started a beautiful shawl and got pretty far and then dropped a stitch. Oops so there it sits undone. I know how to fix in crochet but not knitting. Your post makes me want to try again. Your knitting looks great and like the fingerless gloves. I’ve been spending time doing Cricut and trying stenciling.
Knitting can be a little harder in some ways, though a dropped stitch is often picked up with a crochet hook. Maybe try crocheting it up to where it should be. Sounds like it was a very ambitious project, and kudos to you for doing it. Good luck, I hope you can get it. It is nice to be creative and be able to watch the tv at the same time. lol
I was forced to learn knitting at grammar school. I was a little bit better in knitting than in crocheting. But, I hated both. My wife loves both and she’s quite good. You can read about one of her projects here: https://solaner.wordpress.com/2021/04/11/suffering-form-a-virus/ Hint: now the counter shows 7 😲👍
That is great that your wife loves them. I think it can be quite a relaxing thing to do. I think too because I always have to have my hands doing something knitting can be really good. My ADHD I think. Her knitting is really good. I’ve never attempted anything like that, though I saw a beanie with a fair isle pattern, maybe I should have a go. Thank you for showing me.
You did a great job on the blankets Leanne. Well done. They will be much appreciated by the recipients I’m sure. I love crochet and make lots of gifts for friends and family. But I am about to start knitting a pair of socks. It’s years since I knitted so I’m hoping it all come back to me pretty quickly.
Thank you Carol, they were good to knit and so easy. Crocheting is something I learned as a kid too, but I don’t remember a lot about how to do it now, well except for the basics. I do remember crocheted bikinis. lol
Oh socks are hard to knit, too fiddly for me I think. I always hated knitting with 4 needles. Good luck.
Google Winwick Mum. She has super easy patterns for socks done mostly with a circular needle.
Thanks for the top Carol, though I don’t think I will knit socks. I can’t wear them and washing them is a pain. I know I’m too lazy. lol
As I expect you know form seeing the odd posts on my blog, I prefer crochet but I do knit too and tend to prefer knitting for clothes. You really have been busy and I love the look of that rainbow ball of yarn that doesn’t seem to appear in any of the things you have made. I also especially like that last hat. I admire you knitting for charity. I always seem to have too many things I want to make for myself or family to get round to it.
Patterns in books should be reliable and easy to use (though not inevitably) but for free patterns have you heard of Ravelry. If you create a login you can access all the patterns on there, free and paid for and get help from fellow knitters in the Forums. The Free patterns allow you to look at the pattern before you commit yourself to using it. It’s just http://www.ravelry.com.
I have a friend who loves to crochet as well, and I learned how to do that too when I was growing up. My grandmother was into it a lot. She used to crochet doilies. Thank you, I’ve been having a lot of fun with it all. i love the wool too. Since I can’t wear wool, there isn’t a lot I can knit for myself, so charity seems like a good option.
Patterns should be and in the books they have been really good. I have heard of Ravelry, though haven’t really looked for a while. Thanks for that RJ,
I like your choice of colors, nice work, Leanne. Putin is the new Hitler… Evil.
Thank you John, it is fun to see what you can get now. I think you might be right about that. Though we are hearing a lot that he has lost it mentally. Scary.