This week I read in an Irish magazine about a knitting bus - how fab is that? The bus is chock full of knitting stuff and will be going around primary schools to teach little ones how to knit. The best thing is that there are 1,000 older volunteers across the country (connected to the University of the Third Age) who will join the bus in various locations and teach the children how to knit. 150 schools have already signed up for the bus to go to their school. I love the idea of older people sharing their skills with the younger generation, (to risk a pun..) it could knit a community together.
Friday 30 September 2011
The Irish knitting bus!
This week I read in an Irish magazine about a knitting bus - how fab is that? The bus is chock full of knitting stuff and will be going around primary schools to teach little ones how to knit. The best thing is that there are 1,000 older volunteers across the country (connected to the University of the Third Age) who will join the bus in various locations and teach the children how to knit. 150 schools have already signed up for the bus to go to their school. I love the idea of older people sharing their skills with the younger generation, (to risk a pun..) it could knit a community together.
Monday 26 September 2011
New fabric shop in Sheffield
At the weekend I found out that there was a new fabric shop opening in Sheffield... so I tracked it down today (and spent some money on lovely fabrics). It turns out that it's Fabric Warehouse, which used to be on Shalesmoor (which closed some time ago) and now its at the bottom of London Road, in what used to be the bed shop. They have quite a good selection of fabric at reasonable prices. I bought some printed cotton (for bunting making) and some printed baby cord fabric. The latter is for a new skirt, inspired by the successful 'A-Line skirt in a day' workshop which we did on Saturday... photos to follow soon! They also had some felt, fleece fabric, calico, printed dress fabric, Jersey fabric, patchwork type fabric and lots of upholstery fabric so it's well worth a visit. There's some parking behind the shop, or you can easily walk over from the bottom of The Moor. Time to get out your spending money....
Tuesday 6 September 2011
Knit One, Purl One
In knitting jargon this is my current knitting project OTN or WIP ('On the needles' or 'work in progress') at the moment. It's a pattern I've had for years which I've knitted for myself and lent to other people and now I'm knitting it for my friend's birthday (after much admiration of my own version!) Some of you may have seen me knitting behind my stall at the Crucible craft fair last weekend.
What I love about the pattern is that you knit it on super chunky needles (12mm) with super chunky wool so it doesn't take that long to do. You start at the bottom of the back and knit up and over the shoulders and down each front. Then you finish off with the ribbed cuffs and border so there's not even much sewing up to do (I hate sewing up knitted things - I just want it to be instantly finished!).
I tend not to do much knitting in the summer, it's more of an autumn / winter thing to do in the long winter evenings. You also get to wear it immediately and it keeps your knees warm while you're knitting it!
I was one of the generation where we were taught to knit at school (briefly) at about aged 8 but I got in a terrible tangle - fortunately my Gran was a great knitter and she used to knit loads of stuff for me and my brother and really I learnt from her. There have been times in my life when I have found knitting very therapeutic, times when it has been a disaster and times when me and my friends have all knitted the same jumper at the same time.
I always seem to have some knitting project on the go and vast numbers of patterns which I want to knit. You can also buy some fabulous wool now. I love the fair trade Mirasol wool made from lama's wool, (or are they alpacas?) I also have a fab book of proper vintage knitting patterns which have been reprinted, but it also shows the original published version from women's weekly magazines from the 1920's onwards. I'll bring along some of my patterns / books and finished items to the workshop on Saturday too. People always seem to be really amazed when I tell them that 'knitting' is really only made up of just 2 stitches (a knit stitch or a purl stitch) - all the fancy patterns you see are just about how you combine these 2 types of stitches.
Happy knitting, stitching or sewing whatever you are up to this week.
What I love about the pattern is that you knit it on super chunky needles (12mm) with super chunky wool so it doesn't take that long to do. You start at the bottom of the back and knit up and over the shoulders and down each front. Then you finish off with the ribbed cuffs and border so there's not even much sewing up to do (I hate sewing up knitted things - I just want it to be instantly finished!).
I tend not to do much knitting in the summer, it's more of an autumn / winter thing to do in the long winter evenings. You also get to wear it immediately and it keeps your knees warm while you're knitting it!
I was one of the generation where we were taught to knit at school (briefly) at about aged 8 but I got in a terrible tangle - fortunately my Gran was a great knitter and she used to knit loads of stuff for me and my brother and really I learnt from her. There have been times in my life when I have found knitting very therapeutic, times when it has been a disaster and times when me and my friends have all knitted the same jumper at the same time.
I always seem to have some knitting project on the go and vast numbers of patterns which I want to knit. You can also buy some fabulous wool now. I love the fair trade Mirasol wool made from lama's wool, (or are they alpacas?) I also have a fab book of proper vintage knitting patterns which have been reprinted, but it also shows the original published version from women's weekly magazines from the 1920's onwards. I'll bring along some of my patterns / books and finished items to the workshop on Saturday too. People always seem to be really amazed when I tell them that 'knitting' is really only made up of just 2 stitches (a knit stitch or a purl stitch) - all the fancy patterns you see are just about how you combine these 2 types of stitches.
Happy knitting, stitching or sewing whatever you are up to this week.
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