Journal
Make a knitted loop scarf from your stash
This year I am intending to be much more intentional about my winter wardrobe.
Last year, despite the fact that I was often layered up to the point of immobility, I kept getting cold in The Studio where the only heat is a small wood burner. It was rather miserable and I ended up working in the house a lot of the time. I think that the problem was that I simply didn't have enough really cosy clothes and that once I was cold it was really difficult to get warm again.
So this year I am building up a good pile of woolly socks, mitts, hats and scarves.
This is my favourite kind of scarf - a soft mobius loop that twists in two and stays on. No trailing ends, no falling off into the dye pot. I used scraps from my stash - it is a very flexible pattern so you can tailor it to what you have.
Making a knitted coat hanger
These knitted coat hangers are something that always reminds me of grandparents - clothes handing carefully on knitted or crocheted covered hangers. Clothes that were properly looked after, brushed, spot cleaned, mended. The space between them given by the chunky hangers protection from damp or fustiness. My Gran has some with little bags of lavender hanging from the hook.
They are perfect ways to use up odds and ends of wool, it is my go to stash busting pattern.
You only need 40 grams of double knitting wool per hanger and they can be striped or plain. I tend to keep all my tiny left over balls in a basket along with a small circular needle, and knit these whenever I'm at a loose end - they are perfect tv knitting.
You need
- Two 20 g balls of double knitting wool
- Knitting needles size 3.25mm (UK 10)
- Tapestry needle
- A 40 - 43 cm padded coat hanger
- 1 metre velvet ribbon 0.5 cm wide
Tension: 20 stitches by 24 rows in garter stitch to make 10 cm square
Method
- Using ball 1 cast on 92 stitches.
- Join in ball 2 and knit 2 rows
- Change to ball 1 and knit 2 rows.
- Continue in this way, making two row stripes until row 38, just carry the wool up the side of the knitting, don’t cut it off.
- Cast off.
- Find the centre of your knitting and slip it over the hook of the hanger, spread it out to cover the hanger and sew the edges together so that they enclose the hanger.
- Tie one end of your ribbon to the base of the hook and wrap it around the hook first one way and then the other, back to the base. Tie in a knot or bow.
You can sign up to get a free downloadable pattern for the hangers.
Visible mending on a knitted jumper
Mending baskets! Is there anything quite as likely to engender feelings of guilt as we pass.
All those almost wearable clothes just needing a little attention.
A few years ago I was given this cosy Aran jumper as a Christmas present.
Four times worn and I backed into a barbed wire fence; by the time I had disentangled myself there was a massive hole on the backside.
The wool itself had shredded - much of it left on the fence and I put the jumper in my mending basket to repair. . . .
Four years later, clearing out the 'dressing room of doom' I determined to do better.
It was a drizzly day, I had nothing else pressing to do, I got out some scraps of left over wool and a tapestry needle. It took less then an hour.
Four years and an hour.
In case you also have a ripped jumper in need of some creative mending, here is what I did.
The mending of the ripped aran jumper.
As the rip is very firmly on my backside I decided that it needed a curvy darning, but otherwise I followed the instructions of Flora Collingwood Norris here. The cabling meant that this was never going to be a neat and regimented darn - and it is a little bit more like a hobbity mend, but I love it's organic shape.
Materials
- Holey jumper
- Tapestry needle
- Selection of yarns of similar weight to the jumper
- Scissors
Step 1
I cut out some paper shapes to see what size and shape the patch should be. I went with a circle.
Step 2
Use a contrasting yarn to sew a tacked outline. This is just there as a guide and it will be removed later.
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