Monday 24 April 2017

A finished blanket and a surprise delivery

Last week, the ladies running the 60 Million Trebles group changed the rules, and I was in full agreement.  I wrote previously that, while I supported their project to produce a massive blanket that would contain 60 million trebles, I had reservations about all those smaller blankets sitting around keeping nobody warm while refugees were in desperate need.  As the group approached the 30 million trebles mark, the plan of physically making the huge blanket was dropped. This also meant that there is no need for the blankets to be 36 inches now (that was for ease of sewing together).

I had a blanket nearly finished.  It had some donated squares, and a central square that I made to add a bit of contrast.  I'd already completed its border, so to make it bigger I added a few more rounds, then added 2 bands of trebles at the top and bottom, and gave it a second border.  This used up pretty much all of the yarn I had for this blanket.  So now it is 3 feet 6 inches by 4 feet 8 inches, which makes it just about big enough for an adult to sleep under.   Not the best photo (why don't I notice the imperfections in the shot before I take it???), but the iPad isn't playing at the moment so I can't retake it just now.


The surprise delivery also came courtesy of 60 Million Trebles; there are people in the group who don't knit or crochet themselves, so provide yarn to others to make blankets on their behalf.  One lovely lady sent me a kilo of yarn in a great variety of shades to make a blanket.


This was totally unexpected, but very gratefully received.  I am going to embark on a single bed size Attic 24 Cosy Stripe blanket.  Aren't people kind?

Friday 14 April 2017

Buttonholes

Gosh, I never thought I would be writing a post on the scintillating topic of knitted buttonholes!  Let me go back a couple of weeks, when I discovered a free Sirdar pattern on the Black Sheep Wools website.


It's a simple pattern for 4 ply yarn (I have a couple of cones of baby 4 ply), and ranges from small premature baby sizes to  6 months old size.  Best of all, there is a V-neck option, which I like for very small babies so that they don't have anything tight around their necks.

I knitted the second size (12 inch chest - yes, it's hard to believe but babies that small do survive) and followed the pattern for the buttonholes when it said for each one to cast off one stitch, then cast on a stitch in the next row to complete the hole.  But the buttonhole rib was knitted on very fine needles (size 12 in old UK size, or 2.75mm), so the hole made was very tiny indeed.  I went through all my buttons, and believe me, I have a lot.  Even small shirt buttons were too big.  Eventually I found some tiny rectangular pearl buttons which I was able to coax through the buttonholes.  




I decided that when I knitted another of these cardigans, I would have to make bigger buttonholes, no matter what the pattern said.  Fast forward to this morning, when I am knitting the buttonhole rib on my second cardigan from this pattern.  What do you do when you want to know how to make better buttonholes?  You use Google, of course!  And I found the perfect instructions on the website of a US magazine called Creative Knitting.  The buttonholes this time are 3 stitches across, and are the neatest that I have ever managed, thanks to these instructions.


It was so easy to find buttons to fit, I was spoilt for choice. I decided to go for some circular pearl buttons which fit easily through the buttonholes.


 And so I now have a new technique as well as two preemie cardigans ready to go off in my next parcel to Needles and Hooks, Angels and Preemies


Happy Easter!