Buttontastic

There are two patterns that I would (and frequently do) recommend frequently to new knitters: Christine Vogel's Drop Stitch Scarf and Amy Duvendack's Big Button Hat.

I love being able to tell people that, so long as they can knit and wrap the wool around a needle, they can make the drop stitch scarf. No purls, no decreases, nothing complex. Considering how effective it is (especially in a variegated yarn) it's so easy for beginners to make something that looks fantastic and surprisingly impressive. It also teaches the most important lesson of all: the only hard part of knitting is the counting.

The genius of the Big Button Hat is, primarily, how quick it is to make. I can complete one in two hours but even a beginner can see results as soon as they start. I do tend to talk people through a flat version rather than working in the round but that's the other beauty of the pattern: it's worked in the same way as I teach knitting. Knit to start off with, then rows of stocking stitch as they learn purling and, finally, some basic decreasing. Hat!

In October, with our annual Christmas sale for WaterAid growing ever closer, I returned to the Big Button Hat with a vengeance. And buttons. Beautiful, beautiful buttons.

For the interested, the yarn is Wendy's Serenity chunky (lovely colours, amazingly soft and stunningly good value). But, I think you'll agree, the buttons are the real attraction of the hats.

Button

I am in love with this button. I think all hats shall have this button from now on.

This Big Button Hat is destined for the Wateraid sale at Christmas.

One Hundred and Thirteen Days

Although I love Christmas, I don't normally start planning and preparing for it quite this early on but, thanks to a major project in work, I'm already planning for December. So it only seems natural to start planning my knitting for December too.

Last year our work knitting group raised over £600 for Wateraid in our Christmas sale and the time has come to stop doing selfish knitting and to start on scarves, hats, gloves and tiny little stockings. Okay, so I actually started the stockings in February but that's beside the point.

I'm not the only one, we already have a dinosaur and several Christmas decorations in the Knitting Cupboard. I'm not sure I'll manage to contribute quite as much as last year but my bus knitting time is going to be turned over to the sale shortly.

So far I've only started one scarf, its another Loopy & Luscious because, I'm ashamed to say, the wool is fairly cheap. I don't begrudge donating my time and yarn to the sale but it's a lot easier to see the total as profit when things are sold for more than the cost of the wool alone.

The balls on the right will be hats, gloves and perhaps a Maluka, as they are very much the rage in knitting group right now.

Bunt (verb)

Bunt (verb): to apply bunting

• He bunts
• She bunted
• They are bunting

Bunting

As promised, here's a not-too-great photo of half of my test bunting. It looks better if you can see the whole strip at once but that's one of the disadvantages of circular things. 

Still to settle: the argument about exactly how high bunting should be.

And, entirely unconnected: sometimes I love the fact that I live by the coast. And having a phone with a camera comes in handy too.

A Simple Challenge

The great thing about knitting is that it's simple. "There are just two stitches", we insist to all the beginners, "Once you can do them, you can do everything". And it's true. Okay, so we brush over the issue of badly written patterns, lace charts that look like someone scattered broken keyboards on a scrabble board and yarn that's so hard to rip back that you'd almost rather set fire to it than start over. But at the heart of all knitting you'll find those two simple stitches that you can teach someone in ten minutes.

I think that's why I so quickly get bored of straight-forward knitting projects. I need the challenge of a new technique, something I have to find videos for on youtube or just the quest for the perfect pattern to match a particularly lovely skein that demands to have justice done to it. The stitches aren't new so the way in which I use them has to be.

In short: this is why I hate knitting squares.

There is absolutely nothing positive to be said about garter stitch squares. They do not promote imaginative knitting. They are not enjoyable. They don't even get many points for volume because stocking stitch goes further. They're not good for beginners because all they show is just how pointless knitting the same row over and over again can feel. And yet, year after year, group after group, there is the garter-stitch-square blanket.

Don't get me wrong, the charitable / community aim behind these projects is fabulous. Yes, let's help people. Let's cheer them up or offer them an opportunity to be welcomed into a new craft. From blankets for the homeless to therapy through creativity, knitting can do a lot of good. 

But really, come on knitters, the garter stitch blanket? We can do so much better! The resources we have to give don't stop at our time and the cheapest, nastiest poundshop acrylic yarn! We may be creating fabric with our hands (I'll never get bored of that) but it's our minds that are our strength! We take yarn and we shape it to our will. Is your will boring, mono-coloured and square-shaped? Because I know mine's not.

So this is why I have trouble getting excited about projects that involve knitting squares. It's also why I was not amazingly taken with the idea of knitting bunting for the office. Especially when the consensus seemed to come down on the side of garter stitch.

Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit and increase. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit and increase. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit and increase. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit and increase. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit. Knit and increase.... Bored yet?

Once again, I don't disagree with the output. I work in an office where any hint of personality gets eyed suspiciously by the people who seem certain that 'They' will disapprove.

"They won't let you keep those up," several people told me, shaking their heads with regret as  I hung my Christmas decorations last year (tasteful, honest!). "I like it of course but that sort of thing is banned."

Well, we've spoken to Them and They're all for it. In fact, They want to know why we've not yarn-bombed the office yet. So during the summer the somewhat soulless office will be fractionally more cheerful thanks to some knitted bunting. And it's not all going to be in garter stitch.

Because it turns out that there are plenty of things more challenging than following a complex pattern. And one of them just happens to be the challenge of finding an interesting way to knit something that would otherwise be properly, mind-numbingly boring.

Some (left) have been more successful than others (right)
Hopefully consistency of size is somewhat optional

And am I bored yet? No, I'm not even close.