Hats for the Homeless
First of all let me apologise for the lack of blogs but I have been struggling with life in general. Therefore events are happening quicker than I can cope with so my blog posts will be out of chronological order for awhile.
I have recently met a lady whose attitude has inspired me to focus more on the positive things. After meeting her I had an idea for a new project and you all know what my little ideas turn into!
Due to poor health I have had in recent years had to scale back any kind of voluntary work. However this idea allows me to work when I feel able to. Anybody that has read any of my previous blogs knows that I like to try my hand at crafting albeit in my own particular Blue Peter style.
As any good crafter knows that at the end of a project there are often surplus materials left. In my case this odds and sods of wool. In addition to these remnants I also have acquired over the years balls of yarn I cannot use as they do not suit my skin.
With this in mind I decided to put these resources to good use. I began to work on making scarves. This is my first effort.
Next I decided to make some hats to accompany the scarves. I used an alternative striped pattern. The yarn used was a mixture of wool and acrylic and again on 5mm knitting needles. I used a circular needle for ease. Since I was not certain of the size I was knitting for I estimated the number of stitches. I decided to cast on 120 stitches and knit in a loose garter stitch.
This design was knitted by eye rather than following a pattern. Roughly I knitted half a dozen rows then decreased every 11 stitches by slipping a knitted stitch over. I did this for the first few stripes then after testing I steadily increased the amount of decreasing the stitches.
This is the last piece I have knitted for this project to date. I added some more colours to this hat for a bit of variation. I cast on 5 less stitches and made the length a touch longer.
First of all let me apologise for the lack of blogs but I have been struggling with life in general. Therefore events are happening quicker than I can cope with so my blog posts will be out of chronological order for awhile.
I have recently met a lady whose attitude has inspired me to focus more on the positive things. After meeting her I had an idea for a new project and you all know what my little ideas turn into!
Due to poor health I have had in recent years had to scale back any kind of voluntary work. However this idea allows me to work when I feel able to. Anybody that has read any of my previous blogs knows that I like to try my hand at crafting albeit in my own particular Blue Peter style.
As any good crafter knows that at the end of a project there are often surplus materials left. In my case this odds and sods of wool. In addition to these remnants I also have acquired over the years balls of yarn I cannot use as they do not suit my skin.
With this in mind I decided to put these resources to good use. I began to work on making scarves. This is my first effort.
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| Red, White, Black and Russet Brown Scarf |
As you can see I have used varying colours. The target audience are males so I tried to use more bold colours rather than pastels. The style is somewhat reminiscent of a football scarf. As you can see the red appears to be larger than the rest. This is due to the fact it is a thicker gauge of yarn hence the reason for placing it at both ends rather than in the middle.
The scarf was knitted in a simple garter or plain stitch. I used a 5mm needle and the red, white and black yarn is acrylic. The brown yarn is reclaimed wool (wool that has been previously used and unwound) and is 75% wool and 25% acrylic. This means it is warmer than the acrylic which is why I placed it in the middle of the scarf.
This simple design is perfect for knitting quick items without having to concentrate and therefore ideal for beginners. Here is another scarf I knitted with a slightly different colour scheme.
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| Red, White, Blue and Russet Brown Scarf |
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| Russet Brown and Oatmeal Striped Hat |
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| Russet Brown, Oatmeal and Purple Hat |
Hopefully I will be able to continue making various other coloured items by time the winter period arrives. I will let you know how I get on.
