Knitting. What images does that word conjure up?
Knitting. What images does that word conjure up? ‘Grannies’ is an obvious one, ‘the lonely’ is a possible second and a few years ago I may have thought the same, but then I had to quit smoking and with the fear of gaining vast quantities of weight looming over my head I took the advice of a friend’s mother and picked up a pair of knitting needles and a few balls of wool and learned the knit stitch. I found that I had something to do with my hands that didn’t involve cigarettes or food and I liked it.
I sat for a weekend and knitted up a very long, lumpy scarf that was filled with holes and a myriad of other mistakes but I didn’t care, I had made it myself and I was
The years passed and I became more and more entwined in my knitting, not only had I found a way to make nice things for myself and my friends, I had also discovered a form of therapy that cost hardly anything. I had become more relaxed, my concentration had im
I was happy and pleased with what I was doing, my close friends and family knew about my new passion and
I needed to work, I needed a social life and now I needed to knit. I was either going to have to give something up or live with everything in balance. I decided to make the move and knit in the open air. It was a nerve-racking moment when I sat on a quiet train and took out the pinwheel blanket that I was knitting for a friend’s baby. I was nervous about people’s reactions; although I don’t know why? It’s not like I was settling in to skin a cat. In fact the journey passed event-free. I breathed a sigh of relief and was able to move on with my life.
The next step was to find someone to knit with. It was easy! People who craft are desperate to meet others; they want to be free to take their
Idle Hands came to life in 2008 and now I see the company growing and that fills me with as much
People took photos and made friendly comments, someone even signed up to join our Wednesday night knitting circle. I don’t know what world wide knitting figures would be but I liked to think that there were several million other fibre-fans doing their bit to make knitting a more socially acceptable thing to do in the great outdoors.
Want to get in on some of that knitting magic? This cute bandanna is made from cotton yarn and is perfect for keeping your hair off your face as well as
The Idle Hands knitted bandana
You will need:
1 50g ball of DK weight cotton in your favourite colour
1 pair of 5mm needles (about 40cm long)
A pair of scissors
A large sewing or yarn needle
A rubber band
Skills needed:
Make a slip knot
The knit stitch
The bar increase
Bind off
How to make:
Wrap the rubber band around the end of one of your needles, this is the marker that tells you to increase your stitches as you knit onto this needle. This is your first stitch.
Slide the slip knot onto the needle without the rubber band
Row 1: Bar increase into the first stitch, you now have 2 stitches on your needle
Row 2: knit across both of these stitches
Row 3: Bar increase into those 2 stitches, you now have 4 stitches
Row 4: Knit across
Row 5: Knit the first stitch, bar increase into the next 2 stitches, knit the last stitch. You now have 6 stitches
Row 6: Knit across
Row 7: Knit the first stitch, bar increase into the next stitch, knit until there are 2 stitches left on the needle, bar increase into the next stitch, knit the last stitch
Repeat rows 6 and 7 until your bandanna is about 25cm long or however long you want it to be, this could be about 66 stitches, count up the number of stitches you actually have then bind them off.
To make the ties for your bandanna cast on half as many stitches you just ended up with, then just bind them all off. Make another and tie a knot in the end of each and sew the other end to the corners of your bandanna.