Knitting down the generations

I am jealous! Twinges in my arms and now shoulders have stopped me knitting for about 3months now. I hope it might be explained /and hopefully improved when I see a specialist next month..

Does anyone have an old Hayfield baby pattern? It's one I knitted for my children, nieces and nephews but was so dog-eared I had to throw it away. Would like to knit it for by nieces new baby. It's a picture of a baby (obviously) wearing a white jacket, bonnet and bootees, lying on a white shawl. The pattern is mainly knit stitch but has a diamond pattern on. The jacket is knitted in one piece to the armholes. thanks

They are beautiful. Wonderful to see something not made in China

I used to Knit, but my hands have got so bad, I found lovely hand knitted shawls on this website
www.millstonecrafts.co.uk

As a small child I was fascinated watching my mother knitting. She was very fast and I couldn't take my eyes off her. As soon as I was old enough she showed me how. She always used patterns from the Woman's Weekly magazine. I am pleased to see the magazine is still going strong. I am so glad to see knitting is popular again and youngsters wanting to learn.
I stopped knitting for my kids when they were in their teens and preferred sweat shirts. There is a lot of interest in crafts again; thank goodness. I wish I had kept all my old patterns. I had quite a collection.

numberplease and joan, I still buy yarn in skeins. The back of a chair works quite well as someone else's hands. I used to spin yarn myself from sheep's fleece and skein it myself on a thing called a niddy-noddy. Then it's easy to wash and/or dye. DD1 has the spinning wheel now (and the niddy-noddy). TNowadays there is quite a market in posh yarns, hand dyed and sold in skeins. It hadn't taken off when I was spinning; I just loved the idea of starting with a sheep and ending up with a jumper and did it for myself. Taught some kids too. It was fascinating how some of them were all thumbs but some just took to it easily. I remember one boy in particular, about ten years old, who picked up spinning with both a drop spindle and a spinning wheel very quickly. His teacher was delighted because he hadn't really succeeded at anything else in school. I hope he went on to do lots of handicrafts as he grew up.

I have been knitting a boy baby helmet that comes to a point in the front, the pattern cost 9d . It is a Bestway pattern. Years old.

Thank you Stansgran

Hi [jacey] go to Age UK website then find the big Knit and you can download the pattern- there are about 5 of them but the simplest is the first

Hi Stansgran ...do you have the web site for the Innocent Smoothies - little beanies?

if you want to get back into knitting very gently-Innocent Smoothies are giving Age UK 25p for every little beanie knitted -lots of patterns and when you've got the hang of mini hats you can knit for foreign fishermen-the Sailors' Society
www.sailors-society.org

Oh yes, I remember those skeins of wool and the two person job involved in winding it into balls.

When i was 21, in 1966, I came back from being an au pair girl in Vienna, and one day went to Dewsbury market for some knitting wool. It was sold in skeins at a very reasonable price. Anyway, i asked the woman running the stall for a particular colour, and she called out to her husband in the back - in Viennese German! I joined in the conversation in German, and we got talking about Vienna, where they'd lived before the Nazi era. They had got out in 1938 and never ever went back (understandably, as the were Jewish)

Anyway, i was able to tell them all about Vienna, and some of the places they'd lived and worked.....it was really lovely talking to them, and after that I always got discount!!

When I was 28 my husband and I moved to New Zealand, land of sheep, but I was horrified how expensive wool was there. It can be expensive here in Australia too, though you can get acrylic very cheaply.

I would really like to get my knitting skills back. When I was about 15, I once knitted my little 8 year old sister an aran sweater - and made up the pattern myself because I could only find aran in adult patterns. I never got that good at knitting again!!!!

Oh numberplease I remember having to do that ...sometimes begrudgingly coz my arms would ache!! But my mum knitted me some wonderful things ...including a long red and white fair isle hat ...that was the first time I learnt about jealousy . She taught me how to knit ...a skill I am now coming back to thanks to U3A.
Recently found outfits she knitted for my teddy ...made me cry ...so many lovely memories

I`m surprised that there have been no reminiscenses of (in my case, my mother) buying knitting wool in large skeins that you had to wind into balls yourself, before you could start your knitting. I spent many hours sitting still with both arms open wide and the wool spread across them, whilst my mother wound it into balls. If nobody was available for the task she`d drape it across a chair back.

My best ever knit for my two eldest daughters, which I made when they were about four and six years old, was a snowman jumper (one each) from a Woman's Weekly pattern. It was a lovely royal blue, with a row of red-scarved snowmen round the hem and then dotted with snowflakes. My sister's eldest child was a year younger than my second daughter so, as my kids outgrew the jumpers I gave them to my sister. All four of her kids wore them in succession and then my sister gave them to a friend. One of the jumpers then appeared in an issue of Woman's Weekly because it was being worn by a child who was being home schooled with his older sibling and the magazine was doing an article about home schooling. I've always wondered if the interviewers recognised the jumper but I doubt it. In the picture, the jumper looks as good as ever. Nice to think that something I knitted was worn and enjoyed by at least eight kids!

Son aged 19 just come home from college with a striped hand knitted buff (doubles up as neck warmer/hat etc.) he'd dashed off using a couple of balls of spare wool. That's ma boy! (proud smiley)

Does anyone know where I can get a knitting pattern of a pengui. My grandson is obsessed with them and I thought I would make him one for his birthday.

Thank you for that Hunt I look forward to using this pattern, I'm sure that I'll have lots of oddments of knittig wool leftover from the babyknitting that I've been doing, so it can now be put to good use )

As requested, Instructions for knitted bunting:- With no.8 needles and double knitting wool cast on 41 stitches( can be more or less depending on what size you wish your bunting to be ,but always an uneven number).
1st row knit
2nd row knit 1, knit 2 tog. knit to end of row.
3rd row knit.
4th row knit to last 3 sts, knit 2 tog. knit1
Repeat these 4 rows until one stitch remains. Thread wool through last stitch to cast off.
Join the penants together along the top either with crocheted chain or satin bias binding.
Decorate with little bells, beads, ribbon bows, crocheted or knitted flowers, or felt letters for a message.
have fun and good luck!

Thanks for the link eGJ I'm sure many will find it of interest.

Woody I know just what you mean, I recently went into a charity shop and came out armed with various patterns that I had long since given away, but I just had to buy them for the memories they brought back!

Hunt do you have a pattern for your knitted bunting, I'd love to do some for myself. I recently saw some hanging up as a decoration in a shop window, they were lovely and very different from the material ones that are currently all the rage.

I made some bunting last year for my daughters wedding, we decorated the village hall in it and it gave the whole wedding a village fete theme as we also had vintage china with afternoon tea and cakes. I've now got some of the bunting hanging from the ceiling in my craft room, it looks lovely and also brings back happy memories.

I had been searching for a pattern for a pram blanket that I knitted for my own children over 40 years ago, I still have the blanket but wanted to knit a new one for next grandchild expected in October. Eventually I found an e-mail address for Sirdar gave them a descreiption of it as best as I could and they replied saying they still had copies so I bought direct from them. We have a lovely charity stall on our local market in aid of local Hospice and today they had a pile of knitting patterns and guess what - there it was, in fact most of the patterns in the pile were ones that my mother knitted for my children, it felt very much like deja vue!

Angelwispa
http://cuddles-uk.org/index.htm might be the website you're looking for to knit for premature babies.
This link has a list of charities who'd welcome knitting & crochethttp://www.eparenting.co.uk/knitfest/charityknitting.shtml

As a knitting aside, I went to a small agricultural show recently and there were three ladies spinning yarn from the wool of various kinds of sheep. It was lovely to watch and there were also samples of knitting yarns spun from wool and animal hair - cat, dog and WOLF, and garments knitted from these. Beautiful soft yarns and lovely natural colour mixes. Don't know how you'd get on if you had an animal allergy though! Or whether you'd wake up howling in the middle of the night....

I so agree! always try to look at charity shops in new places, amazing what you find

Hunt. Wed18 May-11. My sister and I have been busy knitting bunting. We have made seven strings so far including a Christmas one with little bells, a Happy Birthday one, an easter one with chicks and a string of red white and blue which I strung across my window for the Royal Wedding. We shall add to the last one until the Queen's diamond jubilee- It may stretch the length of the road!