Knitting update – WIP*

*Work in progress, for those who don’t know

With all the talk of my new-found crochet love, you might have thought that I had abandoned my former love, knitting.  But not a bit of it.  I’ve still got several projects on the go and they occupy a different space in my life from the crochet.

Socks will always be there, though I may have to face up to the fact that the ‘girls’ in my life (daughter in law, daughter out law) may now have as many pairs of socks as their homes can accommodate – in the case of d-o-l, a whole drawer full, in their very small home.  As they wear and wash so well, they don’t wear out fast, and when they do, well there’s always darning.

But – all that sock knitting has provided me with a large supply of left-over bits of sock wool.  And, building on the waste-not want-not philosophy (and inspired by some lovely shawls I saw on blogs together with a couple of friends becoming new grandparents) I have used the odds and ends to make a series of seriously colourful cot blankets.

Cot blankets, I find, are the perfect thing to make.  Large enough to keep me going for a while, small enough to be easy to carry around with me, quick enough to finish not to become a burden.  As are baby hats.

However, what do you do when you have multiple finished cot blankets, and no-one to give them to?

Well, my idea is to sell them to raise money for a local charity I’m involved with – one that chimes with everything I believe about nurturing the land and nurturing people; producing local food, growing community; about local, and about caring for our planet – Bath City Farm.

I have no idea whether these blankets are things that other people might be willing to pay good money for, or whether I should just cut my losses, sew them together and make them into a blanket to soothe my fevered brain.  But hey, if I don’t give the idea some thought and kick it around a bit, I’ll never know.

Just need to sew in those ends and block…

I have a plan that in 2016 I would like to set myself the challenge of raising a sum of money for Bath City Farm.  I don’t know how, but maybe this could start me off?  We’ll see.

Think I need to hone my photography skills a bit – these look much nicer in real life (and they are actually a regular oblong shape)

And yesterday when I took the bits and pieces I’ve knitted so far up to the farm to see what people thought, I sold a baby hat.  Which was an encouraging start.  £5 towards my target of £500.  Just another £495 to go then.

So.  I’m open to any thoughts, suggestions, and comments.  I’m sure there are people out there with experience of this kind of thing.

I’ve now run out of left over yarn, so last week I posted a ‘wanted’ message on our local Freegle site asking for any oddments of 4 ply sock yarn, and I’m hoping that there may be a few fellow sock knitters out there who can provide some more supplies.

We also have our first great niece or nephew due to be born in Australia in June next year.  So exciting, and a great opportunity to knit something really special.  In my distant past I knitted several shetland lace shawls, and I’d love to do another.  Do people in Sydney have occasion to use woollen baby garments though?  I’ll have to check that one out.

Oh, plus there’s that sleeveless pullover I started and got half way through in 1984, still there and still patiently waiting for my attention.  One day……

This is the real deal Fair Isle – no dyed-in sock wool ‘cheats’ here