New (To Me) Knitting Website Discoveries

I found some new websites about knitting (new to me, anyway). 

Mary Stephens' site ( www.maryannstephens.com ). She seems to have an affinity for stranded fair isle work. There is a page of free patterns, including Christmas balls, basic mittens, some fingerless mittens, hats, too many to mention really. I downloaded the Hedgerow Fingerless Mitts pattern:

 
She has paid patterns too, and they are gorgeous! If you download one for free, I urge you, please please  PLEASE buy at least one of her paid patterns if you can. 

Another new-to-me website is the Center for Knit and Crochet (https://centerforknitandcrochet.org). From their site:

The mission of The Center for Knit and Crochet, Inc. (“CKC”) is to preserve and promote the art, craft, and scholarship of knitting, crochet, and related arts.  To achieve these goals, CKC is creating an online museum, study center, and social networking environment to serve our community and the general public.  The CKC exists entirely online at www.centerforknitandcrochet.org and its resources and collections are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Be warned — visiting this site could suck you into a knitting time pit. There is a lot to see here. I got interested in war time knitting and then I found some sheet music for knitting that they played to keep up spirits while knitting and then I found knitting history articles and .... well. You see what I mean.

 

A third site I found is American for Victory: American Defense Knitting (https://knittingforvictory.rebeccakeyel.com/ ). From the website:

This blog is a companion to my dissertation work on American women’s volunteer during the First and Second World Wars. It will feature posts about archival finds, and will eventually feature images and descriptions of the garments I knit for the project.

I found it fascinating looking through the old patterns, thinking about the real men and women who were really fighting out there. Sons, brothers, husbands, fathers ... daughters, sisters, wives, mothers ... hoping that they would not die ... trying to knit for them so they might have warm hands and feet and heads and bodies. Knitting was a really important part of the war effort; wool kept the troops warm and the packages kept spirits  up.

Knitting Production Value in WWI

I hope you found these sites new and interesting too!

Thin Blue Line Hat for Heroes

Pattern: All Cops Are Bastards (free download on Ravelry)

Yarn: Cloudborn Merino Superwash Sock Twist (black) & Jamieson & Smith 2-ply Jumper weight (#16 Bright Blue)

Time to knit: About 10 days, in the evenings

Thoughts on this hat:

It’s a bit small. I made the larger size thinking it would be for a man, but it turns out that it fits me pretty well, maybe even snugly. I think if I made it again I’d go up a size of needle.

 I love the crown! So pretty!

I had some trouble (read: I swore a good bit) knitting the crown, but as soon as I remembered how to do a left cross and a right cross without using a cable needle it was fine.

There is still time to knit a hat before the KAL is over on 10/4/20, and I hope a ton of people knit one. While I was dismayed at the original message by the designer, the hat does have a pretty design for the top. I mean, if the designer had chosen a horrible name for a pet kitten, I wouldn’t hold it against the kitten. I would still love the kitten. 

Have fun and keep knitting!

Hat KAL 9/11 to 10/4

Hello there 😊 Is it September already??

There is a hat on Ravelry that has a well designed top, but it has ACAB duplicate stitched into it (ACAB = All Cops Are Bastards). It’s disappointing that someone who designs a beautiful hat like this has such a poor view of the police, but it is what it is. 

I ran across an Instagram post on Facebook about it, by a woman who disagrees with the designer that all cops are bastards (https://www.instagram.com/tv/CEZyiBmJRE1/?igshid=omwevot0838y) Warning: there is quite a bit of cursing in the video. If you don’t like swearing, you should not watch it. Also, you should not come to my house — my husband was a Navy corpsman with the Marines in Vietnam, and he pretty much curses all the time. Just sayin’.

Anyway, Tina Portillo said that when you encounter a pile of horse shit, make use of it. She is starting a Hat KAL that starts on 9/11 and ends on 10/4; you could download the ACAB hat pattern (free on Ravelry) and use it to knit a thin blue line hat, or All Cops Are Heroes (ACAH), or a red hat with the appropriate letters — make sure you put it on your project page, and remember to thank the designer for such a well designed hat. You can also use any hat pattern you like. I think the KAL is only on Instagram, which I am not on, but Tina may be hosting it somewhere else too. 

I grew up watching some great heroes on TV, on shows like Gunsmoke, The Lone Ranger, Adam 12,  Andy Griffith — but I am old, and maybe not everyone was lucky to have good experiences with cops as a child. As an adult though, I watched Bones, Castle, Inspecter Morse, and Lucifer, all very entertaining cop shows. I think all cops are heroes who deserve our respect. 

I plan to knit a black hat with a thin blue line around it, using the ACAB pattern from Ravelry. I think it will come out great. I hope you enjoy knitting your well-designed hat!