Oldest Man in Australia is a Knitter

Alfred “Alfie” Date is considered the oldest man in Australia at 109 years old. He may also be the world’s oldest knitter, or the person in the world who has been knitting the longest, at around 80 years.

He says he learned to knit from the sister-in-law of his great-great-grandfather. His first project was a jumper for a baby, which he accidentally worked in (British) Moss Stitch instead of ribbing. It happens.

These days Date lives in an assisted living home in New South Wales, and he says he’d been in the home less than a day when nurses approached him about knitting jumpers for penguins.

He stitched some up because, he says, he’s incapable of saying no. (While the penguins don’t need more help, the humans at the Penguin Foundation are impressed by his skill.)

One of his knitting secrets is using heavier wool because, “if you’re using a light wool you’re wasting your time,” he says.

You owe it to yourself to click through and watch the video.

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One great thing to knit when the weather is warm (or honestly any other time) is dishcloths and washcloths. They are fun and easy projects and a great way to play with new skills. Pretty washcloths make cleaning a tiny bit more fun, and they’re great to have on hand as a quick addition to a store-bought gift.

The Daisy Delight Dishcloth from Yarnspirations is a fun one for using leftover bits of green in your cotton yarn stash. What looks like the bottom in the picture is actually the left side as you knit it, and each little color section is worked with its own ball of yarn, intarsia style.

That’s a little fiddly for a washcloth, but the effect is cute, and it’s a simple way to learn the basics of intarsia knitting (as well as reading a chart) if you don’t already have those skills.

One the knitting is done, you add the flowers with a bit of lazy daisy embroidery, which is really easy to do even if you’re not that into embroidery. You could also potentially add flowers in duplicate stitch if you’d rather.

This may be the most work you’ve put into a dishcloth, but isn’t it adorable? It would be fun to use as a hand towel through the spring and summer, and if you already have some leftover green yarn from other projects it should be pretty easy to do.

You could also take this same concept and make it different colors. All dark green stems with stars on top might be reminiscent of Christmas trees, or brown with daisy stitch on top in different colors could be trees in the fall.

However you stitch it, this looks like a fun little project for knitters who are comfortable with intarsia and reading charts or who are ready to try those skills.

You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

Book Review – Dishcloths for Special Days [Knitting]

Book Review – Holiday Knit Dishcloths

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