Knitting for the Pope and Stitching a New Beginning

Two sweet knitting stories to end your week.

First, Virginia “Ginny” Burnett of Dawsonville, Georgia, is a 92-year-old knitter and devoted churchgoer who knits for a local church’s Loving Stitches Knitting Ministry. After the blessing of some hats knit for soldiers and hospital patients, the priest jokingly said “now go home and knit one for the Pope.”

So she did. The white hat with gold cross took four days to knit and has been mailed to Pope Francis with a picture of Burnett and a written blessing.

And I’ve shared the story of Gregory Patrick before, but he’s in the news again thanks to an article on Yahoo! Makers. Patrick walked away from a job in 2010 and found he couldn’t get a new one and eventually ended up homeless. Friends helped him get yarn, a computer and a phone line and he knit and sold his first teddy bear.

Through the years he has sold enough bears and other animals to help him get back on his feet, he’s written a book about his experiences, is now selling knitting patterns, too and can be found on his blog Mad Man Knitting. So nice to see the good that can come from some needles and yarn!

[Photo by Gregory Patrick via Yahoo! Makers.]

Looking for more Knitting patterns for Teddy Bears? Check it out here.

Next Pattern:

I’ve shared a lot of Christmas stocking knitting patterns over the years (see posts 1, 2, 3 for example) but what if you want to knit a stocking for a non-human member of your family. If you’re looking for Christmas stocking knitting patterns for your cats or dogs, this is the post for you.

These large paw print stockings are perfect for either dogs or cats, so they’re great to knit if you have both. They are worked in the round using DK weight yarn, and the stocking measures about 17 inches/43 cm from the top to the heel. You can get the pattern from nicolaluke.

The K4 Project has a super cute Kitty Christmas stocking pattern, which is worked in worsted weight yarn. They also have a dog version, or you can buy both and get a discount if you have both dogs and cats to knit for. Both projects have two patterns, showing how to work the stockings flat or in the round.

Put your dog into a Christmas scene with this stocking pattern from ifanhourChild. It shows a dog in a dog house in the snow, and has room for the dog’s name at the top. It’s worked flat using worsted weight yarn and the pattern includes charts for many small and medium dog breeds (there’s a separate listing for bigger dogs) so you can stitch a dog that looks like yours.

Annie’s Woolens has both dog and cat stocking knitting patterns that are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round. You can change up the colors to suit your pet if you want, and they come with an alphabet chart for personalization. Or you can stick with holiday colors and buy a kit to make the dog or cat stocking.

Waiting for Santa Paws is a pattern from Kate Agner on Ravelry that would be cute for a dog or a cat. It looks like a leg with a paw print on the bottom part of the foot and more paw prints running around the top of the leg. This is a great option if you don’t want to mess with a heel turn because it doesn’t have a heel, because dogs and cats don’t have heels so why would their stockings?

Book Review – 20 to Knit: Tiny Christmas Toys to Knit

Book Review – Knit Christmas Stockings

Next Pattern:

Have you read?

Leave a Reply