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Land’s End Knitting Charity….

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Lands’ End Invites Customers To Knit A Charity Hat For Chilly Sailors

Lands’ End is calling on customers to grab their knitting needles, cast-on and help sailors cast-off in a cosy new hat.

Sep 17, 2009 – The home shopping clothing specialist has teamed up with the Sailors’ Society and is aiming to provide hundreds of knitted hats for the merchant seafarer charity’s Woolly Hat Campaign 2010.

The retailer has put together a free ‘knit-a-hat’ kit; providing customers with everything they need to create wonderful woolly hats. The new hats will warm the cockles of merchant sailors’ hearts – as well as their heads – as they battle the elements to ship our consumer goods around the world.

The kit contains Lands’ End’s exciting new feelgood yarn – a specially sourced blend that knits into wonderfully warm and cosy clothing. Enough of the feelgood yarn has been put aside to enable the business and its loyal customers to hit their target of 1,500 hats to be distributed to sailors during Woolly Hat Week – February 7-13th 2010.

Lands’ End UK Managing Director Tim Curtis said: “We’re proud to pledge our support to the Sailors’ Society as it works to enrich the quality of seafarers’ lives in the UK and around the world and we’re sure our customers have all the necessary skills to get knitting and make a difference.

“Sailors and sailing is close to our hearts at Lands’ End – our US founder Gary Comer was a world-class sailor and our business grew out of its roots as a yachting equipment retailer into the global clothing brand it is today.”

Jan Webber, Director of Fundraising and Marketing at the Sailors’ Society, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Lands’ End. Many people forget that without the seafarer, everyday essentials that we take for granted would not reach our shores. These people often spend many months at sea in harsh conditions, sometimes not even speaking the same language as their colleagues.

“A simple act of gratitude can mean the world to someone far from home and family; by knitting a woolly hat you are spreading the work of the Sailors’ Society and directly benefiting the seafarer at the same time.”

For more details, contact Rachel in the Lands’ End Press Office on 0870 600 3870

www.sailors-society.org or visit www.landsend.co.uk/feelgood

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Knit a Garter Stitch Blanket with a Twist

When I first started knitting again after a long absence from the craft (which has now been almost 25 years ago!) I really didn’t like garter stitch that much. I found it super boring, somehow even more boring than knitting stockinette stitch in the round, even though it’s exactly the same thing.

Over the years I’ve softened my opinion, and even grown to like garter stitch. There’s nothing wrong with being plain, and actually the texture of garter stitch is more interesting than stockinette.

Also there are fun things you can do with garter stitch to make it more interesting if you want to, such as adding stripes, working on the bias, or doing fun effects to change the look.

That’s the way with the Bernat Twist My Way Garter Knit Blanket. Using combinations of casting on and binding off creates what they call a Swiss cheese effect along two sides of the blanket. This is a lot of fun in the self-striping ombre yarn they chose for the pattern, but it would also be fun in a solid color or making your own stripes.

Despite the dramatic effect, this pattern is rated easy. It’s worked from side to side (if you consider the “cheesy” edges the top and bottom) and has an eight-row repeat that involves binding off and then casting on again to make the holes. They’re kind of like giant buttonholes.

Once you get the hang of it it’s a pretty easy repeat to remember, and it will be smooth knitting as big as you want to make it.

You can download this pattern from the Yarnspirations website for free, or you can buy a kit direct from them that includes the yarn you need (and knitting needles if you need those, too). Bernat Sport Ombre Twist, which is what is used in the pattern, comes in 12 self patterning colors and is a DK weight acrylic yarn.

[Photo: Yarnspirations]