North America’s Fastest Knitter Has a New Goal

I love this story from the Toronto Sun about the fastest knitter in North America, Lina Benne. The 49-year-old yarn shop owner from Mississauga entered a speed knitting contest on a whim back in 2004 and managed to knit 253 stitches in 3 minutes, deftly beating the American record of 213.

She learned to knit when she was 4 and uses the pivot style of knitting — where one needle is held under the arm, a hallmark of fast knitters the world over. She says she picked up speed through years of muscle memory, and having lots of time on her hands in the early years when her shop wasn’t that busy.

She doesn’t compete for speed much these days — though she says in the video accompanying the story that she’d love someone to come along and blow away her record so she could retire — she does have another goal in sight: starting a Canadian sheep to shawl team to turn fleece into a sweater in record time.

[Photo by Richard Lautens via the Toronto Sun.]

Next Pattern:

Knitwear designers can get inspiration from almost anything when it comes to re-creating a color scheme, an image or a texture in stitches. Sometimes the inspiration isn’t always obvious in the finished project, but sometimes it’s more literal.

That’s the way it is with the Tin Ceiling Blanket from Purl Soho. Not just because the inspiration is in the name, but if you’ve ever seen one of these old ceilings you can see that the design of the blanket is quite similar to the pattern of the tin tiles.

This is also a good example of the idea that you don’t have to use fancy stitch patterns or lots of color to make a big impact with your knits. This single-color blanket (designed by Gianna Mueller and inspired by a washcloth and towel set designed by Sandi Rosner) is made completely with knits and purls, other than slipped stitches at the beginning of rows to make neater edges.

The pattern is written out row by row, but there’s also a chart, which means this project is a great opportunity to practice reading a chart where you can check your work against the written pattern if you need to.

It comes in two sizes, a crib blanket and a throw. The yarn used in the sample is an organic cotton sold by the cone, which is a great way to get a large quantity of yarn and have fewer ends to weave in. In fact, you can knit either size of the blanket with just one cone of yarn, which isn’t inexpensive but makes you a great, sturdy, heirloom quality but still washable blanket you’ll use for years to come. (Of course you can use any sport weight yarn you like to make this blanket.)

Check out all the details and grab the free pattern from Purl Soho.

[Photo: Purl Soho]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?