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.

Next Pattern:

Using your yarn stash is important to me throughout the year, but as I start to feel the end of the year coming on I get more excited about using things I already have in the house. Maybe that’s because I don’t want to go to a store in the thick of holiday shopping times, or I like the idea of having a little space in my stash when the new year rolls around.

It’s super satisfying to use up all the little odd balls you’ve made over the year (or years), and I have several stash busting blankets I work on when it’s cold and will maybe finish someday.

If you’d like to start a stash busting project that’s perfect for using up odd balls, check out the Soukish pattern from Neisha Abdulla. This pattern is made for fingering weight/sock yarn, and it’s worked in a tube with allover color work.

This is great for a couple of reasons. You don’t really have to weave in your ends when you can hide them in a tube (this is one time you might even get by just tying a knot when you change colors!) and you can change colors whenever you run out of yarn and it will look good.

Of course the pattern is made with blocks where the designer changed colors, but you can change yours more or less often as you need to make it work for your stash. You can use blank charts to design your own color combinations, or even your own stitch patterns if you like. You can also adjust the length of the scarf as needed or turn it into a cowl based on the amount of yarn you have.

This project looks like a lot of fun and would be a great thing to have on hand to stitch up and then to wear during the cold, gloomy months.

You can get a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Neisha Abdulla]

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