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:

If you’re looking for a sweater knitting pattern that uses up some of your stash and allows you to make just the sweater you want, the Marlina Rib by Shay Johson might be just the thing.

It’s worked with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together to make a DK weight gauge, so you can use the same two yarns throughout or change one or both regularly for an even more colorful look.

The pattern has options to make it either a crewneck or a henley style with buttons, tapered or relaxed sleeves, and a straight hemline or a split hem with buttons (which sounds so cute if you do the henley with split hem and match the buttons on both parts).

It’s also knit from the top down so you can make the body and the sleeves as long as you want. There are 10 sizes available in the pattern, with a chest circumference ranging from 32 to 68 inches, or 81.5 to 172.5 cm. It’s meant to be worn with 4-6 inches/10-15 cm of positive ease at the chest.

The pattern page on Ravelry includes tons of measurements and yardage estimates so you can make sure you’ll get a good fit for your body before you even buy the pattern. Shay also shows a few variations of the sweater so you can see how different options look before you decide how you want to put them together.

The stitch pattern is 1×2 ribbing, which is really easy to do and gives a look almost like fisherman’s rib that’s relaxed and easy to wear.

This sweater looks like a great option for people who are somewhat new to sweater knitting or those who love to have lots of customization options (because it’s like getting multiple sweater patterns in one!).

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself at Ravelry.

[Photo: Shay Johnson]

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