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.

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

Have you read?