Knitting

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UK Knitters: Join the Christmas Sock Appeal

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knit baby socks for the UK hand knitting association stocking appealThe UK Hand Knitting Association is looking for some knitters who want to hone their sock-knitting skills, or just knit some cute little socks, that will be used as bunting to decorate care homes and other places during the festive season.

There are a few patterns on their website to get you started, but I’m sure any little sock in festive colors would be appreciated. There’s even a crochet version if you want to try your hand at crocheting a sock.

The deadline for getting stockings to them is Dec. 9, so people overseas could certainly do it if they wanted as well.

People planning to attend the Knitting and Stitching Show at Harrogate in November can drop socks off there, otherwise they can be mailed to:

Christmas Stocking Appeal
60 Bridge Road East
Welwyn Garden City
Herts AL7 1JU

What a fun little project and an easy way to spread some holiday cheer, while picking up some knitting skills if you don’t already know how to knit socks.

[Photo via UK Hand Knitting Association.]

Looking for more Christmas themed Knitting patterns? Check out some of our favorite Knitting patterns on Etsy and

These Christmas Knitting Pattern Books on Amazon

 

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Make Your Knitting Machine Scarves Better

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

  • the simple cinching method mentioned above
  • sewing the stitches together
  • three needle bind off
  • grafting
  • crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!