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Beginners Fingerless Mittens

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  Beginners Fingerless Mittens  www.beakerbutton.co.uk ©Jen Best 2022   These mittens are worked from side to side. The length is approximately 22cm, but this will depend on your tension. To adjust the length, change the cast on stitches or wet block them longer if they’re too short once they’re made. Soak them in water for an hour then pin them to shape on a mat/ironing board with rust free pins until dry. Once they’re dry they will retain their pinned shape. You can then sew up the sides, leaving a hole for your thumb.   The amounts in the chart below are an estimate and may change depending on your tension. I’ve rounded measurements up so you may have yarn left over. You can gather the leftovers and make them into stripy mittens, following the 2 colour stripe stitch pattern below. Yarn W eight Needle size Cast on Stitches Yarn amount 2 colour stripes yarn amount Lace 2mm 70 400m Yar
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Leafy Cowl

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  Leafy cowl www.beakerbutton.co.uk   ©Jen Best 2022 The leaf stitch was inspired by a FaceBook video from Handmade Kat.Kat You will need: DK yarn in 2 colours. 100g in main colour (mc), 20g in contrast colour (cc). You could use small bits of yarn approximately 40cm each for the leaf stitches if you wanted a really multicoloured cowl. Yarn needle for sewing in ends. Tension before blocking: 18 sts x 27 rows in stocking stitch using 3.75mm circular needles. Please bear in mind my natural tension will probably be different from yours. To get a cowl that looks like mine you may need to alter the needles size to get the same size stitches, and therefore the same size garment.   Cast on 200 sts. [K1, P1] for round [P1, K1] for round Repeat last two rounds - this forms four rows of moss stitch. Knit 7 rounds [K9, leaf stitch] for round Knit 7 rounds K4, [leaf stitch, K9] for round, ending with k5 instead of K9 on the last repeat. Repeat pattern once more, then repe
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No Sew Mitred Square Blanket and the point of knitting!

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No Sew Mitred Square Blanket This was one of those projects that made me consider why I knit. I don't need a blanket. I spend most of my time overheating, especially at night so actually a blanket is probably the last thing I need. I did have a huge amount of fibre from my Mum's stash, which prompted the idea.  A small selection from mine and Mum's stash! I'm finding spinning very soothing at the moment, with all the crazy going on. But why a blanket? I love to knit mitred squares. They way they get smaller as you make them, the look of the stripes as they form that distinctive V. I made a jacket a couple of years ago, well more of a coat really, with the huge amount of 4ply yarns I have. That started life as a blanket, but morphed into a coat as I was working it.  Me in my Mitred Square Coat I wanted something simple to work, and no sewing, and mindless, hence the blanket. Who knows, maybe next year it will be cold enough to use it. This project did it's job though
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Forest Bathing

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I recently came across the phrase Forset Bathing. My initial reaction was unrepeatable here, and frankly rude. If my mother was around to hear my language..... Then there was a lovely piece in Country File a couple of weeks ago about Forset Bathing and I thought, 'but I've been doing that all my life!' So, what is forest bathing? This definitition from Forestry England says it best. 'This Japanese practice is a process of relaxation; known in Japan as shinrin yoko. The simple method of being calm and quiet amongst the trees, observing nature around you whilst breathing deeply can hekp both adults and children de-stress and boost health and wellbeing in a natural way.'  I love being in forests. The birdsong and the wind in the leaves helps to distract me from my tinnitus. The cruch of leaves under foot and the splash of the odd puddle never fails to lift my spirits. My son laughs at me as I spend plently of time with my hands on the trunk of a tree just feeling the
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Sloppy Christmas Jumper

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Every year I make myself a Christmas jumper. I don't mean it has reindeer or snowmen on the front, or a nice nativity scene with the baby Jesus lying in a manger plastered across my stomach. It's a jumper I begin on Christmas day. I rarely get to knit something for myself. Mostly I'm knitting samples, designing new things, or knitting socks for my sock hungry family ( we're funding research into where the second sock goes after you wash it). At Christmas I rebel. I take time to plan what I want, to research the yarn and pattern, to think about the style of garment I'd like and what I'm going to use it for (walking jumper, mooching about jumper, gardening jumper etc). I organise my stash in the hope that I can use the yarn from it (never happens of course, I'm saving my stash for the apocolypse. Not this one, the real one, where there are zombies and all the yarn shops have already been looted).  This year I decided to use the fibre I'd inhereted from my
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