Both of my parents celebrate birthdays in November. While my father is actually very easy to knit for, my mother is not. I love my Mama, she is one of the most amazing people alive. However, my mother would rather hang a shawl I knit for her on the wall than wear it. After 8 or so years of knitting for her I finally grew wise and started knitting house hold items, it has worked great! Here is what I made my Mama this year.
A table runner!!!!!! She loved it, yay!!!!!!!
Here's how I started: with one skein of Yarn Hollow Quest and a 8mm crochet hook (one of the very few times I've ever used one), I chained 140, then fastened off. After I fastened off, I spread the chain out on the table and marked where I wanted my leaves to be placed.
I used the patterns for the oak and elm leaf from Martin Storey's Winter Warmers book.
For the smaller leaves I cast one stitch onto US size 8 needles.
Row 1) kfb, k1
Row 2)kfb, k to end of row
Continue repeating rows 1 & 2 until 13 stitches are on the needle. Knit 3 rows.
Next row begin decreases: ssk, knit to last to stitches, K2T
Repeat decrease row until 3 stitches left on needle.
Last row: Slip 2 stitches, knit last stitch, pass two slipped stitches over knitted stitch. Break yarn, feed yarn tail through final stitch on needle.
kfb: knit into the front and then the back of the stitch
ssk: slip two stitches together, then knit into the back of the slipped stitches (decreases one stitch)
k2t: knit two stitches together
I made a couple of variations to the size of the leaves based on how big I wanted them.
Finally, I connected the leaves to the chain by using my crochet hook to pick up a stitch at the base of each leaf I had made. I then chained 6 or 7 (until I had my desired stem length). My next chain connected the stem to the main chain (the 140 count original) by using a slip stitch. I then fastened off the stem and wove in my ends.
A very special thank you to the lovely Lindsey for helping me with crochet lingo.
No comments:
Post a Comment