My Feathered Friend

Just Deciding Whether to Jump onto That Branch

I'm always thinking about things that can be done just in garter stitch so that I can use them to teach people, especially children, to knit.  This is Morgan the Owl.  Morgan is afraid of heights.

On the Branch, but A Bit Panicky

Scarf or shoulder wrap

At the Shepton Mallet Knit and Stitch show I bought a couple of balls of a novelty yarn from BeeBee Wools who specialise in fancy yarns.  The instructions with it were to cast on 40 stitches on 10mm needles and knit in garter stitch until you had used it all.  Finished it (terrible accident at cast off when for some reason it started to unravel itself, but ok now).

It's in what I would call cappucino colours.  I think I would have liked it a bit longer and if I knew then what I know now, I would have cast on 30 stitches.

On the upside, it's wide enough and just long enough to wear around the shoulders as a wrap with a shawl pin at the front.

Garter stitch bag

I found a stone in an Oxfordshire field that veins and patches of reddish brown, black, grey and silver.  Sadly, I didn't bring the stone home and the photo I took was fuzzy.

However, thinking about the colours and about garter stitch and all the things you can make with a straight strip of garter stitch, I made a 'dolly bag'. 

Using DK yarns I cast on 45 stitches with a silver yarn, knitted two rows and then used a cream slub (lumpy yarn), reddish brown and grey in single row stripes, carrying the yarns not in use up the side of the work. 

This is easy.  When you are doing stripes you don't want to have to cut and rejoin yarns any more than is absolutely necessary.  So, at the side of your knitting when you start a new row, tuck the colours you are not using over the colour you are using, so that they are carried up the side of the knitting until they are needed again.

If you are going to do single row stripes, always use an odd number of colours and then when you knit each row, you are back in the right place to pick up the next colour you need.

When I felt the strip was long enough to make a bag, I knitted two rows in silver and cast off.

To make a fastening I plaited  a little of the brown and cream, but included a little black this time and sewed the middle of the plait down near the top of the bag.  I covered a button in a small square of knitting in brown and black to add a little interest and fixed this over the spot where the plait is sewn down.

At least two of the yarns I used had a high cotton content and a tendency to stretch.  Since garter stitch is stretchy anyway, I will need to line it so that it holds its shape.

Garter Stitch hat

I have to admit here and now that I don't have a load of experience of babies, but I do have this idea for a simple garter stitch hat.  This doll's head is 14 and a half inches (37cm) round just above the ears.  According to various size charts I have seen this equates to about 6 months (or quite a sizable baby doll). 

Garter stitch is very stretchy and when I place a ruler across the front of the hat as it lies on the desk it measures only about 15 cm wide (about 30cm unworn, unstretched circumference).

If you are are a beginner and thinking of having a go, read this post right through and then you'll understand what you are aiming for.

Cast on  35 stitches in DK on  3.75mm  needles
Knit 4 rows
Change to a different colour and 4mm needles.  This means that the first few rows are slightly tighter and hold the hat in place. 

Knit garter stitch straight until the whole thing measures 11cm.  This is the front.

Change to a lighter colour yarn as the back of the hat is a different colour and knit down the back.
As it gets longer try folding it widthways at the point of the colour change so you can see how far to go before you reach the colour change at the bottom of the front. 
When you get to the colour change you need to change back to 3.75 needles and knit 4 rows so that when it is folded in half widthways back and front are the same length.

Cast off, fold it in half widthways (at the colour change) and sew it up the sides.
Wrap some spare yarn very tightly round the corners to make 'ears'.

Really important thing to remember is that if you decide to decorate the hat, make sure that everything is sewn on really firmly so baby can't pull it off and swallow it and make sure the yarn is really soft and not at all scratchy.

This idea could be adapted to any size doll by reducing the number of stitches cast on and the length.  In another post I'll have a go at adjusting the size for a different doll and let you know how I did it.

Remembering that garter stitch is very stretchy and that babies move about a lot I shall experiment casting on with 3.25mm needles to see if a tighter fit at the bottom is better.  I've still got to locate a baby to test it on.

About Garter Stitch

Bunny is wearing a garter stitch scarf and three snowdrops.

The scarf is very easy to knit - it's only about 2 cm wide and I only cast on 5 stitches using Double Knitting yarn and 4mm needles.  I just kept knitting until the rabbit said it was long enough.  He is very small. 

If you wanted a scarf for a bigger animal try casting on more stitches until you have the width you want.  Although we all knit our stitches to a slightly different size (tension) a scarf 5cm wide might need 15 stitches (3 stitches per centimetre).

Garter stitch (knit stitch or plain knitting) is stretchy sideways.  So, it is very useful for some things and not so for others.  Its name comes from the way it was used to make long woollen garters which were wrapped around the tops of stockings.

It's sometimes called White Stitch because the white squares in a knitting chart represented the knit stitch.

Garter stitch

Knit stich (garter stitch), the very basic stitch of knitting can get you a long, long way and using a few little tricks and embellishments you can make something quite special.

If you have managed to cast knitwise you have pretty much mastered the moves.
Take a look at the videos below to see how easy garter stitch is.