Sitting pretty

Dear Anne

I have a question. I’ve a new grand-daughter being born in Australia next month and want to send the Sitting Pretty cardigan, on Page 35 of the October 2024 magazine, to my son and his wife and would also like to make the blanket that’s shown on Page 38. However I’m not able to see the pattern for the size and number of stitches. Please can you help? Kind regards and best wishes for the New Year, Annie

Thanks for asking Annie and the number of knitters who want to hand-knit it or adapt it for the machine has, quite honestly, astonished me. I decided to omit the pattern, because there aren’t sufficient needles on the machine for the width and I couldn’t imagine many of you wanting to hand knit it. A lot of you have proved me wrong, so here are the instructions for the blanket, in full. If you want to have a go, you’ll need 4 x 100g balls of King Cole Comfort Baby DK in 3570 Lavender (MY) and a pair each of 3.25 mm and 4 mm knitting needles. The finished blanket measures 84 x 92 cm, 33¼ x 36¼ in. If you’ll be knitting it on the machine in panels, it’s the same lace pattern as the cardigan.

BLANKET Using 3.25 mm needles and MY, cast on 177 sts. Knit 8 rows. Change to 4 mm needles and work in patt as follows. 1st row (right side) Knit. 2nd row Purl. 3rd row K 3, K 2 tog, yfwd (yarn forward), * K 2, K 2 tog, yfwd, rep from * to last 4 sts, K 4. 4th row Purl. 5th row Knit. 6th row Purl. 7th row K 1, * K 2 tog, yfwd, K 2, rep from * to end. 8th row Purl. These 8 rows form pattern. Cont in pattern until work measures about 90 cm, 35½ in ending with 2nd or 6th row of pattern. Change to 3.25 mm needles and knit 8 rows. Cast off.

SIDE BORDERS With right side facing, using 3.25 mm needle and MY, pick up and K 191 sts evenly along each side edge and knit 8 rows. Cast off. Pin out blanket to size, leave under a damp cloth until completely dry.

Looking at it again, if you use all 150 needles on the LK150, the blanket won’t be much narrower. You could easily increase the size of the borders and perhaps knit it on a slightly looser tension, to get very close to the full width on the machine. Sackcloth and ashes for me!

Forty fits!

Dear Anne

Now the shorter days and colder weather is on the horizon, I thought I’d better dig out my winter vests. Sadly they’ve seen better days, a bit like me! I decided to get some new ones and had forty fits to see the price of decent, old-fashioned vests. I’m going to follow Joan Lafferty’s pattern, as I did all those years ago, and knit some. Back then she told us to raid our yarn stash and find two strands of 1-ply botany wool. No chance now, but I’m sure a bit of soft cotton will be fine, especially as I can’t wear wool next to my skin. I’ve no idea about the sizing, but I think you’d call me an old-fashioned size 18 and I knit the third size.

Back and front (alike) Using 2 strands of 1-ply botany wool or whatever, cast on 156 [158, 160, 164] sts.

Hem Using T5, K 10 rows on main bed. Using T10, K 1 row. Using T5, K 10 rows. Turn up hem by placing cast-on sts on Ns of last row.

Main part K straight for 125 [130, 135, 140] rows or length to waist. Shape waist by transferring alt sts to ribber and K 20 rows in rib. (Ribbing gives a nice snug fit.) Transfer back to main bed and K 60 rows.

Shape armholes Cast off 5 sts at beg of next 2 rows and 2 sts at beg of foll 2 rows. Dec 1 st each end of foll 10 rows.

Neck and shoulder straps With everything in HP on left side, cast off 13 sts to right of centre stitch and cont on these sts. Dec 1 st at each end of every foll row until 12 sts rem. K straight for 30 rows. Cast off. Complete left side to match.

Making up Sew up sides and top of straps, then work two rows of double crochet round armholes and neckline. Stay warm! Sincerely, Maggie

Thanks for writing Maggie and back then the pattern was probably written for something like 38 [39, 40, 41] inch bust sizes. Joan would have definitely used her Knit Leader. In fine pure wool, I guess it was knitted on a fairly loose tension. This would help the fabric to trap the air to keep us warm and give it a fair bit of stretch.