Knitting Without Needles

I went a little bit crazy and decided to have some fun! So here you go: how to knit your own gold medal… the directions are a little loose so hey have fun!

 If you like and use this pattern please consider making a donation to The Pearlington Project  in the name of Purls of Hope or send a care kit to a family in Pearlington via the contacts on the Purls of Hope site. Thank you!!

I have included instructions for our needle knitting or round loom knitting friends in parentheses these directions are, however totally untested so good luck and let me know how it works!! You can work it stockinett so knit on your way out and purl on your way back needle knitters!

Materials: double sided knitting board, knitting tool, yarn needle (needles of size of your choice)

Optional:crochet hook

Yarn:  about 50-80 yards of yarn that matches the gauge of your knitting board (or your needles) a textured or fluffy yarn helps cover up the short rows! in a gold colour or in the colour of the medal you think you earned!

(try Jiffy in Lemon.. or you could use a ball of Glitterspun for some sparkle it comes in gold silver and bronze!)

Size: This will vary as to the board/loom/needles and yarn you use. Mine is 9 inches across and was knit with ten stitches on a DA small gauge knitting board.

*see below for links for techniques involved in this pattern!

Pattern:

Cast on 10 sets of pegs (10 stitches) using the cast on of your choice

Knit one row.

Pattern stitch:

Row1: wrap and knit 2 sets of pegs (2 stitches, do short row wrap, [turn and] knit back to beginning of row)

Row2: Wrap and knit 4 sets of pegs(4 stitches, do short row wrap,turn and knit back to begining of row)

Row 3: Wrap and knit 6 sets of pegs(6 stitches, do short row wrap,turn and knit back to beginning of row)

Row 4: Wrap and knit 8 sets of pegs(8 stitches, do short row wrap, turn and knit back to beginning of row)

Row 5: Wrap and knit 10 sets of pegs (10 stitches,turn and knit back to beginning of row)

Repeat these 5 rows until your medal is a compete circle.

If you want to make a smaller medal cast on only 6 sets of pegs (6 sitches) and repeat only rows 1-3 till you have a complete circle.

Finishing:

Cast off loosely and join the ends.

 Get a pretty ribbon of your choosing and string it through your medal and wear it with pride! You’ve earned it!

The wrap I used on the knitting board to make this looks like this:

 

For short row wrapping instructions please see:

on needles: http://www.knittinghelp.com/knitting/videos//adv-tech/short-row-with-wrap-rds.mpg

for short row on looms see:

 http://www.geocities.com/teddybear56431/Socks.html

This technique should work just use it at the end of the row lift the stitch from under the next peg over and onto your last wrapped peg!

(thanks again Gail!)

When seaming the peice* using needles/knitting boards/ loom (except if knit in garter stitch) you can all use the shoulder technique shown on this page:

http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayArticle?articleNum=as0132

*If you make the piece on a knitting board you will want to do this seam on both sides of your work as it is double knit!!! So leave a long enough tail to go down one side and back up the other!!!!

 

Don’t forget to check back for sneek peeks of my booklet.. I have it on good authority that the final title is Learn to Knit on a Circle Loom and it’s product number is 1405 at DRG (wholesalers) and will retail for $9.95.. and sorry at this time I have no photo either! Isela knows more about it than I do.. I am just the lowly author she is a retailer!!!

Here’s the deal… contrary to what is listed on Yarn Harlot’s blog I have not made a backyard leaves scarf. I discovered in the training phase that I did not have enough yarn.

My new goal was to make a nice sexy summer top.. that crashed and burned.

So I decided that I would do something that I have been wanting to do for a while and would indeed be a challenge.

*oops excuse me.. gotto go deal with a lost tooth!*

Ok.. where was I?

oh yeah.. the challenge. I decided to make 16 swatches of stitch patterns. First I would make a swatch of the stitch pattern on the needles, then translate it too the knitting loom and make a swatch on that loom.

Well.. I did it! I did get done at 2:30 EXACTLY..

 ]

(Sorry thought that was a bit of a better picture..)

I think that is like a half an hour later than the deadline.. so… judges.. waddya say?

Come on, remember I started late with an injury!!!

Ok.. as you will recall my goal was 16 swatches in 16 days. Well if you count that two colour hat from the other day as a swatch as I did it looks like I have two more to go..

And.. well look over there.. last I looked it was about 19 hours left..

Of course in that 19 hours I also have to:

cook dinner

get the family to clear the table after dinner

wash some dinner dishes

get two kids to take showers and wash their hair

clip the nails of the child with sensory avoidance..at least when it comes to that…

get four kids to bed

let the dog out

let the dog in

feed the dog

decide on the final stitch pattern to try

knit a swatch on the needles for that stitch pattern

quell a two year old who wants up while I am typing

sleep….perhaps….

get everyone up

feed them breakfast

get them all dressed and ready for church

let the dog out

let the dog in

feed the dog

go to Sunday school

go to church

wish I was on nursery duty so I had another hour to knit

come home and make lunch

water the plants

knit knit knit

rescue camera from same two year old and get pork chops out of the oven

knit knit knit

probably by then write and entry for my new Lion Blog on the Lion Brand site

get the two year old to take a nap

wish I could take a nap

finish cleaning the boys’ room to get it ready for the four year old’s new bed

 

(and that is after an hour and a half of cleaning today!)

knit knit knit

When is the closing ceremony?

look over lessons for home school next week…

enter lessons and attendance for last week…

knit and extra swatch cause I am sure someone will not count the hat..

 AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

And that doesn’t include diaper changes and getting the four year old to go potty.. or take care of it when he doesn’t make it! ……hehehheh

You will also notice no where does it mention anything like brushing teeth, hair getting dressed etc.. so you can pretty much assume I will be a stinking,wrinkled mismatched overtired mess by the time the flame goes out.. but hey..it’s worth it!