Rude cross stitch bookmark

Cross stitch doesn't have to be all pretty violets and home-sweet-homes. Here's a cross stitch bookmark which doesn't want to sit quietly in the front room playing the harpsichord, no thank you. It was made for me as a present by my outsider artist friend Sian Pattenden, many years ago.

I do like the way that this bookmark instantly flags up whatever you're reading as unbelievable. "The life of Charlemagne? Old arse, I'm afraid".

Mr July

His name is Wendy. He lives in the 1980s. He has a lovely pink tank top knitted in Extra DK. He would like to meet Nik Kershaw. We love you, Mr July.

Knitted school uniform

Knitted school uniform - both tops and pinafore skirts. Doesn't really bear thinking about in this hot weather, really.

Were kids really sent to school in skirts this short in the 1960s? I think you'd be sent straight home if you tried this today.

The pattern is stamped by Bellmans Wools, 21 Station Road, Portslade - which is now a Help The Aged charity shop. I wish that I could say that I'd bought this pattern there, in a cosmic moment of vintage knitting pattern kismet. But I didn't. Sorry.

1970s puzzle rug

Tarquin: "Mummy, look, the dog lent me his craft knife and we cut this square out of the rug!"
Mummy: "How creative, darling! I knew it was worth sending you to that Montessori school."

Actually, no. This is a 1970s latch hook Puzzle Rug made out of identical motif squares, which you can arrange and re-arrange to your heart's content before committing to sewing them together to make one big eye-spinning geometric floor-covering.

Home Handicrafts by Mary Harding offers plenty of different pattern ideas to get you started:


The book suggests that you can unpick the squares and sew up again into a different pattern, or a different shape entirely - you could make a runner for a hall, two squares wide and eight squares long, or a smaller hearth rug of three by five squares. Groovy.

Dropped stitch knitted throw

Here's a black knitted throw I've just finished, using the drop stitch technique from this 1940s knitting pattern. I used big, big needles and some chunky black, fluffy wool that has been lurking around for ages. It knitted up really quickly in garter stitch and then Lola and I had loads of fun dropping every fourth stitch and running ladders down to the end of the throw to create the lacy effect.

Final result? Brilliant. Thoroughly recommend this technique for impatient newbie knitters wanting to create something big and impressive in very little time.

Here' the problem with knitting in the summer: it's the hottest day of the year today, and I can't properly appreciate this throw until the autumn chill sets in. Luckily, cats are always an appreciative audience of knitwear, even when the mercury is pushing to the top of the thermometer.

Joining knitted squares with crochet

Crochet is a great way to join together knitted strips or squares, as in this rainbow bedspread. It's less stretchy than knitting, which means that it will give your blanket more structure and less sag.

To join knitted garter stitch squares or strips together, insert crochet hook into a stitch at edge of each strip, pass yarn over hook and draw it through the first two loops on hook, pass yarn over and draw it through the other two loops. Repeat along the edge of the strips. You'll have a created a strong crochet seam - the perfect finishing touch for your knitting.

1970s rainbow bedspread

Here's a gorgeously simple idea from Home Handicrafts (Mary Harding, Octopus Books, 1977). It's a rainbow bedspread, knitted in simple garter stitch - "Easy enough to knit without looking - although of course you can knit while watching television! Actually, the more exciting the story is, the faster your needles will click".

The bedspread is worked in strips and then joined together with a row of crochet. The bedspread in the book is worked in rainbow stripes and then joined with a black crochet border as a contrast. There's also this sophisticated version worked in shades of red:


What a brilliant stash-busting project!

The rainbow bedspread in the book is made of out 22 strips, each 16 stitches wide, and 140 cm long. You can work each strip to the length that you want, but make sure that each strip has the same number of rows, to make it easier to crochet together row by row.

Once you have worked the required number of strips, and crocheted them all together, work 3 rows of crochet round the edge of the bedspread, working 2 or 3 stitches in each corner stitch so that the corners will lie flat.