Heritage Open Days bunting

Heritage Open Days come around again in September, and like last year, St Edmund's Church will be taking part :-)  I follow the HOD twitter account, and about 2 weeks ago they tweeted with a photo of the their new bunting which had been put up in their office.

I responded with....

.....which they retweeted and added....

 

So the gauntlet was down! This is the design I finally came up with. Not quite the same proportions as theirs, but I'm reasonably happy with it. I will crochet a string across the top of them all when I've finished to help them to hang a bit better.

3 finished

The back of the triangles look like this:

Well, having knitted 5 of them, I've now written down the pattern. Here goes:

You need white wool and the nearest you can get to rhodamine red wool (mine is magenta)

4mm needles

a darning needle

 K=knit,  K2tog=knit 2 together, w=white, m=magenta

                                                                        

The triangle is knitted in garter stitch (all plain) but there is a right side(RS) and a wrong side (WS) as you can see from the photos. When you are working on the wrong side, ensure you take the working colour to the other side. I also twisted the wools where the colour changed to prevent  'holes' down the sides of the H. All even rows are WS, all odd rows are RS.

CO 30 stitches in white

Row I    K30w

Row 2   K30w

Row 3   K9w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K9w

Row 4   K1w, K2togw, K6w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K6w, K2togw, K1w

Row 5   K8w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K8w

Row 6   ditto

Row 7   ditto

Row 8   K1w, K2togw, K5w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K5w, K2togw, K1w

Row 9   K7w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K7w

Row 10 ditto

Row 11 ditto

Row 12 K1w, K2togw, K4w, K4m, K4w, K4m,  K4w, K2togw, K1w

Row 13 K6w, K12m, K6w

Row 14 ditto

Row 15 ditto

Row 16 K1, K2togw, K3, K12m, K3w, K2togw, K1w

Row 17 K5w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K5w

Row 18 ditto

Row 19 ditto

Row 20 K1w, K2togw, K2w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K2w, K2togw, K1w

Row 21 K4w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K4w

Row 22 ditto

Row 23 ditto

Row 24 K1w, K2togw, K1w, K4m, K4w, K4m, K1w, K2togw, K1w

continue in white to end

Row 25 K18

Row 26 ditto

Row 27 ditto

Row 28 K1, K2tog, K12, K2tog, K1

Row 29 K16

Row 30 K1, K2tog, K10, K2tog, K1,

Row 31 K14

Row 32 K1, K2tog, K8, K2tog, K1

Row 33 K12

Row 34 K1, K2tog, K6, K2tog, K1

Row 35 K10

Row 36 K1, K2tog, K4, K2tog, K1

Row 37 K8

Row 38 K1, K2tog, K2, K1

Row 39 K6

Row 40 K1, K2tog, K2 tog, K1

Row 41 K4

Row 42 K1, K2tog, K1

Row 43 K3

Row 44 K1, K2tog, slip stitch over.

Pull loop, thread wool through, pull tight and cut. Weave in ends.

I decided to decrease every 2 rows once having completed the magenta H, but maybe it might be better to continue with decreasing very 4 rows instead like the top half. In which case repeat rows 29, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 41, and 43 twice more each time. Hope that makes sense!

Our knitted bunting is to go across the front of our St Edmund's Knit and Crochet Group stand at the Open Day on Sat 8th Sep. We are planning a heritage theme, but you'll have to wait and see! There will be a three day flower festival inside church with the theme of "Music, music, music" over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, for Open day, the field will be full of community and local history stands, craft stalls, traditional games, a book stall, plant stall, a beer tent and refreshments inside the church hall. On Sunday evening there will be a special church service at 6pm to round off the weekend. Arrangements are not yet finalised, and if last year is anything to go by, we will still be organising events right up to the weekend itself!

Simply Knitting blog and magazine

Whoopee, we are featured on the Simply Knitting blog for yesterday, 29th May! Go look !! They even have this photo of some of our bunting ;-)


I can also now reveal that we will be appearing in an edition of the magazine too at some point in the next few months.

Cafe Blah Blahh, Hunstanton, Norfolk

This is for those of you who haven't yet discovered the fabulous new cafe that has opened up in Hunstanton. It is run by Andrew and Jamie, who combine their fantastic cooking with their wonderful interior design. I paid them a visit a couple of weeks ago, and somehow ended up offering to knit some Union Jack bunting for their shop! As you can see from the picture here on the left, their theme IS Union Jacks, oh, and cup cakes too.

If you've been following the story of my bunting, you'll know I was having a lot of trouble with Union Jacks. I'd bought a pattern online, and had tried several times to knit from the pattern, without a lot of success. Welllll....I had a brainwave, knit the upright red cross on a blue background, THEN chain stitch the red diagonal cross, and the white edges around each cross. Eureka. It worked!! I have now finished three of them, all slightly different as I'm amending slightly as I go along... BUT, I think they are very presentable. And I hope Cafe Blah Blahh agree with me ;-)

More bunting your majesty.....

I'm still making bunting, and decided to take on the challenge of Union Jack bunting. I searched on Ravelry and found some lovely e-patterns designed by knitwear designer Lorraine Hearn, raising funds for her village primary school in Bedfordshire. For just £2, I was able to download not only 3 different Jubilee bunting designs, but also a cushion :-)

I have had three tries at the Union Jack flag. I decided not to knit the border (which is probably exactly where I fell down, although I may well crochet a border now!) My 3rd attempt is the best, and you can certainly see the progression, lol. They are recognisable though......Are they?

#1 and #2 attempts

Ok, below is the final prototype. I decided to find another flag, sew the 2 together, and lightly stuff. I think you can see that the striped flag was a bit smaller, but I kind of made them fit.....It was a fun project but I may leave it at that as far as the Jubilee is concerned and get back to the plain flags ;-) Look out for them on 14th June in Downham Town Square.

                          #3 Union Jack                                          

 back of #3 Union Jack

bunting, bunting, bunting,

I love this bunting I found on Ravelry (by yarnmantra)

Now that our WWKiP day has been booked, we will need to organise lots of bunting to decorate our venue. There's a wealth of bunting pictures available online, and a few patterns. My favourite pattern is this one by Karen Wessel. The picture here shows how it can look. There are little holes knitted along the top edge of each triangle so that they can be threaded onto tape etc afterwards. This would probably make the whole string of bunting more secure. The beads at the bottom of each triangle are pretty but not really necessary. There's also a very similar  pattern here,

I just found this pattern for crocheting triangles too.

If you want to support us locally in St Edmund's but are unable to come to knit on 14th June, would you consider knitting just one triangle? I'm using 4mm needles, DK acrylic, and casting on 35 stitches, decreasing at beginning of row 3 and 4. Knit until there are 3 stitches left.