And Now for the Rest of the Year and a Bunting Pattern to Celebrate

Now that was a roller-coaster week. I naively thought that if I work diligently and pre-write my blogs for 4KCBWDAY1 to 7 inclusive, I’d have plenty of time to write other blogs, and to get on with projects for the summer (surely must happen sometime this year!). Well the update is, I have no new blogs and two of my projects are dire failures and had to be frogged. Since I work whilst commuting, I don’t even have photos to show how badly wrong they went – for some blogosphere commiserations. So I continue to stare at the pyramid of frogged yarn and wonder whether I have the courage to attempt it all again.

On the other hand, through 4KCBW, not only did I find a whole array of craft bloggers (even some in Hungarian which I speak and love) but I got my MOST EVER comments. Thank you all for visiting and commenting. It is starting to feel that there are some who read me : )

For that purpose and because there are now buds on the trees and flowers in my garden, I think it is time to celebrate. And what better way to do it than with bunting. Those little triangles are a fantastic way of moving on oddment yarn from your stash if you want a multi-coloured one. Or if like me, you choose to create from one colour, you can either match it to the room/garden decor and even welcome a new Baby by embroidering their name on each bunting. Either way, it is quick, easy and a very welcome way to lift spirits and add a personal touch. You can make it in the same size or different sizes (depending on the stash you’re trying to burn) so the creative input is huge and satisfying.

Pattern:

Using Aran weight yarn and size 5 needles, cast on 28 for large, 22 for medium and 18 for small bunting.
Using stockinette stitch (K all stitches on RS rows, P all stitches on WS rows) knit four rows.
Decrease from each end of your work once every third row. To practice good knitting technique, use SSK on the left-leaning side of the bunting (beginning of the row on RS) and K2tog on the right-leaning side of the bunting (end of the row on WS). When you decrease on the WS, just P2tog.
When you have two stitches left, K2tog and cast off remaining stitch.

If you don’t want to embroider into the bunting, or you’re using different coloured yarn, you could just knit all rows of course which is slightly easier when decreasing.

When you have all bunting you desire, pick up and knit along the top edge of the bunting, cast on three, pick up and knit on the top edge of the next bunting etc. until you get to the end. In Stockinette stitch, knit two rows and cast off. Add loops at either end to help to attach bunting. Embroider if required, and attach to door frame, window frame, edge of shelves, amongst the trees, gazebo etc. of your choice. Of course, rather than knit a very long string, you could crochet or use ribbon threaded through the tops of the bunting instead.

As I said, creativity is strong with this little project. Enjoy and if you make pictures of your creations, please send me one!