Knitting basics - crafts for crazy times

I have notice there seems to be a bit of an increased interest in craft- including cooking, making and gardening - with the social distancing measures in place during these crazy corona times. The Age today had a lovely article titled “Virtually no social life? Think Again” featuring a 5 year old playing monopoly with his 11 year old cousin via FaceTime. And another story told of the rush of sales of seedlings, with people spending time at home and looking to plant a vege patch for “ something productive” to do, as well as for food production and mental health.

Several people on our wonderful local Good Karma Network ( big shout out to the admins - all volunteers - who do an AMAZING job moderating all posts!) have been asking about knitting, crocheting, and digging sewing machines out of storage to dust them off and use them or lend them to people looking for something to do with their teens at home!

I highly recommend popping over to Pip’s lovely blog “Meet me at Mike’s” for all things crochet ( as well as some ACE recipes, craft ideas, book reviews, tips on looking after yourself and just an allround wonderful read!).


As for knitting, my journey started about 10 years ago, when I bough this book from Scavengers at the Sydney Road Festival. Casting on was the tricky bit, and even a quick online search now has come up with mainly complicated cast ons. The Spruce Crafts has a great step by step guide with photos and videos, it looks like a great resource for beginner knitters.

Along with tips from my MIL ( because trying to cast on was the but I couldn’t get until she taught me the super easy knit cast on, which I have never seen in a knitting book!) and a how-to-knit book aimed at children I found at the Coburg Library ( I still have the photocopied pages!), I finally got the hang of it. You can find various scarves, beanies, blankets and shawls documented in my blog. I have not got the time or patience to attempt a jumper or cardigan! I haven’t done any blankets for a while as they take months. I already have  about 4 shawls on the go at the moment, and not much knitting actually being done!

My first go to pattern is from the above book. I still use this pattern to make cowls ( one ball of chunky yarn usually makes a cowl and I can have a quick hand made gift made in a couple of days if I am really serious about it. I even knitted at the cinema while watching “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” because I had a birthday gift to finish!