Saturday 19 November 2011

Remembrance Day Poppy

I'd knitted a poppy a couple of years ago using a pattern from the Royal British Legion website. It knitted up rather large and was OK to wear on my coat, but a bit too much for everyday wear in the office. I looked around on the web for a new pattern and came across a wonderful pattern by 
Laura Chau.

It took me several attempts to get going. The first round consisted of 8 stitches across 4 needles, using black wool. Working in artificial light in the evenings, meant that I was having trouble seeing what I was doing.  I decided that I needed a way to label the needles so ordered some stitch stoppers on e-bay. Being me, I didn't have the patience to wait for them, so I raided my daughter's art & craft cupboard and found some Hama beads that were just the right size to fit the needles. 
 I labelled the Hama beads 1 to 4. This helped me keep track of each row of the round. 
By the time I got to the 4th round and was using the red wool, the work was large enough for me to see the rounds and I didn't need to counters.
Ready to cast off

Badge pin attached top the back of the finished poppy

Thank you Laura for the fantastic pattern.

My newly knitted poppy 
alongside my old knitted poppy

Bea-Bea helps out