Garter Stitch Love

A lot of the knitting I have been doing lately has been in garter stitch and I have realised just how much I love this stitch! It's the ultimate in comfort knitting - maybe it's because it's the first stitch we learn when starting to knit. When it is combined with experience and some lovely favourite yarn it can't be beaten.

I've recently used Rowan Felted Tweed to knit Charm by Kim Hargreaves (from her book 'Amber', now sadly not listed on her website) and was really pleased with the result. The last project involved Noro Silk Garden. I have a love/hate relationship with this yarn. I'd knitted it up into two cardigans and a scarf which I wore once or twice and didn't enjoy. They languished in my wardrobe until I decided it was a criminal waste of good (and expensive) yarn. So I set to ripping out, winding into hanks around a chopping board, washing, drying and winding into balls to reknit.

The perfect project for the yarn was a log cabin blanket in the fashion of the lovely ladies at Mason Dixon Knitting. For me Silk Garden shows the best side in that kind of knitting and resulted in a gorgeous blanket - which I gave to my Mum. She loves it too!

The latest pieces of comfort knitting were some cozy hot water bottle covers from 'The Gentle Art of Knitting' by Jane Brocket. Super fast to knit, these are being added to my list of favourite things to knit for gifts. I substituted the yarn used in the patterns for Paton's Shadow Tweed - a lovely wool and acrylic blend that knitted up into a lovely fabric on 6mm needles.

I love the density and drape of the fabric produced by garter stitch, the wavy lines like neat rows of curly joined-up handwriting, ummm...

While doing some online research about garter stitch, I found an interesting post by Kate at Woolwinding about the history and mechanics of garter stitch - go over there to read all about it - you will learn lots from her lovely blog.