nanny doesn't knit!

[Rosilee]

I remember all my favourite woolies, knitted by nanny, now as a mum of 2, and a daughter of a 'I can't knit mother' I am trying to find handknits for my daughter 29 months and son 15 months. any suggestions?

Debbie Bliss, any of her books are good. And there is a Little Badger book of home knits. Their made-up knitwear is gorgeous but the book got mixed reviews on Amazon, with some experienced-sounding knitters alleging some instructions were gibberish.
Neither my mum nor my mil knit and so I am refreshing my school needlework skills with Debbie Bliss.

Charity shops quite often have new hand knits for sale. It conjures up thoughts for me of little, white-haired old ladies sitting beside the fire, knitting needles and false teeth clacking away in time to each other!

Both my mum and MIL are brilliant knitters - unfortunately one only knits in navy and the other knits a bizarre mixture of colours and complicated patterns! I bought a simple 'how to knit' book that includes instructions about everything from how to cast on to how to correct mistakes (very useful!)and had a go myself (all I knew when I started were the basic knit and purl stitches). Most of my constructions are very basic patterns knitted in stripes, because that's quite easy, and I find that changing colour every 4-8 rows keeps me interested. It also means that I can indulge in lovely combinations of colours (well, lovely to me, anyway). Thick wool and big needles help speed the process up.

Oh yes, I should also say that knitting means that dh can't accuse me of sitting in front of the TV doing nothing!

Azzie, which book? Might make a nice Christmas gift .

Rosilee, I wish I could donate all my son's unworn handknits. I really dislike handknitted clothes, but have a MIL and 2 SILs that both knit for him. The worst thing is trying to get a tiny baby into something hand knitted, their little fingers keep poking throught the stitch holes when you try to get their arm into a sleeve

Oh, I loved putting mine in hand-knits. My babes were skinny little things and a cardie over a babygro turned them into cuddly teddy bears!

It's what you do with hand knits once your child has outgrown them that bugs me.

All that time and attention lavished on them, the phone conversations about the length of the arms, the calculations about growing room, the letters enclosing samples of wool. How on earth can you dispose of the end results? We have lots of little hand knits from my mother and aunt, active knittters when alive, but now both dead. To be honest, not all of the jumpers are that wonderful. Mis-shaped, dropped stitches, slightly shrunk due to my bad washing, stained, but I just can't throw them away, so they live in a box in my son's bedroom

It's often the older family members who are the knitters, so this must be a problem faced by many.

Have more babies, Tigermoth?? That's what I did, LOL! But IKWYM. I ditched the stained ones and have kept some of the precious ones like a 3ply lace jacket which three of my four came home from hospital in. (Knitted by DH's BIL's mother, now long dead) Others adorn my DD's dolls and she's thinking of attempting to dress up our very lively cat in them. Eek! I've put away a still perfect shawl, which MIL made for my DS in 1975. You never know, I might have grandchildren one day!

Oh, Tigermoth, your message really made me feel sad. All that work and love - I couldn't throw those away either if they'd been knitted by a deceased mum.

I've a love-hate thing with hand knits. HATED the Aran things my granny knitted with the too-tight necklines that were always too short and had gathered waists and sleeves. I too, longed for something shop bought. Then, when I was about 17, I used to knit my own jumpers (it was fashionable then, honest).

You can always go to a wool shop. choose the wool and the pattern and they can get a knitter to make it up for you for a small fee. The cost depends on the complexity of the pattern, but it means you can get great knits like Kaffe Fassett made up for a fraction of the retail price.