Stay too long with Laura Foote and she might try to pull the wool over your eyes. On a cold winter’s day, however, one of her fashionable scarves may be just what you want.

 

 

Under her grandmother’s instruction, Laura learned to knit the traditional way. Then she lapsed. But two years ago, at the age of sixteen, she started working at Auckland knitting specialist store Wild and Woolly Yarns. The job required that she be able to knit.

 

“Give me some needles, a ball of wool and an instruction book,” she told her new boss. And she was hooked.

 

Since then she’s barely stopped. She creates patterns for a New Zealand fashion label, designs patterns of her own and runs learn-to-knit classes for adults and children at Wild and Woolly, as well as social knitting sessions, where enthusiasts get together over a cuppa to help each other through any technical challenges with the needles. 

 

At eighteen, Laura has found her vocation and is moving to Italy next year to do a course in fashion and textiles, with a view to being a full-time knitting designer.

 

Her advice for perfect knitting every time? Do a tension test before starting your pattern. That’s the boring bit; you knit a square to a set measurement, using a certain number of stitches.

 

“I don’t like doing it either,” she admits. “But, if you don’t get your tension right, you’ll do forty hours’ work and then it won’t look right or it won’t fit.” If your tension square is too small, it means your tension is too tight and you need to go up a half or whole needle size. If your square comes out too big, then you are a loose knitter and need smaller needles.

 

Laura says another pitfall emerges when a knitter wants to switch between wool and acrylic. A pattern may call for, say, eight-ply fifty-gram balls of acrylic, one ball of which will have 175 metres of yarn. But, because wool is denser, an eight-ply, fifty-gram ball of wool has only ninety-five metres of yarn. 

 

So, if you are buying by weight and switching between wool and acrylic, read the metreage guide on the label to make sure you have enough yarn for your knitting project.

 

You can also advance to more expensive blends, such as cashmere, merino and silk, a mix Laura used to knit the baby’s beanie as shown below.

 

The new kid on the fibre block, however, is bamboo. A highly renewable resource, bamboo is the world’s fastest growing grass. When knitted it resembles cotton and generally suits summer wear but it can be blended with wool for cold-weather garments.

 

Laura also recommends bamboo needles, especially arthritis sufferers, because metal needles can irritate the joints.

 

She obviously gets huge satisfaction from creating with her needles and finds it relaxing – which is exactly the right amount of tension. 

 

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You need: 1 x 50g ball of 8ply for main colour (we used Sublime Cashmere, merino-silk 8ply), 1 x 50g ball of 8ply for brim contrast, 4mm knitting needles, sewing needle.

 

1  Cast on 73 stitches on 4mm needles with contrast colour.
Row 1: (right side) knit
Row 2: purl
A knit row followed by a purl row is known as stocking stitch. Work in stocking stitch until the piece measures 2.5cm, ending with a purl row. Change to main colour yarn and continue in stocking stitch until your work measures 12cm from the cast-on edge, ending with a purl row.
To shape the crown:
Row 1: k1, (k2tog, k7) repeat brackets to end.
Row 2: (and every alternate row) purl.
Row 3: k1, (k2tog, k6) repeat brackets to end.
Row 5: k1, (k2tog, k5) repeat brackets to end.
Row 7: k1, (k2tog, k4) repeat brackets to end.
Row 9: k1, (k2tog, k3) repeat brackets to end.
Row 11: k1, (k2tog, k2) repeat brackets to end.
Row 13: k1, (k2tog) repeat brackets to end… 13 stitches remain.
Row 14: p1, (p2tog) repeat brackets to end… 7 stitches remain.

 

2 Cut the yarn, leaving a long tail. Thread the yarn through the remaining stitches. Pull and secure.

 

3 Sew the side seam. Reverse the seam for the lower 2.5cm on the brim to allow for the rolled edge.

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You need: 1 x 25g ball of 1ply mohair, 1 reel of multi-purpose beading wire, 5mm knitting needles, buttons, beads, two press studs, sewing needle.