The Cynthia Knitted Stripe.
Suitable for a Toilet Runner.
Abbreviations Used.
K = knit a plain stitch; P = purl; O = over, that is, bring the thread
forward to the front of the work, and pass it round over the right hand
needle, in order to make an extra stitch; N = narrow, that is, knit two
stitches together; S = slip a stitch.
Use Strutt’s Knitting Cotton, No. 8, 3 threads, and a pair of No. 12
steel needles.
Cast on 91 stitches for a runner, about 12 inches wide, or 118 for a
runner 16 inches wide. If something wider than this is needed, cast on
multiples of 27, with an extra 10 stitches.
[Illustration]
Notice that after the first piece of plain knitting, each alternate row
is like the 19th.
Knit 18 rows plain.
_19th Row, and each alternate row._—* S 1, K 9, P 17. Repeat from *
till only 10 stitches remain on needle. Knit these 10 plain.
_20th Row._—* S 1, K 10, O, N, O, N, K 4, O, N, O, N, K 4. Repeat from
*, K 10.
_21st Row._—Like 19th.
_22nd Row._—* S 1, K 11, O, N, O, N, K 4, O, N, O, N, K 3. Repeat from
*, K 10.
_24th Row._—S 1, K 12, O, N, O, N, K 4, O, N, O, N, K 2. Repeat from *,
K 10.
_26th Row._—* S 1, K 13, O, N, O, N, K 4, O, N, O, N, K 1. Repeat from
*, K 10.
_28th Row._—* S 1, K 14, O, N, O, N, K 4, O, N, O, N. Repeat from *, K
10.
_30th Row._—* S 1, K 15, O, N, O, N, K 4, O, N, K 1. Repeat from *, K
10.
[Sidenote: The Cynthia Knitted Stripe.]
_32nd Row._—* S 1, K 10, O, N, K 4, O, N, O, N, K 4, O, N. Repeat from
*, K 10.
_34th Row._—* S 1, K 11, O, N, K 4, O, N, O, N, K 5. Repeat from *, K
10.
_36th Row._—Like 20th.
_38th Row._—Like 22nd.
_40th Row._—Like 24th.
_42nd Row._—Like 26th.
_44th Row._—Like 28th.
_45th Row._—Like 19th.
Then knit 19 rows plain knitting. Go back and repeat from the 19th row.
The Economy Quilt.
Bedclothes become an expensive item when there are several beds for
young people to be made up, as well as those for their elders. Yet
warmth is essential, if their health is to be maintained.
In the winter, there usually comes a night of sudden cold, so raw and
so intense, that it seems next to impossible to put too much on the
beds. Every spare blanket is turned out, and every eider-down, and
still there is not enough! Next morning someone is sure to say they
never got warm all night!
Of course, eider-downs are ideal. They are warm without being heavy.
But real eider-downs are expensive. Here is a substitute that was
popular in our grandmothers’ day. It is simply a quilt formed of small
bags, sewn together like patchwork, each bag containing a certain
amount of snippets and clippings. Very simple, isn’t it? And yet these
quilts, that cost practically nothing, are invaluable in the cold
weather. Put one of these over the outside of the bed, and the sleeper
keeps as snug and warm as though under a couple of down quilts.
One great advantage of this quilt is the ease with which it can be
made. A child can always run up a little bag; a child can also cut up
snippets, if it is old enough to be allowed to use a scissors. Mother
can run round a few bags with her sewing machine, just before putting
it away after doing needlework. In this way the bags accumulate in a
surprising manner; and joining them together, a few at a time, either
by hand or with the machine, is not laborious or brain-wearing work.
The Method I Always Adopt.
For some years now, I have made it a rule always to have one of these
quilts on hand. If I do not need it myself, when it is finished, I
always know someone who can put it to good use. Any woman who has an
elastic family and a non-elastic purse, is glad of one for a gift.
I save every scrap of material that would otherwise be wasted. If it is
not new, I have it washed and _thoroughly_ dried. All this waste goes
into a bag that I keep hanging up in a cupboard in my bedroom. I never
allow a large amount to accumulate, lest moth should get at it. I have
seldom more than a couple of handfuls at one time waiting to be dealt
with.
On my chest of drawers I keep a box. In this there is always a pair
of sharp scissors. When I have a few moments idle—between the lights
when it is too dark to see much else, or when my eyes are too tired to
do work requiring close attention—I cut up a few of the scraps from
the bag into snippets about an inch square sometimes smaller, never
larger. I put these in the box.
[Sidenote: Worked in Sections.]
Then again, whenever I have any bits from dressmaking, or mending, or
darning, it has become second nature with me to cut them up there and
then into snippets, and put them in the box. In fact, I always have the
snippet box on the table beside my work box when I am sewing, and the
bits go in as a matter of course as I go along. It keeps me so tidy.
Everything comes in useful, even fragments of darning wool, ravellings
and basting threads!
I save any scraps of material large enough to make the bags; a useful
size is five or six inches by three inches. I run up three sides of
these when I have a spare moment; put in a small handful of snippets,
and close up the end. These I put in a drawer till I have time to join
them together.