All square

From time to time and in among other projects I've been knitting garter stitch squares for Wrap With Love, an Australian charity that solicits squares to be sewn into blankets and distributed as needed for crises, either within Australia or internationally. This has been great fun; simple knitting, quickly accomplished, where you can experiment with colour and shapes within the confines of a 25 x 25cm garter stitch square. I've completed the 8 squares I set myself as a target, and have enjoyed the process so much that I've decided I'd now like to make a small blanket for the dotee, my grand-daughter.



I'm indebted to the Mason-Dixon blog for some of these shapes and combinations, though garter stitch squares are so generic and timeless that they're almost beyond ownership.



My workplace has had a lunchtime group to knit squares for ‘Wrap With Love’. Each year the drive for squares culminates with a massive ‘Knit In’ at the local public radio station ABC702, which was held in the morning on Friday 1 August. A group of us went from work, just across the road to the ABC foyer, where around 500 knitters of all ages had assembled to knit, sew up squares or submit their finished blankets.

Amongst the crowd I found a group of my knitting friends,



Lara, Cecilia and Emily

but what was so impressive was the diversity of the groups. We found ourselves among a group of older Chinese women who had knitted the most beautiful blankets, with complex edges and appliqued knitted motifs. I was fascinated by the speed of their knitting and a mysterious (to me) deft three-needle method for casting on. Their justified pride and delight in their work overcame all language barriers.