What's the Knit a Bike Installation made of?

The Knit a Bike Installation in Rowntree Park

Sugar & spice and all things nice - no, nothing like that - well, maybe the all things nice bit!  The other day, I was writing a letter detailing what went into the Knit a Bike Installation & afterwards, I thought other people might like to know too.  So here goes:

The mini jersey bunting:

79 mini tour jerseys

37 metres of knitted bunting cord 

The big jerseys:

4 large tour jerseys made from 4 wool blankets cut up into yarn

20 red felt polka dots stitched in place

The writing:

13 metres of finger knitting

The bike:

12 metres of arm knitting

10 metres of finger knitting

1.9 metres of crochet 

Not to mention:

3 decorated wheels

54 pompoms

1 information sign

All made by lots of lovely people :

 

 

at two workshops

84 person hours

and the Fairfax Court Yarnbombers

100 person hours

And that doesn't include all the additional time people spent at home making things for us.  

And finally:

Time Taken to Put up the Installation

18 person hours

So once again thanks to everyone who helped to #bepartofit!  And thanks to the Friends of Rowntree Park for sponsoring us and to Rowntree Park Reading Cafe and Your Bike Shed Bicycle Cafe for letting us hold out workshops there.

The Knitting Mill - My New Toy

 

Knitting Mill

If you have ever tried French Knitting which produces a knitted cord you'll know that it is very time consuming to produce anything of any length.  Well - now you can buy a knitting mill which allows you to make this knitted cord at a rate of knots simply by turning a handle!

First round - yarn caught by 1st & 3rd hooks only

First of all you thread your yarn through the lower and upper guides on the mill.  Then whilst turning the handle clockwise make sure that only the first and third hooks pick up the yarn. On the next round all four hooks should pick up the yarn.  Make sure the weight is in position on the end of your cord and you can now pick up speed.  You have to move your weight up as your cord gets longer.  I attached it with a safety pin as this seemed easier than trying to get the rather thick hook on the weight through the cord itself.  Also it helps to give the cord a tug from time to time to make sure it is properly weighted down.  You do just need to keep an eye on it all to make sure everything is going smoothly.

Subsequent rounds - all hooks used and weight in place

Ideal set up for knitting mill!

In this photo you can see the full set up - weight attached to cord & yarn in a container to stop it rolling away.  A slatted table is particularly good as the cord can hang through the slats and the knitting mill can sit on the table. Without slats you have to hold the mill off the table so the cord can feed through the hole that runs up the middle of the knitting mill.

This is what it produces - I used double knitting yarn ...
 

Knitted cord from the Knitting Mill

I used my first attempt at knitted cord for my Le Tour Yorkshire mini jersey bunting part of the Knit a Bike project. 

Mini Tour Jerseys on Knitted Cord

Can't wait to make more!