Frankies Knitted Stuff

Twirly Thing
Twirly knitted ribbons attached to a
wooden ring make a simple and
colourful mobile. This pattern consists
mostly of casting on and casting off,
with only a little sewing.
The finished mobile measures 10 cm /
4" across and hangs about 38 cm / 15"
from the ring to its longest ribbon. It
uses small amounts of different
coloured 4 ply yarn; I knitted mine in
seven colours and used well under 10g
of each.
My Twirly Thing was knitted with 21st Century Yarns Shetland
4 ply yarn (465 m / 100g) in seven rainbow shades:
Flame
Saffron
Cowslip
Grass
Peacock
Larkspur
Aubretia

You will also need a wooden ring 10 cm / 4" across and knitting
needles in three sizes: 3.75, 4 and 4.5 mm (US sizes 5, 6 and 7).

The knitted ribbons vary in length around the ring. There are 28
ribbons all together, four in each of the seven colours. The number
of stitches to cast on for each ribbon is listed below.
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Green/Blue
Blue
Violet

50
55
60
65
70
75
80

85
90
95
100
105
110
115

120
125
130
135
140
145
150

135
120
105
90
75
60
45

As you can see, each ribbon is five stitches longer than the last one
until you get to the last set of seven ribbons which shorten by
fifteen stitches at a time.
To knit a ribbon
Using 3.75 mm needles and the cable method, cast on the required
number of stitches.
Change to a 4 mm needle and knit one row.
Now change to a 4.5 mm needle and cast off until you have five
stitches left, then knit to the end.
Knit three rows on these five stitches and cast off.
Leave the yarn tails at the start and end of the ribbons.

The knitted tab at the end of each

ribbon will be wrapped round the
wooden ring.

When you have knitted all the ribbons not the most exciting
knitting youll ever do you can sew them to the ring.

Wrap each tab round the ring (the

ridge of the garter stitch should run
vertically) and oversew / whipstitch
the two sides together.

Then you can add decorations to the ends of the ribbons, using the
cast on tail of yarn. I just added pony beads to mine but little bells
would be nice too.
The Hanging Cords
These are two lengths of I cord, each about 50 cm / 20" long. I tied
the cast on and cast off ends round the ring, positioning them seven
ribbons apart.
In knitting these I cords I discovered that, instead of using double
pointed needles, they can be knitted back and forth on ordinary
needles.
Using the long tail method and 3.25 mm / US size 3 needles cast
on four stitches.
Every row:

Knit 2, slip 2 purlwise with the yarn in front.

Thats it after a few rows your knitting will form into a neat tube.

I worked roughly 7 cm or 3" in each of my seven colours. The ends

can easily be threaded through to the inside of the tube. The main
thing is to make sure that your second cord is the same length as
your first; just measure them against each other as you go.

Frankie Brown, 2015.

My patterns are for personal use only and should not be used to knit items for sale.
Please do not use them for teaching purposes without my permission.