Grandad's Birthday Neck-Tie!

It has been FAR too long that I have left this fun finished knit without a blog post! And I shall now finally remedy that herein!!

A few weeks after finally (FINALLY!!) finishing Grandad's pressie we were able to make a time to catch up with Gran and Grandad for the gift-giving! The knitted item I had been working away at so frantically, my fingers whittled down by the tiny little sock needles, was indeed a self striping sock yarn NECK TIE!!

My Grandad is a big fan of bow ties and I remember always seeing him in a different one at Christmas and Birthday gigs while growing up :) So I decided that while I couldn't quite master a bow tie, I could quite easily adapt a sock pattern to become a tie! So I started with a short row 'toe' very VERY pointy! And from there I knit a section of 'tubing' so to speak, round and around then decided it was time to start the shaping. I worked out how much width I wanted to decrease over what length of the tie, and what that translated to in terms of stitches. From those calculations I was decreasing 1 Stitch every three rounds and off I went!!

Round.. and around... and around..

Finally I was at the desired skinniness sufficient to continue at that width for the long tie-able part of the tie! So again...

Round.. and around... and around..

With only 4 stitches on the needles! Fiddley!! And finally it was complete! =D I decreased sharply for the little triangle point at the end of the tie, et voila!

Grandad was absolutely chuffed with his hand-knit neck tie and put it on straight away! The contrast with the shirt he was wearing isn't ideal, but the tie works very well I must say!! We caught up this weekend just past for my Uncle's 50th, and Grandad explained that he had been very tempted to wear the tie, but didn't in case it dangled too dangerously into the bbq!! A very wise decision, and a man who respects hand-knit goodies!! =D

I'm very glad I created and gifted a hand-knit to Grandad for his Birthday :) I'm hoping to hand knit at one item for each of my near-and-dear loved ones. Better get knitting!!

p.s. Happy Birthday Grandad! =)