February 27th, 2015

Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children

Post Number 2

My Lighthouse Home

 

Hello Everyone

Today l thought l would tell you more about my home.

 

As l told you last week, l live in a very tall lighthouse. On the outside are smart red and white stripes and the inside is comfy and cosy – whatever the weather is like outside.

 

There are steps up to the front door from the sea. Visitors can tie their boats up at the bottom of the steps. The only way you can get to the lighthouse is by sea.

 

There are lots of boats that go past my home and most of them like to keep away from the rocks around base of the lighthouse. lf they come here, they have to be very, very careful to steer between the rocks.

 

lnside the front door is my front hall with a cupboard under the stairs where l keep lots of useful things.

 

There are lots and lots of steps inside the lighthouse but running up and down them keeps me really fit!

 

l have a kitchen (where l love cooking and baking) and a bathroom. Fresh water for these rooms is pumped up from large storage tanks that are in a room right at the bottom of the lighthouse.

 

l have a lovely, cosy living room with a potbellied stove which is wonderful to be near on a chilly night.

 

There are two bedrooms in my lighthouse; one for me and one for visitors. There are lots and lots of cupboards full of things l have collected as l travelled around the world in my days as a sailor.

 

At the top of the lighthouse is a lantern room which holds an enormous, powerful light. lt is powered by a bulb of 1,000 watts. This light is really the reason why the lighthouse was built.

 

The light spins around all night warning ships to keep away from the dangerous rocks around the lighthouse. l have to turn it on every night and off every morning – unless it is foggy, in which case not only does the light stay on but l have to turn the fog horn on as well!

 

Around the lantern room is a wide ledge which acts as a good lookout point. l can go up there and look through my telescope and then l can see ever such a long way away.

 

Then at the very tip of the lighthouse on top of the roof are a weathervane and a radio aerial. l have a radio in the lighthouse so that l can call people on the mainland. l can call the coastguard or the lads at the lifeboat station to invite them over for tea and buns.

 

lt is very useful if there is an emergency as well.

 

l’ll tell you more about my life on the rocks next time!

 

 

Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!

 

Love and kisses

 

 

Salty Sam

 

 

 

 

www.christina-sinclair.com

 

 

Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week

 

Bob:  Do you know how fishermen make nets?

 

Bill:  No. How do fishermen make nets?

 

Bob:  They make lots of holes and then tie them together with string!

 

 

Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.

Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com

 

Picture Gallery

 

 A lantern room

 

This is me having a snooze in my living room

 

 

 

 THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK

 

Well, spring is on its way to Rocky Bay and we had some lovely sunshine this week! 

 

 

There are catkins, which are one of the first signs of spring, in the hedgerows and there are crocuses growing in Auntie Alice’s garden.

 

 Catkins

 

 Crocuses

 

 

Have you noticed that there is a knitting craze is hitting the country?

Children everywhere are picking up their needles and joining school knitting clubs – girls and boys. So popular has this knitting become, that teachers are even letting their class knit in registration.

There will be many knitting designs for you to try on this blog. Once you have knitted your umpteenth scarf you may like to give them a go – watch this space…!

 

www.christina-sinclair.com

 

I have to give you a message from my Auntie Alice because she wanted to give all you knitting newbies out there some advice to help you out.

 

Auntie Alice’s Knitting Tips

 

Here are some important points to remember:

 

1. When you want to use a pattern, read it through first just to get a general idea of it.
2. When you first look at a knitting pattern it can look pretty scary. Just work through it one section at a time. To keep your place you can use sticky notes positioned just under the place you are reading. If you are using a ruler, it can slip.
3. When you are starting out, you may not have standard knitting tension. It is usual for your knitting to be quite tight when you start learning.  You should do a tension square as shown on ball bands or patterns and adjust your needle size accordingly. But on items as small as the projects in this blog you won’t need to worry about that too much.
4. You must get into the habit of looking at dye lot/batch numbers on ball bands in the shop when you buy more than one ball of the same colour. This is to make sure they match, otherwise the colour change will show in your knitting. Ask the shop assistant to show you where the dye lot number is printed if you don’t know, and then you will know where to look next time. Of course if you only need to buy one ball for a project, you won’t have to worry about a dye number at all.
5. Keep checking your knitting as you go so that if you make a mistake, there won’t be too much to undo.
6. If things do go wrong, don’t get despondent. And don’t struggle with your knitting when you are very tired. Even experienced knitters go wrong sometimes.
7. Garter stitch is knitting every row.  Stocking stitch is knit a row and purl back.
8. Remember that stocking stitch will curl up without ribbing, a border or a seam around it so it is not suitable for making things like scarves.
9. Both garter stitch and stocking stitch knitting start with a knit row. If you start stocking stitch with a purl row, it is called reverse stocking stitch.
10. If you take the first stitch of a row over to the other needle without knitting it, you will get neat edges and this is especially important on items like scarves. But don’t do this in corners because your corner will not be as sharp as it could be, or when you have a colour change because your stripe will have a stitch of the wrong colour (although this is likely to get lost in a seam on a garment when it is sewn up).  This is called a slip stitch.
11. When you knit two stitches together, knit through the back of the stitches. When you purl two stitches together, knit through the front of the stitches.
12. When you are counting your rows on a piece of stocking stitch knitting, it is easier to count from the back of your knitting than the front – you can even leave little markers at the side of your knitting if you like so that you don’t have to count your rows right from the beginning each time. You can use little lengths of yarn tied around a side stitch, plastic paper clips or specially-made markers that you can buy in a shop.
13. If you are a beginner, it is not a good idea to use black or navy yarn because if you drop a stitch, you probably won’t see it. If you really want to use these colours, then work in really bright light.
14. If you leave any piece of knitting to one side for a long period of time (that is weeks not days), don’t leave it on your knitting needles otherwise you will be able to see a line left in it.  Leave your knitting on a stitch holder or a size of needle smaller than the ones you have been using to prevent this happening.
15. Always keep a length of yarn in your yarn needles when you store them, because if you drop one, it will be much easier to find.
16. Don’t try to thread a yarn needle in the same way as a sewing needle. Wrap the yarn (a little way down from the end) around the needle. Pinch the yarn between your thumb and finger and pull the needle away. It will now be easy to thread the yarn through the eye of the needle.

All the knitting patterns on this blog can be made with less than 100g of yarn unless stated otherwise. A lot of them only need a little yarn left over from making other articles.

If you don’t know how to knit, or you want to learn more about knitting, just google ‘how to knit videos’ for lessons.

You might find this needle conversion chart useful for this blog and they are the only size of needles you will need.

4mm knitting needles = UK size 8 and US size 6

3½mm knitting needles = UK size between 9 and 10 and US size 4

3¼mm knitting needles = UK size 10 and US size 3

 

3.5mm crochet hook

 

TERMS

UK cast off – US bind off

Garter stitch is knitting every row

Stocking stitch is one row of knit and one row of purl

Ribbing is usually knit 1, purl 1 or knit 2, purl 2 to the end of the row.

People use the kind of ribbing they prefer. 

New blog posts are published every Friday morning. Tell all your friends that they are welcome to come and join in the fun too.

 

 Auntie Alice
 

Salty Sam fans can join in with their comments and share them with children all over the World. But remember that if you are not an adult, you must ask permission to post a comment!

You don’t have to give your real name if you don’t want to, and just your first name will be enough.

It would be really nice if you could say your age (of course adults don’t have to) and what part of the World you come from as well. 

If you are already really good at knitting, you can buy some knitting patterns for lovely animal toys from the SPANA website and help them with their important work:

 www.spana.org

 

If you fancy doing some knitting for charity, take a look at the Big Knit Campaign for Age UK:

http://www.thebigknit.co.uk

 

 

 

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PLEASE CONTACT:

christina.sinclair.ads@aol.co.uk

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Did you know that the Frigate Unicorn is one of the six oldest ships in the world? It is the oldest British warship still afloat.

If you ever go to Dundee, you can visit it at Victoria Dock.

It is open April to October 10.00 – 17.00 every day of the week.

(The opening times in the winter are different.)

http://www.frigateunicorn.org/                                            

 

    Days Out…

The Frigate Unicorn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victoria Dock

Dundee in Scotland 

Quick Quiz

 

What are all of these?

picture   sash   bay   dormer   skylight   casement

 

 

BLOW MY FOGHORN!!!

 

PLUS

Salty Sam fans can join in with their comments and share them with children all over the world. You will need permission if you are not an adult.

Enter your e-mail address to subscribe to my blog and receive new Salty Sam Blog Posts for free by e-mail every Fun Friday. Your address will be kept private and will not be shared with any third party.

Sign me up at the side bar

 

lt’s the Weekend!

 

 

HOW TO MAKE A SALTY SAM TOY…

 
If you would like to make a Salty Sam cuddly toy, there is a pattern that you can download from

 www.christina-sinclair.com

 

 

…AND THEN TO DRESS HlM FOR BED

And as he is so cuddly you will probably want to take him to bed with you, so here is a new pattern for a night shirt, night cap and bed socks to dress him in when you take him to bed…

You will need 100g ball of white dk yarn for the nightshirt and nightcap but a bit extra for the bed socks – or you can make the bed socks in blue with white ‘Zs’ instead.

MY NlGHTSHlRT, BEDSOCKS AND NlGHTCAP

 

 

NIGHTSHIRT FRONT AND BACK (KNIT TWO)

Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 21 stitches

Slip 1 knit 1 row

Slip 1 knit 1 row

 

Increase 2 stitches at the beginning of the next 8 rows of garter stitch (37 stitches)

 

Increase 2 stitches at the beginning of the next 7 rows and continue as follows:-

Purl 7, knit to last 7 stitches, purl 7

Purl 1 row

Purl 7, knit to last 7 stitches, purl 7

Purl 1 row

Purl 7, knit to last 7 stitches, purl 7

Purl 1 row

Purl 7, knit to last 7 stitches, purl 7 (51 sts)

Without increasing, purl 1 row (18 rows)

 

Stocking stitch 60 rows starting with a knit row

Cast off 10 stitches at the beginning of the next 2 rows

 

Change to blue dk yarn, garter stitch 4 rows, starting with a knit row

Cast off

Run a length of white yarn threaded into a yarn needle along the curves at the bottom of the pieces right along the edge and pull in slightly to neaten – you can over-sew along the edge as well if you like.

SLEEVES (KNIT TWO)

Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 46 stitches

Knit 1 row, purl 1 row, purl 1 row, knit 1 row

Stocking stitch 30 rows starting with a knit row

Cast off

NIGHT SHIRT BUTTON BAND (KNIT ONE)

Using 4mm knitting needles and blue dk yarn cast on 20 stitches

Garter stitch 10 rows

Cast off and neaten ends by threading the tails of yarn onto a knitter’s yarn needle and running them through the ends of the band 

TO MAKE UP

1. Fold each white, knitted piece lengthways to find the centre line – mark this by running a small length of contrasting yarn along the line using a yarn needle – then count stitches outwards to each edge to double check that your marking line of yarn is in the right place. You can remove it when you don’t need it anymore.
2. Sew the button band to the front of the night shirt along the top, left shoulder side and bottom, then sew on two white buttons.
3. Swiss darn a line of blue yarn up the centre stitch of the front and back of the night shirt and then three more lines each side of those at intervals of seven stitches (blocks of six white stitches between each blue line).
4. On the sleeves count a block of six stitches in the centre of each sleeve and work the blue lines onto the knitting in the same way – you will have six blue lines on each sleeve.
5. (Using the white yarn) sew up the right shoulder seam but the left shoulder seam only 1cm/½ inch up from the shoulder side (not the neck side) with right sides facing.
6. Then fold the sleeves in half lengthways in order to find the centre. Match this centre up to the shoulder seam and sew across the top of each sleeve with right sides facing. Then sew under sleeve and side seams.
7. Sew the front and back together leaving the bottom curved edges free (sew side seams just down to the bottom of the stocking stitch panels).
8. Sew a snap fastener to the end of the blue banded collar.

 

SWISS DARNING

Swiss darning is a good way to add vertical stripes, initials or motifs to a piece of knitting. It is basically embroidering contrasting colours of yarn onto the top of a piece of knitting. It is best to use a round-tip needle if you have one, to avoid splitting the yarn.

1. Thread a yarn needle with a length of yarn (in this case blue).
2. Bring the yarn up at the bottom of a stitch.
3. Tuck your needle behind the stitch above – pull the yarn through.
4. Bring your needle down into the bottom of the stitch (where you first came up).
5. You have now changed the colour of a stitch by covering it with another length of yarn.

On this nightshirt you will find it easier to make the stripes by working up from the bottom of the stocking stitch panels.

 

TIP

If you ever want to transfer a motif that you have drawn yourself on a piece of graph paper onto a piece of knitting, either make the picture taller than you want it to be or use rectangular gridded paper. This is because knitting stitches are not square they are rectangular and a motif that looks alright drawn onto graph paper with squares will distort to look squashed down once transferred to a piece of knitting.

 

NIGHT CAP (KNIT TWO)

Using 4mm knitting needles and blue dk yarn cast on 40 stitches

Knit 1 row, purl 1 row, purl 1 row, knit 1 row

 

Change to white dk yarn

Stocking stitch 10 rows starting with a knit row

Decreasing 1 stitch at the beginning of each row stocking stitch 38 rows

Pull a 20cm length of yarn through the last 2 stitches and fasten off

 

Sew the two side seams right sides together using relevant colours and darn in ends to neaten.

 

Make a tassel to decorate the top of the hat by winding some yarn around a piece of card 8cm/¾ inches wide and tie off at the top and a little way down from the top. Sew it into the top point of the hat with a small length of knitting yarn.

 

BED SOCKS (KNIT FOUR)

Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 6 stitches

Knit 1 row

 

Continue knitting in stocking stitch starting with a purl row as follows:

 

Increase 1 stitch at each end of the next 4 rows (14 sts)

 

Stocking stitch 3 rows

 

Increase 1 stitch at the beginning of next 4 rows (18 sts)

 

Stocking stitch 13 rows

 

Knit 1 row, purl 1 row, purl 1 row

 

Cast off, Swiss darn pattern on two front pieces

 

Sew up side seams and darn in all ends

Download PDF for the Bedsock Chart

 Bedsock Chart

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Salty Sam says always wash your teeth

before you go to bed.

  

www.christina-sinclair.com

 

Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use or for use in classrooms only.

It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.

Use of all of the toys and projects on this blog is at your own risk.

©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015

 

Quick Quiz Answers

 

They are all types of window.

 

 Picture window

 

Sash window

 

 Skylight window

 

Bay window

 

Dormer windows

 

Casement window

 

Patio doors

 

French doors