I was a thirtysomething werewolf

Monster face FAIL

Every once in a while I design a Knitted Thing. Last year I designed a furry knitted balaclava, matching mitts and a headband for Simply Knitting magazine. Now, especially for Halloween, it's been put up as a FREE knitting pattern - free until the 29th - on The Making Spot. (The model in the Making Spot photo looks rather better in it that I do, although I personally reckon she should have had the balaclava strap fastened, and it looks best on chaps!) The set was inspired by the classic 1950s B-movie werewolf, although if you’d prefer to be a cat lady you can always knit the headband or balaclava from black fur yarn instead.

Technical information: all pieces are knitted flat. The seam for the balaclava actually runs up the forehead, minimising sewing. I decided to do it flat to make it as accessible as possible to all knitters; in my experience most knitters who know how to knit in the round are able to convert a flat pattern into the round, whereas knitters who only knit flat get a bit perturbed at converting patterns from round to flat. Stitches used are knit, purl, cast on, cast off and basic decreases, so most knitters should be able to manage it.

The balaclava comes in three sizes, and should fit everyone from kids to adults as it’s very stretchy. There are two sizes of glove. I’d recommend choosing a shade of fur yarn that differs from your skin for maximum impact; the natural colours in the Sirdar Funky Fur range are White, Cream, Jet Black and Silver (grey) so there’s lots to choose from. Pair it with jeans and a check shirt for a full B-movie look.

And now to go from knitting to telly ramblings, I would be sad that Wartime Farm is over, but they did go out well – I was very pleased to see that after the successive horrors of home-made cottage cheese, fishmash pie (salmon loaf?) and pigeon jelly, Ruth rounded off her awful-looking wartime recipes with sarnies filled with what looked like creamed catfood and cabbage. Ah, the good old days! I shall miss Ruth, Alex and Peter, but The Hour should be returning to telly some time at the end of the month, so I'm looking forward to that. I haven't been able to track down exactly when it's starting – even the official BBC webpage is completely unhelpful – so if you do find out, please let me know!