Hi Brenda I’ve found something useful in the files which might be relevant in your case. Back in August 2000, Doris Coutts told us that some years ago, she had to go in for a hip replacement and had made a bed jacket for the stay in hospital. A good friend told her that bed jackets are useless if you have to have a drip in, so she hurriedly knitted a lightweight stole. My late sister also needed a stole rather than a jacket in her final stages of terminal cancer. This one is very easy to knit and Doris used one strand of 2/30s acrylic yarn on her Duo 80.

Cast on 120 sts on each bed in full needle rib and work a border of 5 straight pin tucks (40 rows), using stitch size 4/3 and blue strippers. Change to Card 108, Deco on 2, locks on N/BX, stitch size 4½/4½ and knit 800 rows. A little weight can be used, but if you are using a motor, it is better to tension the work by hand. At the end of the 800 rows, knit the end to match the pin tucks at the start and cast off. Finishing this stole consists of darning in two ends! The stole weighs 130g, is warm and is still going strong over 20 years later after countless washes.

Doris has made similar ones in various fine yarns; they make great gifts, bazaar items and so on. They provide extra warmth for the shoulders when you’re reading in bed in the wee small hours, or laid across the top of the duvet to snuggle into on very cold nights. Add a fine Lurex thread in silver to a royal blue or black yarn and it will do for evening wear! For knitting on any machine, just find a suitable lacy tuck stitch pattern.

There’s an even easier Maggie Andrews shrug pattern on page 33 of February 2006 (Issue 97). Maggie uses 4-ply Acrylic and pushes 198 Ns at centre of machine to WP. Counting from the left, arrange Ns 3 in WP and 10 in NWP across the bed. Start off with waste yarn, then set RC at 000. Using MY, K 696 rows. Maggie adds cuffs and ties and this can be knitted in a strong bold colour for day or evening wear.

Anne