Small children (and everyone else) were drawn to the mazes and we realised that most
of our designs before these had been aimed at older pupils. We now decided that we
should work at a more basic level of Maths -
Snakes and Ladders came first so we were back in the realms of a 1 to 100 square. Same strips, same method, just the ordering of the numbers was different. It was another wonderful use for odd bits of yarn. Every piece used was pale and insignificant on its own but together they made a subtle background, and cost nothing. The snakes were crochet but could have been knitted, embroidery, felt, or other fabrics.
It wasn’t long before someone asked if Snakes and Ladders could be made on a knitting machine. Because the background was so plain and simple it could have been made in a variety of ways. It was only when the details were added that it became a game. We made a plain grey background and added the squares, numbers and very colourful snakes.
Steve made the ladders with a new toy. He had previously discovered the delights of French knitting and we had quite a collection of ‘bobbins’ with varying numbers of pegs, ranging from the fairly common four, up to about thirty. They produced some interesting cords but were slow to use. Then, at a knitting exhibition, he found something to make the task easier and bought a version where you merely feed in the yarn, wind the handle and the job is done for you. That’s the theory anyway. In practice it’s not quite so straightforward. The yarn can be too thick or too thin, gets caught if it is not smooth and falls off for no apparent reason. Nevertheless we had piles of finished cord and no use for them – until we needed ladders.
We had been asked many times to put all the afghan patterns in one book. We were very much against this idea as most knitters were initially attracted by one particular design and returned later for more. We felt that, however we combined the patterns, few people would find the combination they wanted. The games seemed ideal for grouping together in a book. which was called Afghan Games because they were exactly that – afghans that could be used as floor games.
