Follow along and discover your next inspiration as we cast on for projects we love, explore new techniques, and dish about the latest and greatest from Knit Picks.
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It’s Monday, the weekend is gone and we all need something to cheer us up. So how about a couple of new free patterns to get you through the day?
First up, we have Kalurah Hudson’s Corylus, an lovely iPad cover in Swish Bulky.
When you consider the time involved in writing a pattern, knitting the item, photographing it and getting a pattern ready for publication, it’s no wonder we work months and months ahead.
It tends to create a strange creative dissonance for me; right now I’m finishing up some patterns for November, yet it’s 75 degrees out today and I’m wearing a tank top. It’s really hard to get in the right frame of mind for what would be cozy in winter when all I can think about are flip flops!
But, working in advance can have some really great advantages: lots of time to dream and mess up before you have to get it right.
I’ve recently laid out my plan for 2014, and have started dreaming up all of the concepts for …
Yippee! Happy dance!! I am absolutely thrilled with my new travel blankie! I was waaaay overdue for a good looking security blanket. I finished my old one about five years ago and, no, I am not going to show it to you. It has become Xena’s security blanket.
Read more »You may have heard me on a recent podcast talking about our IDP collections – we have 2 new ones! One is Tabetha Hedrick’s Urban Texture, who I was delighted to talk to on the podcast. The other is Luise O’Neill’s beautiful collection In Tune:
At the ripe old age of 8, my sweet niece Natalie is already more skilled than me at most things. Verbal sparring, cooking, being kind to fellow human beings – you name it, she’s better at it. Recently, she has taken to crocheting with a ferocious appetite. Everything from baby booties to cowls to dish clothes have been emerging from her soft little porcelain hands.
I recently celebrated my birthday (yay, me!). As is true of most 8-yr olds, Natalie does not have a lot of discretionary income. I’d been hankering after Billow hat in my favorite color, Comfrey, so I casually dropped a subtle hint. “Hey Natalie, make me this hat for my birthday! Do it.” I would provide the yarn, she the manual labor. Everyone would be happy.
This week, Kelley dives into her stash in search of inspiration for her collection of fingering weight yarns. And with a mission to make more than another pair of socks, Kelley peruses Ravelry in search of unique and versatile patterns that are perfect for fingering weight yarns that you might have hanging out in your stash.
All it took was one skein of Wool of the Andes Bulky in Stormy and a free afternoon and SCHIZZAM! I have a brand new pair of women’s small/medium sized slippers! I used a size H crochet hook and Pierrot’s Warm Slipper free pattern scrounged from my Ravelry queue to make these cozy little gems. This pattern wound up being about a women’s 8.5 shoe size which is far and away too tiny for my big flippers, but they fit my mother perfectly.
Read more »Have you seen the awesome sale on Full Circle yarns and fiber? This is your last chance to get it before it’s gone for good!
When it first came in, I snagged some Full Circle Bulky. I love the way the colors worked together, and recently I knit up a super warm, super chunky cowl using 7 colors. It only took me about an evening and a half to make the cowl, and it used up little leftover bits of each color – it’s really a great way to use leftover bits of any bulky weight yarn!
So, I wrote up the pattern for you, and it’s available free from our site. There are also four-color and two-color versions listed in the pattern, with approximate yardages needed for each color. Bulky yarn is so difficult to stash-bust because there really aren’t too many uses for …
We love our fine feathered friends here in the Pacific Northwest – thanks to the TV show Porlandia, our unofficial motto is “Put a Bird On It”. So I was delighted to knit and crochet a flock of birds for a great cause.
Our Full Circle yarn line is one of my favorites we’ve come out with – it’s such a soft yarn, a blend of Merino and Highland wools that would have otherwise gone to waste. It works equally well for crochet as well as knit projects. I’ve made dozens of projects in each and just enjoy each stitch – the only sad thing is that it’s only here for such a short time!
And from now until May 1st, we are having a wonderful promotion – for you it’s saving 15% on the entire Full Circle yarn line – worsted, bulky and roving. For our birdie friends, we are donating $1 of every skein sold to our friends at International Bird Rescue! (Make sure you check out all the great works they have done!)
Read more »Last week was the start of our sweater finishing video series where Kerin showed you how to set in the sleeves of a sweater. This week’s segment entails a comprehensive look into the elusive collar! The first step to the collar will usually be picking up your stitches, which can be a bit tricky since you’ll be working along straight and curved edges of the collar. Unsure of how to work a hemmed collar? Kerin covers that too!
Check out Part 2 of our sweater finishing tutorial to learn how to pick up and knit a collar as well as how to sew down a hemmed collar.
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