A Cozy Knit to Calm Your Mind

This time of year is full of fun, but it also can be full of stress, with tons of activities going on and a seemingly never-ending list of things to do.

It’s not the time for some super complicated, stressful knitting project. It’s the time to take it easy and knit something simple and lovely that’s just for you.

Enter Idle Hands, this pretty, boxy cardigan knitting pattern from Winter’s Weather Knits.

It’s worked holding a strand of sock yarn and a boucle/fuzzy/mohair style yarn to make a sport weight gauge, or you could just use sport weight yarn if you don’t want the fuzz factor.

The sweater is worked from the bottom up in one piece using linen stitch, which is relatively mindless once you get going. It’s definitely meditative and great for when you need a moment of calm or something to do with your hands while you’re relaxing in front of the TV.

There’s a lot of positive ease built into this sweater to make it even cozier. The smallest size, for example, has a 42.5 inch chest circumference, and it is meant to be worn with 13 to 15 inches of positive ease. There are 9 sizes included in the pattern with the largest finished bust on the sweater being 74.5 inches. It has no finishing for the edges and is meant to be worn open.

Of course if you don’t want that much positive ease you can choose a smaller size that will give you less ease if that’s available to you. You can also choose to make it with short sleeves or three quarter sleeves (or longer if you want). You can also adjust the length to make it more of a coat or even make it shorter if you like. Isn’t it nice when you can make a project however you like?

You can get the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Winter’s Weather Knits]

Next Pattern:

If you’re looking for a fun project to play with brioche knitting, check out the My Buddy knitting pattern/recipe from Casuarinagirl on Ravelry.

This project doesn’t include a brioche tutorial, so it’s good to know the basics, including how to increase and decrease, but you can always practice on a swatch before you start the project if you want.

The design is meant to be flexible for the yarn you have and what size and shape of project you want to make, from a skinny neck scarf to a asymmetrical triangle or a more classic triangular shape.

The shape you end up with will depend on how often you increase (and then decrease on the other side). The pattern mentions increasing every fourth, fifth or six row (and the one shown increases and decreases every sixth row) but you can do it even more or less often depending on the shape you’re looking for an how much yarn you want to use.

You can work to whatever depth you would like, or use almost half of the yarn you have set aside for the project and begin decreasing.

When it comes to yarn, she used three strands of yarn held together to make a super fluffy shawl, but you can work it with whatever yarn and needles you like to make a wrap that’s all your own.

If you are new to brioche (or to increasing and decreasing in brioche) it might be a good idea to make a little scarf or head wrap first before diving in to the bigger pattern, just so you’re more comfortable with the technique. Or just give it a go; nothing about brioche knitting is that difficult. (But you might want to use a lifeline because I find brioche hard to rip out or fix mistakes in properly.)

You can grab the free pattern for the Buddy Wrap on Ravelry.

[Photo: Casuarinagirl]

Next Pattern:

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