Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

A Mesh Stitch Wrap to Wear in the Open Air

by

We finally got a little break in the super-hot weather where I live, and while it’s a little early to be expecting fall, it probably is time we can start thinking about some knitting that will help us transition into slightly cooler weather.

The Open Air Wrap from Purl Soho is just the sort of thing to get you into the next season in style. This mesh stitch rectangular wrap was originally designed by Whitney Van Nes but was updated to use a special new yarn by Hiromi Glover. The yarn is called Handwritten, and its a Japanese organic cotton laceweight ribbon yarn that comes in 26 colors. Each spool has 900 yards so you only need two of them to make the wrap.

Two strands of yarn are held together to knit this wrap, so you can play with two brightly contrasting colors of pick similar hues for a more organic look. Either way this is actually a pretty fast and easy project even worked on rather small size 4 US/3.5 mm knitting needles. (You’ll want double-pointed needles to make it easier to work the required number of stitches.

One thing that’s interesting about this pattern is that it’s a one-row repeat of yarn over increases and decreases, but instead of knit 2 togethers the decreases are purl 2 togethers. The pattern explains that this is actually easier to do and doesn’t have the tendency to bias like a fabric full of knit 2 togethers would.

If you haven’t worked a purl 2 together before you should practice on your swatch before starting the pattern.

The finished shawl is about 20.25 by 72 inches long after blocking. The cotton yarn and the lacy stitch make it lightweight and drapey but still able to add a bit of warmth to you outfits as the weather starts to cool.

You can get the free pattern from Purl Soho, and check out all the fun color combinations.

[Photo: Purl Soho]

Have you read?

Easy Knit Baskets to Use All Your Stash

For the past few years I’ve taken part in a Christmas in July blog hop that encourages people to get a jump on their making for holiday gifts. 

I love to use yarn I already have for these projects in the hope that people will consider what they already have that they can use to make projects for themselves or to give as gifts. 

This year it was a couple of knit baskets made using partial balls of yarn left in my stash from other projects. 

They use the same basic pattern but the first one is made with two colors of bulky yarn, and the second used two strands of worsted weight yarn held together, which made the gauge about the same, but I cast on fewer stitches to make a smaller version. 

The bottom of the basket is square, though you can make them rectangular if you’d rather. Then I just knit up the sides in rounds until I was about to run out of yarn. This gave both baskets rather short sides — maybe more like a tray than a basket — but you can keep knitting as long as you like to make the sides of your basket as tall as you want. 

They’re worked in seed stitch, which keeps the edges from curling and adds a nice texture to the baskets.

Of course this also allows you to use even more odd balls from your stash. I’d love to make a big one someday combining lots of different yarn. I mean, I’d probably use it to store more yarn, but that’s a fine thing to do. 

As it is, these little trays are great for sitting on your desk or bedside table to hold little things that always seem to appear there. I like to use one to hold the supplies for whatever project I’m working on, things like little scissors, my tape measure, a crochet hook, etc.

And they would make good gifts on their own or as a container to hold some other goodies if you like. 

You can find the free pattern for these stash busting baskets over at Our Daily Craft.