A V-Neck to Knit from Side to Side

One of the things that’s great about knitting is that you can make projects that fit exactly the way you want them. But if you’re newer to knitting you might not have the confidence to go your own way on a project, so it can help to work with projects that are meant to be made to measure to give yourself some practice.

The Confluence V-neck from Lauren McElroy is a great project to try out your skills at making a made to measure garment. It’s worked from side to side in seed stitch using two strands of fingering weight yarn held together.

You can decide how long you want it to be, how much ease you like and the depth of the V-neck/back as you sew the pieces together.

The seed stitch gives it a fun textured look that’s not at all difficult to achieve, and you can play with colors by using two coordinating shades or using two strands of the same yarn held together as you like.

You can find this pattern on Ravelry or on Lauren’s website.

This pattern is part of Lauren’s spring and summer collection, which also includes the made to measure Verse top, a super light fingering weight top that has a keyhole opening that can be worn at the front or the back of the garment as you like.

This one includes a picot edging and is worked from the bottom up in the round until the keyhole split. It also includes picots at the neckline, an I-cord tie and tiny buttons to close the neckline. It’s worked with a lovely silk and linen blend yarn that’s perfect for summer and great to wear with your favorite linen pants on the beach or anywhere else.

This pattern can also be found on Ravelry or you can purchase it directly from Lauren’s website.

[Photo: Lauren McElroy]

I rarely understand why something becomes a trend in crafting. Gnomes and geese are both cute I guess, but I never thought we’d be making them for all seasons. (See, for example, this collection of gnome knitting patterns, or these knit geese.)

Another one I don’t totally understand is sardines or little fish more generally. Sure, they’re cute, and the shape is fun, but I had no idea when I was sharing this pattern for a fish-shaped pouch last year that it would become a hugely popular pattern that people are still searching for on the site. It is pretty cute, though, so if you weren’t around then or don’t remember you should got check it out.

Recently another fishy knitting pattern crossed my monitor: the little knit fish from Classical Songbird Designs.

Just as the name suggests, these fish are little, about 4.5 inches or 11 cm from end to end. They look like little sardines and take about 12 yards of sock yarn to make.

You can even make a two-tone fish and use just 6 yards of each color.

This sounds to me like just about the perfect use for the yarn that’s left over after knitting a pair of socks, or a mini skein or several that have been sitting around unused in your stash.

The fish are knit flat in one piece, which makes it easy to stitch on the eyes with more yarn or embroidery floss before stuffing, and you can stitch up the sides while you stuff (though it’s not a very big piece so you could probably stitch and then stuff, finishing with the end of the tail).

Because I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one wondering, I measured an Altoids box and as the pattern is written the fish are a little too big to fit in it (the box is about 4 inches/10 cm long). But you could make the fish a little smaller if you want to make a box of them. Or just make a fishy bag to put them in!

You can grab the free pattern for the little knit fish at Classical Songbird Designs.

[Photo: Classical Songbird Designs.]

Have you read?