Knitting

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A Year of Afghan

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afghan squares ros made meI haven’t written much about it yet, but I’m working on a massive stash-busting project this year that I expect will take me on and off all year to knit: a gigantic (6 foot square, I’m hoping!) strip afghan worked all in Garter Stitch. I’m hoping this will basically eliminate the odd balls in my stash and make me feel a lot better about the amount of yarn in my house. Also, I’ll be really warm next winter.

I’m not the only one with big projects in mind this year. Ros over at RosMadeMe has embarked on a year-long afghan knitting project, too, but she’s knitting individual blocks and sharing them on her blog.

She’s made good progress so far, even though she had a little trouble getting some of her yarn.

Do you have any big projects planned for this year? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo via RosMadeMe.]

Comments

  1. First – I am trying so very, very hard to avoid sales cause I “need” more yarn. 😉

    Second – Oh help – Do I have projects!? I am trying to finish some I started a year (or more) ago.

    An afghan – keep losing the actual pattern so it has many different bands of stitches! All knitted in dreamy blues and greens of Homespun.

    A skirt – my second and in a reasonable color to wear. Why on earth did i knit the first one in Carolina Blue!?

    A top to match said skirt.

    and two Spring shrugs to finish! one white and one in lavender.

    Whew – now I’m tired…

Have you read?

Add Mushrooms to Your Knits with these Fun Knitting Patterns

A few years ago I wrote a post that was full of patterns for knit mushrooms, but I don’t think I ever did a post that was knitting patterns with mushrooms on them, so today’s the day. 

I love the Fungi Beanie from Jacki Bean, which calls for worsted weight yarn and uses duplicate stitch to add the mushrooms and other details. I think the colors she used for the design are tonal/multicolor so it doesn’t use as many colors as it looks like, but you can use whatever red, green, brown and white yarn you have in your stash for those details. 

How about some mushroom socks? The Magic Toadstool sock form Stone Knits includes a ring of mushrooms around the leg, contrasting heel and toe and a little more colorwork at the toe for extra cuteness. As shown it uses four colors and comes in three sizes. 

Or there’s the Fairy Ring Socks from Katie Green, which have mushrooms of two sizes on the legs, plus a bit of wavy grass. They have a contrasting cuff, heel and toe and some colorwork flecks in the body of the sock as well. This one is available in eight sizes to fit everyone from a baby to an XL adult. 

This trippy cowl from Hunt Hand Knits looks like a lot of fun to knit. The Fungus Among Us Cowl is shown using four colors of DK weight yarn, though you can do it with as few as two if you’d rather. 

Stitch some mushroom mittens with this cute pattern from Holly C Watson. This design uses three colors, and it’s shown with a self-striping yarn on the mushroom caps, which makes the colors change without you having to do any work. The pattern is charted but it’s a pretty easy repeat. The mittens are one size. 

If you don’t feel like knitting mushrooms but still want to give your project a touch of the forest, the Toadstools Cardigan from Julie Taylor may be what you’re looking for. It’s stitched as a plain cardigan worked in DK weight yarn and sized for newborns up to 4 years old. The mushrooms are added with embroidery and the pattern includes the design, which you can trace onto water soluble stabilizer to stitch the mushrooms onto your sweater. Or anything else you want. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.