Add a Little Lace to Your Sweater

I don’t know why I think of lace knitting as being for spring and summer, but I do. I guess it’s because those holes let in a little more air, which is decidedly not something we want to happen when it’s cold outside.

But as the weather warms I always feel a pull toward lace knitting. If you’re new to knitting lace, or just don’t want or need to knit a lace shawl, knitting a sweater with eyelet elements is a great place to start, or a way to get some lace in your life that’s not too frilly (not that we’re against frilly!).

The Gem Sweater by Irene Lin is a great project in this genre. It’s worked with a sport and lace weight yarn held together to make a worsted weight, or you could just use worsted if you’d rather. If you’re new to lace this is a great way to start because you don’t have to use the little needles that often go with traditional lace.

The sweater itself is worked from the top down and features an allover diamond lace pattern. The pattern is available in 7 sizes that range in chest measurement from 50 to 74.75 inches, or 127 to 190 centimeters. As you might guess from those measurements, it’s designed to have a lot of ease. The sample shown, for example, has 17.5 inches, or 44 cm, of positive ease, but of course you don’t have to have that much if your chest measurement is 50 or above.

This would be a great sweater to knit and wear during those transitional seasons when you need an extra layer but maybe not a super heavy one. I think it would be cute over a summer dress, too, at the beach or anywhere you need some more warmth on an otherwise warm day.

You can grab the pattern from Ravelry; it’s available in English, Japanese and Korean.

[Photo: Irene Lin]

Twisted Lace Headband Knitting Pattern

Knit a Lace Shawl for Cooler Weather

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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