Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Add Interest to Your Knitting with Knit Pleats

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knitting pleats book
The winner is spierssusan.

Knitting Pleats is an older knitting book that I reviewed quite a while ago, but I hung onto it because the concept is so fun and intriguing.

The book explores how to make permanent folds — aka pleats — in knit fabric by knitting for a while, picking up some stitches and working them together with the live stitches to fold the fabric.

It’s a really interesting technique to play with, and it can be used in all sorts of ways, from making a bag that folds to shaping a shawl or adding interest to a top. (Check out the patterns on Ravelry.)

If you’d like to win this book, leave a comment on this post by the end of the day Sunday, March 26. I’d love to know if you’ve ever worked with knit pleats before (I haven’t!) and what you might use them for. If I were keeping the book, I’d knit the Concertina Bag and Silver Darts, for sure.

Thanks for visiting, commenting and sharing, and good luck!

Comments

  1. So many of the patterns are very interesting! I would love to win a copy!
    Thank you for sharing.

  2. If I were to win this book, I would definitely make the Ribbons and Ties sweater. It can be old fashioned or new age. I really love that one and also the Silver Darts.

  6. Never thought to knit pleats, what a new and brilliant concept! I would knit the Lipstick Glamour, sharpen my skills and then design some more tops for my daughter. She is a Double D and so it is often very hard to find something that either does not look stretched to death round the top and fits the rest of her or fits around the top and hangs like a sack around the rest of her body. Pleats may be the answer to give that extra room.

  7. So creative. I love the Wings Butterfly shawl. I am always trying to stretch my imagination when I knit a garment by either adding embellishments such as. beads, fringe or flowers. Pleats would be so cool and original in a creation. Would love to share this with my fellow knitters.

  8. I love knitting and this is very interesting. I think I may try to do this for my granddaughter for graduation. I think she would love it. I don’t do to much pattern work for I have had many operations on my eyes, I lost all sight but now have a limited amount back, but I think I will still have to try this and see if it comes out for me. Thank you for the chance in winning this book.

  9. I think elements of architecture (building in ridges, folds) is fascinating. It turns fabric into a sort of origami.

  10. How serendipitous. I just saw a wicked cool pattern for a pleated hat and I’ve never worked pleats before. Now seeing this, I see there is so many more fun things to do with them.

  12. Oh my gosh I. Would live to work these up. The are so elegant and I’ve never seen pleats bit definitely sparks one’s imagination.

  13. I haven’t knitted pleats, but it looks such a fun technique! I love the Silver Darts T.

  14. Very cool! I haven’t tried this technique yet, but I’m up for it! Thank you for sharing.

  15. I’ve never seen this technique before, and it has me absolutely fascinated!! The main project I fell in love with was the Borderline Pleated Trim Jacket, but would also love to try the Eve’s Ribs Sweater in a solid yarn or two solid colors, and the Butterfly Shawl was really quite unique, since I love making shawls!! The shawl on the cover is quite different, too, but I would have to tweak that pattern slightly, if I got good enough with the pleating technique, since I don’t care much for bobbles!! Thank you for offering such a wonderful, new and unique giveaway, that not many people will have in their collection!!

Have you read?

Fun Halloween Cowls to Knit

One of the fun things about knitters is that we will use a holiday theme on any kind of project. From Easter bunny socks to Christmas sweaters, there’s no combination of holiday motif and knitwear genre we won’t combine. 

Case in point: Halloween cowls. 

This fun cowl from Sweet Vireo Designs features large carved pumpkins and little cats and skulls. It uses two colors of DK weight yarn and I love the multicolored yarn for the background color on this one. And the braids! So cute. 

Spooky Season by Jocelyn Tunney (also on Ravelry) uses fingering weight yarn in two colors to make a design with crescent moons and eyes. There are two circumferences and two heights available so you can make it a neck hugger or a slightly bigger project if you like. 

Make more moons with the Broom Riding Cowl from Vanessa Ewing Knits. This two color pattern looks extra fun with a multicolored yarn for the colorwork, but you can use a solid as well. It calls for DK weight yarn but there is also a fingering weight version if you have some yarn in your stash you want to use. 

Jinx Made has another fun Halloween cowl, this time covered in skulls. South Philly Skulls uses DK weight yarn and comes in two lengths, and there’s also a matching hat pattern, both of which can be found on Ravelry. 

The Ghost Stories cowl from Melissa Knit Wear is a two-color cowl with ghosts of different sizes on the body. It uses DK weight yarn, and average sized skeins will allow you to get two cowls out of two skeins. It also calls for stitch markers to help you keep your place in the chart. 

Or stitch up a cowl with a giant bat on it. The Nightling Cowl from Jen Immer uses DK weight yarn in two colors and has moons and a large bat on it. This pattern can be found on Ravelry. 

How about spooky trees? The Weirwood Cowl from Andrea Krüß-Anders is inspired by the weirwood trees in the Game of Thrones books, and is worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn. You can find this free pattern on Ravelry. 

If a bandana cowl is more your thing, try Cowloween from Tellybean Knits (on Ravelry). This colorful design is worked from the top down and features pumpkins, ghosts and candy colored stripes, and is worked in a light fingering weight yarn. There are kid and adult sizes available.