Knitting

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Are You Knitting in Public?

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craftsy knitting in publicWorld Wide Knitting in Public Day has expanded through the years from a couple of days to now more than a week. This year’s event celebrating knitting outside the home is taking place from June 8 through the 16 with all sorts of events happening all over the world.

Click on the website linked above to search for events in your area or to start one of your own. You’ll have to create a free account and jump through a couple of hoops to do so, so if you already know of events happening where you live you might want to skip it. You can also check the Craftsy meetup page to find yarn-related meetups in your area or to start one.

I participated in a local event once a few years ago — as well as a yarn bombing a different year for International Yarn Bombing Day, which happens around the same time — and both were a lot of fun. It’s nice to get to know other knitters in your area, but it’s also just nice to take your knitting out and let people see you knitting.

I knit in public a lot, so this isn’t too strange to me, but if you don’t I want to encourage you to give it a go. Be warned that people will react to you, but it’s mostly positive, and it’s a great way to spread the word about this awesome craft that we love.

Comments

  1. I’ve been knitting in public for a while and it always generates a conversation – living in London, I love that it gets people chatting on the tube. It’s also a great way to bring knitting to a wider audience. Like getting children to understand that vegetables grow in the ground, they always react with excitement when they see a sock on the needles. To those who haven’t knit in public before, I say grab those sticks and get out there; knit al fresco!

  3. I have tried to knit the Sunburst Sling Bag and end up taking it out several times and finally putting it away for later, Can some one put a tutorial on this project, I can’t seem to master it and it is frustrating. Thank you Katie Wells

  4. I bring my project bag everywhere – I really enjoy it when young kids show interest in knitting and I encourage them to learn.

Have you read?

Knit a Log Cabin Blanket with All Your Scraps

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn. 

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small. 

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches. 

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come. 

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you. 

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?). 

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry. 

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns. 

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]