Bold Ribbed Shrug Knitting Pattern

The other day I shared a bunch of ribbed hat knitting patterns, but of course ribbing is great for lots of other projects, too. Ribbing automatically gives anything a structured look, and it’s a great choice when you need stretch in some areas of a project.

The Simple Ribbed Shrug from Purl Soho is a great example of the beauty of a simple ribbed project.

Worked from the top down in 2×2 ribbing, this project would actually be pretty good practice for knitting a top-down sweater if you’ve never done that before. It has a sort of turtleneck top with raglan increases worked to shape the shoulders. Then the body is worked straight to your desired length.

Unlike a sweater, there’s not separating out stitches for sleeves (and no sleeves to knit, which is kind of the worst part of knitting a sweater), and the body is over before you get bored trying to get to the right length.

The project has five size options, measured around the arms and chest. The body circumferences (your actual body) range from 36 to 66 inches (91.5 to 167.5 cm) and it is intended to be worn with 6 to 12 inches/15 to 30.5 cm of negative ease.

We usually talk about positive ease in knitting patterns, but negative ease means that the garment is actually smaller than the body it’s intended to cover. Because this is ribbed, it will stretch nicely and open up the ribbed stitches for an even more dramatic effect.

I love the idea of this as an extra layer tucked into your coat, or something you can throw over your pajamas for a Zoom meeting and it looks like you’re wearing a sweater.

Wherever you want to wear it, it calls for a DK or light worsted weight yarn. The sample is a blend of merino and organic cotton, but I think straight wool would be great for this one, too.

You can grab the free pattern at Purl Soho.

[Photo: Purl Soho]

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Why should the fireplace get all the fun? Instead of knitting stockings this year, why not whip up a pair of Christmas themed socks? These Christmas sock knitting patterns are lots of fun to make and you can wear them to holiday gatherings for years to come.

For our friends in the southern part of the world, there are the Christmas in July socks from the Kiwi Lodge – Kylie (Ravelry link). These shorty socks are covered in Christmas trees and have bright pink heels and toes for a tropical feel. There’s also an option to make a longer sock if you celebrate somewhere it’s colder.

Twin Stitches Designs (Ravelry) has a fun pattern with mix and match colorwork motifs you can use to build your own cozy Christmas socks. From the sample socks I see Christmas puddings, trucks hauling trees, Santa belts, ornaments and a couple of different borders. There may be more patterns included but the listing doesn’t say. Make a pair that matches or use different motifs on each foot for extra holiday cheer.

If you want to stick to Christmas puddings on your holiday socks, check out this cute pattern from Stone Knits. These lovely socks feature a band of puddings around the leg and a bit of holly by the toes.

These vintage holiday light socks from Grey Owl Knits by Sarah are classic looking and lots of fun at the same time. I love this color combination but of course you can make your lights and stripes whatever colors you like or have on hand. They’re worked using stranded knitting.

And if you’d like even more of a mix of patterns for your socks, try Barbara Ceglédi’s Christmas Chaos socks, a free pattern on Ravelry. The pattern includes 25 little motifs you can choose from, ranging from snowflakes and Christmas trees to elf hats, reindeer and hearts.

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