Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Celebrate I Love Yarn Day by Teaching Someone to Knit

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Did you know there’s a holiday completely devoted to yarn?

It’s I Love Yarn Day, which is celebrated this year (2023) on October 14. It’s a day to celebrate all the things we love about yarn and the fiber arts, to teach someone to knit or crochet, maybe to knit or crochet in public (though there’s a day set aside for knitting in public as well!), and definitely a great excuse to visit your local yarn shop if you have one. 

I Love Yarn Day was started by the Craft Yarn Council and this year they’re using the day to launch an audacious goal: for one million knitters and crocheters to teach one million people to knit or crochet.

“The guiding principle of the campaign is encapsulated in the mantra, ‘Make One, Teach One’” said Jenny Bessonette, executive director of the Craft Yarn Council. “Participants are encouraged to create one item for themselves while also taking on the challenge of teaching one new student how to make that very same item. The campaign’s ultimate objective is to spread the warm and gratifying feelings associated with working with yarn and yarn-related crafts.”

As part of the initiative, the CYC has released a collection of simple patterns you can use to teach someone to knit or crochet, or to learn yourself. For knitting that includes a garter stitch square that can be donated to Warm Up America, a bracelet made just by casting on and binding off, a striped dishcloth and a basic hat and scarf.

You can access the patterns by going to the I Love Yarn Day website and scrolling to the Make One, Teach One section.

As for me, this will probably be the year I finally teach my daughter to crochet. We actually tried it the other day but she didn’t get past working chains. (And I did help someone remember how to crochet, which led her to knitting, so that sort of counts, right?)

[Photo: Craft Yarn Council]

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Patchwork Blanket Knitting Patterns

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns. 

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn. 

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options. 

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners. 

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set. 

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn. 

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers. 

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.