Knitting

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Celebrate the 10th Annual Worldwide Knit in Public Day

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worldwide knit in public dayIn the past, Worldwide Knit in Public Day has spread out over a week, because it was often at the same time as the big TNNA show in the states. But that’s already happened this year, so everyone is celebrating together, on Saturday, June 13.

You can find local events wherever you are at the WWKIP Day website, or check with your local yarn store if you have one for any special events that might be going on. (Mine is having knitting on the front porch of their shop, which sounds like a lot of fun.)

Do you normally knit in public? I find it really interesting to see people’s reactions when they see you knitting. My favorite recent one was at a dress rehearsal for my daughter’s play; all the kids were swarming me to see what I was doing!

If you have plans for knitting out on Saturday, I’d love to hear them.

Comments

  1. I spent a great afternoon with my daughter and two friends knitting in a park across from American Needle works in Middletown . Then it was off to lunch at a cute cafe right next door to the park. The four of us crossed the street to the yarn shop where we bought our tote bags for the Hudon Valley Yarn shop cruise . I also scored some beautiful lane Cervinia sock yarn.
    Then it was off to Warwick New York to get our pass ports stamped at Whistle Stop Yarn . More sock yarn of course….this one Zusammenhalt Opal ,and some much needed stitch markers. We plan to go to at least one or two shops on the cruise each week with side trips into the towns that they are located in. This cruise was a great idea. I knit in public all of the time.

Have you read?

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.