Check out Franklin Habit in the Lion Brand Notebook

I’m kind of in love with Franklin Habit. The knitter behind the hilarious blog The Panopticon never fails to make me smile with his views on knitting and life. (If you haven’t seen them already, go take a look at the posts about knitting and crochet patterns published in Woman’s Day in the 1970s. You’ll thank me later.)

So I’m really excited that there’s now another place on the web to find him. He’s now doing a monthly column for Lion Brand Yarn that will run in their Weekly Stitch Newsletter. You can also read it online.

The first installment was recently released, and it’s all about the virtues of knitting for yourself. I have to tell you I’ve had this exact discussion with myself about how many purchased sweaters I own when I could make something so much nicer for myself.

Go, read, and let’s make this the year we all do a little more knitting for the person who will most appreciate it — and don’t you dare call it selfish!

[Photo via Lion Brand Yarn.]

Next Pattern:

I’ve shared a lot of Christmas stocking knitting patterns over the years (see posts 1, 2, 3 for example) but what if you want to knit a stocking for a non-human member of your family. If you’re looking for Christmas stocking knitting patterns for your cats or dogs, this is the post for you.

These large paw print stockings are perfect for either dogs or cats, so they’re great to knit if you have both. They are worked in the round using DK weight yarn, and the stocking measures about 17 inches/43 cm from the top to the heel. You can get the pattern from nicolaluke.

The K4 Project has a super cute Kitty Christmas stocking pattern, which is worked in worsted weight yarn. They also have a dog version, or you can buy both and get a discount if you have both dogs and cats to knit for. Both projects have two patterns, showing how to work the stockings flat or in the round.

Put your dog into a Christmas scene with this stocking pattern from ifanhourChild. It shows a dog in a dog house in the snow, and has room for the dog’s name at the top. It’s worked flat using worsted weight yarn and the pattern includes charts for many small and medium dog breeds (there’s a separate listing for bigger dogs) so you can stitch a dog that looks like yours.

Annie’s Woolens has both dog and cat stocking knitting patterns that are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round. You can change up the colors to suit your pet if you want, and they come with an alphabet chart for personalization. Or you can stick with holiday colors and buy a kit to make the dog or cat stocking.

Waiting for Santa Paws is a pattern from Kate Agner on Ravelry that would be cute for a dog or a cat. It looks like a leg with a paw print on the bottom part of the foot and more paw prints running around the top of the leg. This is a great option if you don’t want to mess with a heel turn because it doesn’t have a heel, because dogs and cats don’t have heels so why would their stockings?

Book Review – 20 to Knit: Tiny Christmas Toys to Knit

Book Review – Knit Christmas Stockings

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