Check out Knitrino and Knit with Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver just won the Pulitzer Prize for her book Demon Copperhead, but in addition to being an amazing writer she is also a knitter.

She recently released her first (that I know of, anyway) knitting pattern, designed with Andrea Cull, inspired by her book The Lacuna.

The Lacuna Mitts are long colorwork mitts worked from the bottom up, with a variety of colorwork motifs inspired by the book. The design uses six colors and there are two sizes available, with a change in needle size making the change in project size.

The pattern is available exclusively on the Knitrino app, a new app that aims to connect knitters with independent designers and make your knitting life a little easier.

The app is free to download (and when I did it gave me a hat pattern for free) and you buy patterns right inside the app. The projects are broken down step by step so it’s easy to track your progress. Patterns with charts can also be shown as text, and you can easily keep your place in the chart as you go. Another cool thing you can do is change the colors on the chart to match the colors you are knitting with rather than the ones the designer used.

Charts and patterns can also be sized to fit whatever device you’re using, and you can click in the pattern and add notes. You also have a personal pattern section where you can add photos, pattern notes, what size knitting needles you used, etc.

Knitrino is run by two knitting sisters, and as of this writing has 24 patterns available for purchase. The app says they will have new patterns monthly, and I’m sure there will be more as designers hear about it and want to have their designs offered there.

You can check out Knitrino on their website or download the app where you do that.

[Photo via Barbara Kingsolver on Facebook.]

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For the past few years I’ve taken part in a Christmas in July blog hop that encourages people to get a jump on their making for holiday gifts.

I love to use yarn I already have for these projects in the hope that people will consider what they already have that they can use to make projects for themselves or to give as gifts.

This year it was a couple of knit baskets made using partial balls of yarn left in my stash from other projects.

They use the same basic pattern but the first one is made with two colors of bulky yarn, and the second used two strands of worsted weight yarn held together, which made the gauge about the same, but I cast on fewer stitches to make a smaller version.

The bottom of the basket is square, though you can make them rectangular if you’d rather. Then I just knit up the sides in rounds until I was about to run out of yarn. This gave both baskets rather short sides — maybe more like a tray than a basket — but you can keep knitting as long as you like to make the sides of your basket as tall as you want.

They’re worked in seed stitch, which keeps the edges from curling and adds a nice texture to the baskets.

Of course this also allows you to use even more odd balls from your stash. I’d love to make a big one someday combining lots of different yarn. I mean, I’d probably use it to store more yarn, but that’s a fine thing to do.

As it is, these little trays are great for sitting on your desk or bedside table to hold little things that always seem to appear there. I like to use one to hold the supplies for whatever project I’m working on, things like little scissors, my tape measure, a crochet hook, etc.

And they would make good gifts on their own or as a container to hold some other goodies if you like.

You can find the free pattern for these stash busting baskets over at Our Daily Craft.

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