Check out the New Harry Potter Knits Magazine

I haven’t seen it in person yet, but I’m kind of in love with The Unofficial Harry Potter Knits, a special issue from Interweave. It’s out now in a digital version and will be available for shipping (sorry, this one is United States only) August 8. For now you can get a sneak peek on Ravelry.

For $14.99 this issue gets you more than 30 patterns, heavy on the socks and sweaters. I love the mismatched twin Fred and George Socks; the pretty leaf green Herbology Socks, covered with a twisting vine pattern; the dark cables of the Serveus Pullover; and the gorgeous gothic stained-glass beauty of the Tracery Pattern (it’s a vest). There are also articles on the knits made for the movies, the importance of knitting and family in the stories and more.

I have no idea what compelled them to do a Harry Potter collection at this particular time, but the projects do look like a lot of fun and I’ll probably be picking up a copy. It can keep my copy of Charmed Knits company.

Have you ever knit any Harry-inspired items? I’d love to hear about it!

Are you hosting a Harry Potter party? Check out these DIY Harry Potter crafts on Craftbits.com that we made and take a look at them in our very own Harry Potter Party we hosted. We also created these Harry Potter cupcakes and share the tutorial here. Check out the Harry Potter Cookbook too for fun party food.

If you are looking for Harry Potter gifts check out these on Etsy.

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]

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