Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Check Out the We Are Knitters Collection with Ella Emhoff

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Ella Emhoff is a designer and textile artist who also happens to be the daughter of the Second Gentleman of the United States. Her designs are whimsical and often use lots of scraps so they’re super colorful and fun. She actually collects yarn leftovers from friends and other projects to make simple dresses and other projects that are a happy riot of color, and how nicely they all seem to turn out is inspiring me to try to knit something with all my random little odd balls. Stay tuned. 

She’s teamed up with We Are Knitters to present a collection of kits that are a little less colorful, but still super cute and wearable.

There are four designs to choose from:

  • A granny square crocheted bonnet
  • The Isa skirt, which has a drawstring waist and a slightly flared hemline
  • The Beanie tank set, which includes a stockinette stitch, racerback, cropped tank top and a ribbed bandeau you can wear on top
  • The Baxter sweater, shown here, a cropped, boatneck sweater worked in stockinette stitch in pieces with a tiny split hem on the sides

The Baxter sweater is my favorite of the collection. It’s worked in cotton yarn on size 8 US knitting needles, and it definitely looks like something I would like to wear. I wish it were possible to just buy the patterns since I already have plenty of yarn, but these projects would be fun to get for a friend as a gift, or give as a gift to yourself!

You can check out the full collection at We Are Knitters here. If you don’t already follow her on Instagram, her posts are a lot of fun (she has a personal account and one that is more knitting focused, but they both have a fair bit of knitting content).

[Photo: We Are Knitters]

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Classic Dishcloth Knitting Patterns

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use. 

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make. 

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!). 

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn. 

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart. 

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern. 

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.