Check out What’s Popular in Knitting with the Stock(inette) Market

The Venn diagram on knitters and math and science geeks would show a lot of overlap, and when statistics lovers and knitters collide, awesome things can happen.

Like what, you ask? Like the Stock(inette) Market, an analysis of trends on Ravelry sorted by garment type, fabric type, yarn type, color and whether the item’s picture has a person in it. That link explains all the details, and here is the most current report. They cover two-week periods and the results are determined by collecting data on the “what’s hot” patterns on Ravelry twice daily.

It’s so fun to look at this and see what other people are knitting or at least looking at on Ravelry (this time of year, it’s lots of shawls and other things to wear about the neck and shoulders, as well as lots of lace).

This could be a cool tool for designers, too, though what’s presently popular doesn’t mean there won’t be different trends in the future. But it may tell you if you design lace shawls, you want to release a new pattern in the spring!

[Photo via Where the Red-Winged Blackbird Flies.]

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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