Combine Knit and Crochet with this Cute Checkers Set

I used to be a knitter exclusively, and it took me many, many years (and finally learning how to knit while holding the yarn in my left hand) before I could crochet at all. But once you get it, it’s not hard, and there are some things that are easier or faster to do in crochet when compared to knitting.

It’s also fun to be able to combine knitting and crochet in one project, like this cozy checkers set from Lion Brand Yarn. The game board and the drawstring bag to hold the checkers are knit, while the checkers themselves are crocheted. These flat circles are done in just three rounds, so even if you’re not super confident in your crochet skills you should be able to do it.

The game board is worked from the bottom up, starting with the border that is worked with a bit of fair isle/stranded knitting and intarsia to make the diamonds. The playing area is worked in a single color alternating squares of stockinette and reverse stockinette. Then the top border is knit, and you pick up stitches on each side to work the side borders. The colorwork is charted only.

The project calls for worsted weight yarn, specifically Vanna’s Choice, which is a great option because it’s acrylic so it’s machine washable, and it comes in a ton of colors.

The bag is worked with the same colors in stripes from the top down and features a crochet chain drawstring.

It sounds like a lot, and I’m a little dubious that this is skill level rated beginner +, but if you’ve worked stranded knitting and intarsia before and are comfortable working from charts, it’s not really that difficult. The hardest part might be picking up stitches evenly so that the side borders match the rest of the project.

Still, this looks like it would be a lot of fun to knit and to have available for picnics, beach time, or just playing with in the backyard or on the living room floor.

You can grab the free pattern (email registration required) from Lion Brand, or you can buy all the yarn and other supplies you’ll need while you are there.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

When I was looking around for free knitting patterns to share recently, I came across this fun leopard print wrap from Yarnspirations.

This fun bulky wrap gives you tons of practice with instarsia and makes a bold statement while keeping you warm. It’s rated for intermediate knitters and the design is charted but pretty easy to follow. And it’s only 50 rows and worked in bulky yarn, so it wouldn’t even take that long to knit. (You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.)

So what’s the problem? The yarn that the pattern calls for has been discontinued, and it’s not a yarn that a substitute for immediately springs to mind.

The original yarn was Patons Alpaca Blend, a single ply bulky yarn that was a combination of acrylic, superwash wool, nylon and alpaca.

My first thought was Lion Brand Hue + Me, which is an acrylic and wool blend, with two plies instead of a single. It looks like it has the colors you would need to make this fun shawl.

But as I was thinking about it, I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to YarnSub if you don’t already know about it. This website is a giant database of yarn that can consider the qualities of the yarn you want to substitute and offer potential substitutions.

It’s not only thinking about yarn weight, like I was, but also fiber content, number of plies, gauge and even the difference in yardage between one ball and another. It even looks at the price and can be filtered by your price range or preferences about fiber content (if, say, you’re sensitive or allergic to wool, for example, or don’t want to you acrylic).

When I plugged in Alpaca Blend, it gave me a lot of different options, though many of them were self-striping or multicolored, which wouldn’t work for this project, and I don’t see a way to filter for solid colors only.

Still, it’s a good tool to give you some ideas you might not know about or might have forgotten about, and it tells you how the new yarn is similar to the old one and how it differs, allowing you to make smarter choices when substituting yarns.

[Photo: Yarnspirations]

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