Don’t Let the Pigeon Knit the Sweater!

Michelle Tsai is a Jeopardy! champ known for wearing her handknits when she competed in games. She wore a Weasley-style sweater vest with a giant M, a tank top with a heart shaped cutout, and a sweater that looks like a pigeon.

Really.

I mean, her Instagram handle is michellelikesbirds, so I guess it makes sense, though the birds she’s referring to are her cockatiels, who also have their own Instagram.

She wore the sweater on Jeopardy! back in December and she said at the time she was working on a pattern, and the excitement among knitters was huge.

The pattern has now been released so you can knit your own sweater to make you look like a pigeon. Because the world needs a little more weird.

The pattern is worked in worsted weight yarn, in the round from the top down. It has options to do a crew neck or turtleneck, and has a circular yoke for the pigeony pattern that really does look like the coloring on a pigeon’s neck.

The sweater uses six colors of yarn, and the ones at the beginning don’t need a lot, so you might have something in your stash that would work. She used Plymouth Encore worsted and lists the color names in the pattern notes if you want to use the same ones.

There are 10 sizes available, with a finished chest circumference ranging from 31 inches to 67 inches, or 79 to 170 cm. Recommended ease is 4-6 inches, or 10-15 cm.

There are a lot of projects on the go on Ravelry so you can see different yarns that people have used, though of course they’re sticking to the same general colors so that it will still look like a pigeon.

I think this sweater is adorable and hilarious and brilliant and I’m a little sad I’ve decided I have quite enough sweaters for now (other than the couple still on my needles LOL) or I would probably be knitting one too.

Check it out and grab a copy on Ravelry.

[Photo: Michelle Tsai]

A few years ago I wrote a post that was full of patterns for knit mushrooms, but I don’t think I ever did a post that was knitting patterns with mushrooms on them, so today’s the day.

I love the Fungi Beanie from Jacki Bean, which calls for worsted weight yarn and uses duplicate stitch to add the mushrooms and other details. I think the colors she used for the design are tonal/multicolor so it doesn’t use as many colors as it looks like, but you can use whatever red, green, brown and white yarn you have in your stash for those details.

How about some mushroom socks? The Magic Toadstool sock form Stone Knits includes a ring of mushrooms around the leg, contrasting heel and toe and a little more colorwork at the toe for extra cuteness. As shown it uses four colors and comes in three sizes.

Or there’s the Fairy Ring Socks from Katie Green, which have mushrooms of two sizes on the legs, plus a bit of wavy grass. They have a contrasting cuff, heel and toe and some colorwork flecks in the body of the sock as well. This one is available in eight sizes to fit everyone from a baby to an XL adult.

This trippy cowl from Hunt Hand Knits looks like a lot of fun to knit. The Fungus Among Us Cowl is shown using four colors of DK weight yarn, though you can do it with as few as two if you’d rather.

Stitch some mushroom mittens with this cute pattern from Holly C Watson. This design uses three colors, and it’s shown with a self-striping yarn on the mushroom caps, which makes the colors change without you having to do any work. The pattern is charted but it’s a pretty easy repeat. The mittens are one size.

If you don’t feel like knitting mushrooms but still want to give your project a touch of the forest, the Toadstools Cardigan from Julie Taylor may be what you’re looking for. It’s stitched as a plain cardigan worked in DK weight yarn and sized for newborns up to 4 years old. The mushrooms are added with embroidery and the pattern includes the design, which you can trace onto water soluble stabilizer to stitch the mushrooms onto your sweater. Or anything else you want. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

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