Fall/Winter Collection from Bergere de France

It’s the time of year for new pattern collections and knitting magazines, and I’m going to share as many of them with you as I can because I know we all need some new things to knit.

Today it’s the catalog from Bergere de France, which has a whopping 159 designs for men, women, children and the home. The catalog itself cost $10 (or free if you’re a new customer) and comes with yarn samples, but you can also check out the look book (all 230 pages!) of browse the patterns online for plenty of wintertime inspiration.

There are lots of deep, chunky cables and classic colorwork in this collection. I love the Tar Tan Jacket, a ladies cardigan worked in four colors that’s as classic as it is beautiful. The Two-Way Sweater, which works as a top with a giant cowl or as a dress, looks warm and fuzzy and is actually easy to knit.

While there are a lot of classic designs here, you’ll also find some more modern choices like the fur stole and the cabled dolman sleeve cape. There are cropped sweaters for women and grandpa styles for men, as well as looks inspired by the ski slopes and weekend football games.

This collection will also get you geared up for next spring and summer, with cute tops in pastels, openwork sweaters perfect for the shore and easy tunics you’ll want to wear all season.

You can also deck out your favorite kiddos in woodland inspired knits (I’m pretty in love with the Crochet Over Dress, but not sure I have the chops for it). There are projects here inspired by the slopes and others that are perfect for outside play at school as well. And the baby rompers and jackets are just too cute to pass up. And that’s not even to mention the slippers, accessories, kits and more that are featured in this catalog.

When you look through the look book online, click on any picture to bring up the yarn needs and cost. (The whole pattern book is $20, which seems a great deal for the number of patterns involved.)

If you take a closer look, I’d love to know what catches your eye!

[Photo via Bergere de France.]

Specific to knitters, you can join our Knitting Patterns Only group to get, well, knitting patterns, ask questions and gain inspiration for what to knit next.

Looking for Yarn online? Check out Lionbrand our preferred source for purchasing yarn online.

Looking for Fall patterns to Knit? Check out these Fall knitting patterns we found on Etsy.

For the past few years I’ve taken part in a Christmas in July blog hop that encourages people to get a jump on their making for holiday gifts.

I love to use yarn I already have for these projects in the hope that people will consider what they already have that they can use to make projects for themselves or to give as gifts.

This year it was a couple of knit baskets made using partial balls of yarn left in my stash from other projects.

They use the same basic pattern but the first one is made with two colors of bulky yarn, and the second used two strands of worsted weight yarn held together, which made the gauge about the same, but I cast on fewer stitches to make a smaller version.

The bottom of the basket is square, though you can make them rectangular if you’d rather. Then I just knit up the sides in rounds until I was about to run out of yarn. This gave both baskets rather short sides — maybe more like a tray than a basket — but you can keep knitting as long as you like to make the sides of your basket as tall as you want.

They’re worked in seed stitch, which keeps the edges from curling and adds a nice texture to the baskets.

Of course this also allows you to use even more odd balls from your stash. I’d love to make a big one someday combining lots of different yarn. I mean, I’d probably use it to store more yarn, but that’s a fine thing to do.

As it is, these little trays are great for sitting on your desk or bedside table to hold little things that always seem to appear there. I like to use one to hold the supplies for whatever project I’m working on, things like little scissors, my tape measure, a crochet hook, etc.

And they would make good gifts on their own or as a container to hold some other goodies if you like.

You can find the free pattern for these stash busting baskets over at Our Daily Craft.

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