Free Pattern: 4th of July Napkin Rings

Need a last-minute project to spruce up your table for the 4th? Why not stitch up a few of the 4th of July Napkin Rings from Lion Brand? Each one uses tiny bits of yarn (they call for Vanna’s Choice in red, white, blue and silver, but any medium weight in yours stash would do), takes very little time to knit up and includes cute embellishments like stripes, stars and tiny pom-poms.

And of course you could mix them up with other colors, using whatever’s in your stash to make your table a little more colorful. Or stick with red, white and blue and use them for get-togethers all through the summer.

[Photo by Lion Brand.]

Looking for 4th of July decorations? Check these supplies out.

We also have 100’s of 4th of July Patriotic crafts and 4th of July recipes too.

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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