Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Free Pattern: Simple Striped Arm Warmers

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striped armwarmersIt’s the perfect time of year for knitting and wearing arm warmers or fingerless gloves (I had mine on just the other day) and this pattern from Yarnologue is a great quick, easy and colorful choice.

Worked in the round in two colors of gorgeous Mirasol yarn, you don’t even have to cut the yarn as you work, just weave it up the side.

This yarn is a beauty: a blend of llama, wool and angora. Of course you could use something else you have lying around if you want, or make this a stash-busting project by working in a series of stripes. You could make them match by dividing up your odd balls or go wild and make them out of completely different colors.

Of course it’s totally appropriate for this time of year that they happen to be orange and white…

[Photo via Yarnologue.]

Comments

  1. Hey, that’s me! 😀

    There was such demand for the pattern I had to get it posted before I had finished knitting.

    Must have been a lot of cold arms out there that day.

    If you don’t like double points you can knit it on two circulars, using magic loop, or two at a time on two circs.

Have you read?

Learn a Flower Bobble Technique to Knit a Fun Shawl

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier. 

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project. 

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible. 

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge. 

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects. 

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy. 

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project. 

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Xandy Peters]