Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Googling Yarn Shops

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I spent this past weekend [tag]googling[/tag] for [tag]yarn shops[/tag] on the internet. Do you know how many shops have a presence on the web? The result of this search was 1,280,000 hits – almost 1.3 million pages that mentioned “yarn shop” somewhere on a page or in their meta tags.

YIKES I don’t have time to visit that many websites!

In the results of this search, many hits were [tag]yarn manufacturers[/tag] whose sites I wanted to remove from my search. I further refined this search using the advanced features of [tag]google[/tag]. I asked to perform a search that had “yarn shop” mentioned, return pages that had been updated in the past three months, did not contain adult sites, and was written in English. This advanced search returned 294,000 hits. Do you have time to look at all these sites? Sensory overload!

If you followed my steps to this point, you could further search in the results for other criteria, such as location, or specific yarns. Now this is a long way to perform the search, but this is an easy way for most individuals to refine their criteria. Others may want to use a boolen search, which is more convoluted, or a newer method called [tag]Search Engine Math[/tag]. This method has you use the plus sign (+) or a minus (-) sign to fine tune your search.

I used this method to remove any store that mentioned supplies and patterns. This result netted me 144,000 hits. I live in Michigan so I decided to add Michigan to the search and the result was 12,900 hits that mentioned Michigan on their site. Still a hefty amount of pages to look through, but a little more manageable.

Who am I kidding? Need to fine tune the search again and look for stores that sell wool. Ah, now I am down to 361 hits. THAT is better! This result I can bookmark and spend time looking for that special yarn.

This is not a perfect method, many pages slip through the critera and may contain other information such as a list of guilds or a yarn manufacturer listing the stores that sell their yarn. For the most part though, this will help you fine tune your search for material and supplies without spending time clicking on 1.3 million pages.

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Patchwork Blanket Knitting Patterns

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns. 

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn. 

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options. 

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners. 

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set. 

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn. 

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers. 

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.