Great Life Lessons from Knitting

Because it’s Thanksgiving in America, it makes sense to take a moment to reflect on why knitting is so important in our lives. For me, knitting is part of my career, of course, but I would still love to knit even if no one paid me for it. It is a calming influence in my life (most of the time), allows me to warm my child and other people with the work of my hands, is a way to be creative and is just fun.

After the recent Knitter’s Review retreat, where the gathered knitters had amassed a collective 1,000+ years of knitting experience, Clara Parkes compiled a list of 10 life lessons for knitters.

From “always buy the best yarn you can afford” to “good knitting needs to be worn and enjoyed,” these lessons are true and sweet and bear repeating over and over.

My favorite?

If you ever find yourself saying, “I’m too stressed out to knit,” reevaluate your life so it never happens again.

But do go check out the whole list and all the great pictures from the event. They’ll make you thankful to be a knitter. (Awww…)

[Photo via Knitter’s Review.]

Looking for more Thanksgiving patterns check these out on Etsy.

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Using your yarn stash is important to me throughout the year, but as I start to feel the end of the year coming on I get more excited about using things I already have in the house. Maybe that’s because I don’t want to go to a store in the thick of holiday shopping times, or I like the idea of having a little space in my stash when the new year rolls around.

It’s super satisfying to use up all the little odd balls you’ve made over the year (or years), and I have several stash busting blankets I work on when it’s cold and will maybe finish someday.

If you’d like to start a stash busting project that’s perfect for using up odd balls, check out the Soukish pattern from Neisha Abdulla. This pattern is made for fingering weight/sock yarn, and it’s worked in a tube with allover color work.

This is great for a couple of reasons. You don’t really have to weave in your ends when you can hide them in a tube (this is one time you might even get by just tying a knot when you change colors!) and you can change colors whenever you run out of yarn and it will look good.

Of course the pattern is made with blocks where the designer changed colors, but you can change yours more or less often as you need to make it work for your stash. You can use blank charts to design your own color combinations, or even your own stitch patterns if you like. You can also adjust the length of the scarf as needed or turn it into a cowl based on the amount of yarn you have.

This project looks like a lot of fun and would be a great thing to have on hand to stitch up and then to wear during the cold, gloomy months.

You can get a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Neisha Abdulla]

Another Way to Use Up All Your Sock Yarn Scraps

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