Happy Knitty Surprise Day

Today is Knitty surprise day, which means a couple more patterns have been released to get you stitching this season. (Note, if you are reading this on Wednesday, their servers may be a bit slow to load because the patterns are new, but be patient and you’ll get there.)

The Fifteen Love Pullover by Brittany Wilson is a pretty three-color top worked from the top down with a kind of slim, retro fit. There are times when you’ll be fiddling lots of strands of yarn, but the effect is well worth it, I think.

In addition to that one, there’s a new sock pattern, Neldoreth by Rich Esnor. These dramatic cabled socks look to me like what Tolkien’s elves would wear if they wore socks; the designer says the name actually comes from “the beech forest on the banks of the River Esgalduin that formed the northern and lesser part of the Kingdom of Doriath in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion.” So I was pretty close.

Do either of these catch your eye or are you knitting anything special to celebrate spring? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo by Brian Wilson via Knitty.]

Looking for knitting patterns for knitted Cardigans? Check out these Knitting patterns we found on Etsy.

Looking for pullover and sweater patterns? Check these books out.

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

Have you read?