Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Hoodies!

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I took a few picturess of the hoodie I’m working on desperately trying to finish right now. (really need to mess with the settings on this camera so I can get good indoor pictures).
I started to knit this in one piece, with the 2 fronts and back joined. When I got past the ribbing I decided that the resulting fabric was too flimsy and needed the stability of side seams.
I also went down a size on the needles, using 6’s and 8’s rather than 7’s and 9’s to make the fabric a bit tighter and also the garment in whole a bit smaller.
This yellow is beautiful and my granddaughter can wear yellow. But knowing that she’s a typical pre-teen girl, I didn’t use expensive yarn, but a nice worsted weight from Caron (Simply Soft, in Soft Yellow). I like this particular yarn, machine washable and dryable, which when knitting for a kid, it’s the only way to go!
This pattern I didn’t like so much. The cables were fun and there wasn’t any funky shaing, basically a knit it in the dark kind of project. But I’ve never knit saddle sleeves and have decided that I don’t like them. Maybe when its all said and done they will redeem themselves, but as of right now, I still prefer the good old raglans. The hood is knit in two identical pieces and they’re almost done. Then binding, zipper ( which might not be fun as I don’t work or play well with zippers – hmm not to late to do buttonholes..), sew it together, weave in ends, block it and send it on its way. I do love me a cuddly warm hoodie. I think the next hoodie pattern I do will be the wonderful wallaby, have heard lots and lots of good things about that one.

I scared up a few free hoodie patterns for you.

Fronts of sweater. Joined to the back at the ribbing.
Back of sweater, not blocked, or stretched out, or even really adjusted to look like a sweater!Close up of this cable pattern
Stay tuned, here at knitting.craftgossip.com, you never know what we’re up to!
Terrye.

Comments

  1. I love the hoodie, especially the yellow color yarn. I am not a great knitter. I mostly crochet, but I’m in the process of making the wonderful wallaby for my 5 yr. old granddaughter. It’s made in the round. I was doing fine, until I got to the front pocket half way up the sweater. Hope I can figure it out before she’s going to college, instead of kindergarten.

Have you read?

Book Review: Patty Lyons’ Knitting ER

Patty Lyons is known for teaching knitters the how and the why of knitting skills. Her Knitting Bag of Tricks helped knitters learn how stitches work, why we do things the way we do and what might be better alternatives. 

Patty Lyons’ Knitting ER aims to do the same with a particular focus on fixing mistakes in your knitting both before and after you bind off. She has deliberately made mistakes (and tons of accidental ones as well) to teach herself the best methods for fixing everything from a misplaced increase and a dropped edge stitch to faulty cable turns, messed up lace and brioche knitting disasters, to name a few. 

The book starts with a foundation of understanding how stitches work, how to read them, and the basic methods we use for fixing mistakes in knitting: frogging (ripping out several rows at a time), tinking (removing stitches across a row one stitch at a time) and dropping a stitch or several stitches on purpose to fix a mistake and ladder it back up. 

It talks about the most basic mistakes like accidental yarn overs and slipped stitches and how to fix them, as well as tips for using lifelines or slipping a smaller needle into your project to hold the stitches before you rip. 

Then we move on to more complicated fixes like picking up a dropped edge stitch, fixing a dropped cast on stitch, removing the twist from a circular knitting project (which you can only do after the first round is knit; this is an ER not a miracle station), fixing ladders in a project, tinking when you’re worked increases or decreases (or what to do when you forgot to add them) and fixing dropped stitches at the edges or short rows.

After that is the specialist’s office, which covers fix-it techniques you might not ever need, or only rarely, but it’s nice to have a place you can find the solution if you ever do need it. We’re talking fixing mistakes in a lace pattern, dealing with miscrossed cables (and counting rows in the cable so you when when it’s the right time to work it again), colorwork issues and brioche blunders. Some of these diagrams are sure to give you pause if you’ve never done something like dropping down a single cable for 20 rows and reknitting it, but again, it’s nice to know you can do those things if you need to. 

Even if your project is done it’s not too late for the doctor to do some good. You’ll also learn how to use duplicate stitch to make knit and purl stitches on the surface of a knitting project, which allows you to do things like fake a decrease you forgot, add a purl you missed in a textured stitch pattern, even fix mistakes in lace, stranded knitting, brioche and cables. 

There’s also tips for dealing with too tight cast ons and bind offs and floppy necklines, pieces knit too long or too short and very detailed instructions for grafting in probably any situation you might encounter, as well as approaches to major surgery.

A lot in these later chapters is kind of mind blowing, and if you’re not getting it from drawings, there are QR codes to videos that cover a lot of the problems and allow you to see the fixes in another way. And there are cute illustrations on the theme of knitting ER from Franklin Habit, too!

If you’ve ever wanted to know how to fix mistakes, minor or major, without having to rip out all of your knitting, this is the book you’ll want to have on your shelf for ready reference and reassurance throughout your knitting career. 

About the book: 208 pages, paperback, published 2026 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.