How a Little Stitching Makes a Big Difference on a Project

A couple of weeks ago I shared a really simple pillow cover pattern that is mostly Stockinette Stitch. As you know, Stockinette Stitch is just a big old blank canvas that you can embellish in a ton of different ways, such as:

knitting stripes instead of a solid color
working in some simple colorwork
sewing on buttons for decorative purposes
adding embroidery
working duplicate stitch on the surface

It’s the first and the last option that Mom Made Blog used to turn that basic pattern into a watermelon cushion. It’s so cute and it only takes a few minutes to add those little “seeds” and it’s not any more difficult to work in those stripes to make a super cute cushion.

This is a great lesson in embellishment and how just taking a little time to think about how you could fancy up a basic project can make a big difference.

How have you embellished basic knitting projects before? I’d love to hear your ideas.

[Photo via Mom Made Blog.]

Next Pattern:

Santa and Saint Nicholas generally get all the good press, but Central European kids know you don’t want to just be good so you get presents from St. Nicholas; you also want to avoid the ire of Krampus. (He’s depicted as a human-like figure with horns and usually hairy or furry who gives birch rods instead of gifts to kids who are bad.)

If you’re the type to embrace the naughty side (or you just want to scare the children into good behavior over the holidays), maybe you’ll want to knit a Krampus sweater.

This one, from Sofie Amalie Laulund, is a top down circular yoke sweater with Krampus faces at the top and cavorting Krampuses further down the body, with some traditional Scandinavian snowflakes thrown in for fun.

Because of the large motifs there’s not a lot of room for adjusting the fit, but it is available in five sizes (the Ravelry page doesn’t say what the sizing is, and it says its worked with no ease but the photo looks like the sweater has a bit of positive ease, so if you decide to make this one just check the measurements and your own comfort level for ease when picking a size).

It also uses five colors, but there’s very little red and brown so you can probably use scrap yarn for those parts. It calls for DK weight yarn. You’ll want a background color that helps the creatures stand out. You could also work the snowflake bands in different colors if you want to mix it up.

The pattern is available in both English and Danish, and you can find it on Ravelry. This is the designer’s first pattern, which kudos to them because it’s such an ambitious (and fun!) project I’m happy to add to my collection of whimsy-filled knits.

[Photo: Sofie Amalie Laulund]

Next Pattern:

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