Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

How Knitting Helps with Digital Overload

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I found this article on Slate really interesting, about how the author has used knitting as a way to slow down, to calm her temptation to digitally multitask and to regain some of her joy of reading, albeit through Audiobooks instead of actual pages.

Katrina Gulliver says she learned to knit as a child but only recently picked it back up and found its calming properties allowed her to “engage more productively with digital media,” extending her attention span and making her podcast-listening and Netflix-watching time more productive.

She’s firmly a project knitter (rather than a process knitter, who cares more about the act of knitting than the thing being made), but still sees the benefit of time devoted to a project as a way of delaying gratification that’s rare in our society.

Does knitting do the same thing for you? Do you find yourself checking your devices less when you’re knitting? I’d love to hear what knitting does for you.

learn how to read your knitting and become a better knitter

Comments

  1. I took use knitting as a way to relax in the evening, though I do make specific items to sell on an auction site, such as baby clothes & Christmas stockings. It helps to ground me so that I don’t think about stressful stuff.

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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.