How to Host a Knitting Party

It might seem like we all have quite enough social obligations this time of year, thank you very much, but wouldn’t it be fun to take time in this buys season to unwind with some friends and just knit together? (Or just after the season, if one more party is just too much to bear.)

I did this over the weekend in the form of attending a fiber festival and it was so nice to just sit and knit for hours on end with no obligations to anyone. Granted, I was knitting Christmas presents, but still.

The folks at Martingale have some good ideas for how you can host a fiber-filled party of your own, including printable invitations, ideas for party favors and tips for setting the mood. And here’s a tip from me: keep food and drink away from the knitting!

Have you ever hosted a knitting party? I’d love to hear about it.

[Photo via Martingale.]

Next Pattern:

As I write this, it’s probably time to start thinking about winter knitting if you haven’t already. And it’s definitely time to think about gift knitting if you have any of that you plan to do for the holidays.

The Dreamy Waves Scarf from Knit Picks, designed by Stacey Winklepleck, would be a great project to go in either category.

It uses two different multicolored yarns and a simple repeating wave pattern to make a project that looks a lot more complicated and dramatic than it is. The gradient look happens naturally just by switching which yarn you’re knitting with.

This pattern uses worsted weight yarn so it’s a pretty quick project even though a scarf is large and this one is pretty wide. It measures 8.5 inches (21.5 cm) wide and 63 inches or 120 cm long. Of course you can make it longer or shorter as you like. As written it takes one ball of each color so it’s a pretty economical project, too.

It’s rated for intermediate knitters but if you know how to do various increases and decreases you’ll be all set. The pattern uses knit 2 together, make 1 left and right, centered double decrease and slip slip knit. All of the stitches are explained in a glossary in the pattern so even if you haven’t done all of them it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.

The pattern also includes tons of options for different colorways in yarn that Knit Picks sells, so you can see how different combinations knit up before you buy the yarn. That’s such a great idea!

Of course if you already have two multicolored yarns with long color runs on hand, you can absolutely use them, too. It might also be fun, but would give you a totally different look, to use a solid color and a bunch of scraps or one multicolored yarn to see how the different colors play together. So many options!

You can grab this free pattern and check out all the color options at Knit Picks.

[Photo: Knit Picks]

Summer Shawl and Scarf Knitting Patterns

Take It Easy with the Bessie Scarf

Sweater Scarf Knitting Patterns

Comments

RuthKnits says
December 13, 2012 at 7:23 pm
I taught at a knitting party this week. Thirteen new knitters! Well, one had knit before. They wanted to take home a finished project so we made flowers. That was a lot of people to help at once but everyone left with a flower. I don’t think they “learned to Knit” enough to be independent but they got a taste. It was a simple flower – cast on 30 stitches, worsted yarn, size 8 to 10 needles. Knit 4 rows, change colors, knit one row in another color – bind off. Sew a running stitch where the colors change, pull both ends to gather, and voila you have a flower. If anyone has other ideas for a super quick project like this let me know!

Next Pattern:

Comments

Have you read?

Leave a Reply