Ideas for Craft Fairs and a Cute Christmas Project

Did you know you can share what you’ve been blogging about with me and I can share it with readers? Just click on that link at the top that says “suggest a DIY.”

There are several people who regularly share links, and I really appreciate it. One of them is Donna, aka purl3agony, and I have a couple of links from her this week because I’ve been slow getting through them lately so I thought I’d share them together.

The first has to do with ideas for things you can knit that will sell well at craft fairs or shows. There are some great ideas here for what is trending in the craft world (boot toppers, headbands, ruffle scarves) as well as perennial favorites (baby things, washcloths) that you should consider making as well.

A lot of these are great gift ideas, too, if you’re still thinking about such things (I am seriously considering ruffle scarves in school colors for the girl’s teachers).

The second post is another great one leading into the holidays, all about knitting a tree skirt for a tabletop tree. Donna received a ceramic tree from her in-laws, but was worried it might scratch the table. She knit up a circular doily for it to sit on that looks like a tree skirt. And while hers is plain white so she can use it for other things through the year, she offers ideas for giving it more of a holiday look if you want.

Who are some of your favorite knitting bloggers? I’m always looking for more people to keep up with!

[Photo via purl3agony.]

Next Pattern:

Stitch dictionaries are a fun way to learn new-to-you knitting stitch patterns or to take a deep dive into a particular technique. Debbie Tomkies offers 100 cable stitch designs and thoughts on how to incorporate them into projects in her Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary.

Each stitch pattern is shown in a large swatch photo and with written and charted instructions. Any special stitches are included on the page. The stitches are rated on a difficulty scale of 1 to 3, and the pattern notes also indicate how many extra stitches you should add to a project if you’re going to work this cable (since cables pull the fabric closer together you need to compensate for that) as well as how many stitches and rows are in the repeat if you want to design a project yourself.

The cables are arranged into sections: classic cables, combinations, all-over panels, creative cables, motifs and panels and cabled edges and borders.

It’s fun to flip through the designs to think about projects you can add a single cable or two to or make with an allover cabled design. Or you could make swatches of different cables and sew them together into a pillow cover or a throw.

At the back of the book there’s a section on general cable knitting techniques, reading charts, working swatches and avoiding errors (though it mentions working the wrong number of rows between cable turns, it doesn’t share how to count rows between cables to avoid this mistake).

It also talks about how to design your own cables, combine cables in a project, choose the right yarn and needles and determine how many more stitches you need to cast on when working cables instead of stockinette stitch. There’s also a glossary of symbols and abbreviations you may find in cable knitting and other patterns.

The book provides a good overview of things you can do with cables, as well as some fun things you might not have tried like infinity cables and horizontal cables. It’s a great book for a designer who likes to work with cables or a knitter who wants to play with different stitches in their projects.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback, 100 stitch patterns. Published 2024 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $26.99.

Next Pattern:

Have you read?