Irish Knitting Fun for St. Patrick’s Day

I’m pretty sure this is the first time in the history of me having this job that I’ve remembered St. Patrick’s Day was coming before it was even March. (And if the shamrock knitting pattern roundups from the last two years are any indication, that’s certainly true, because they were both published at just about the last minute.)

Since I’m giving you more time this year, I thought it would be fun to look at some more traditional Irish (or Aran-inspired, anyway) knitting projects that are great for St. Patrick’s Day or any time of year.

There are of course a ton of these types of projects depending on what sort of thing you want to knit, so we’re just scratching the surface here. A good search at Ravelry or on a large yarn company website will get you lots more ideas.

Sweaters: Check out the His and Her Aran Knits from Bernat Design Studio (pattern is a PDF), the Aran Texture Twinset from Paton’s, the Men’s Pullover Irish Knit (which looks to be a vintage Bernat pattern) or the Aran Cable Shrug from Crystal Palace Yarns.

Accessories: I love the Aran Gauntlets from AslanTrends (free download if registered with Vogue Knitting), Flory Loughead’s Aran Toque and the Modified Irish Cable Scarf from Knit Purl Addict. This Aran Poncho from Patons, originally published in Canadian Living, is pretty darn impressive, too.

Afghans: Maybe the perfect use of Aran patterning to my mind is a big Aran afghan. Anna Dalvi’s Burridge Lake Aran Afghan is a beauty, worked with a central panel that’s symmetrical and panels on each side that are mirror images. There’s also the St. Patrick’s Day Sampler Afghan, which was originally designed by members of the Aranknit list back in 2000-01. You can see pictures of all the squares on Ravelry.

Looking for knitting patterns for knitted Cardigans? Check out these Knitting patterns we found on Etsy.

Looking for pullover and sweater patterns? Check these books out.

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]

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