Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

It Itches! So Knit A Snowflake!

by

It Itches, by Franklin Habit

Ingredients:
1 batch of humorous cartoons about knitting and everyday life.
3 shakes of the inevitable boo boos
and a generous helping of short essays.
Bake until it’s green and you’ll have the cutest little knitting book ever. One of the funniest knitting books I think I’ve ever read.

This particular cartoon, taken from the book, is entitled “Free Range Knitters”. Loved it!

And there are way more cartoons and essays in there that I can relate to than I’d like to admit. And it’s cute! And little! A perfect stocking stuffer! Hint!

Is your stash out of control? This book will tell you how to take it from behind the couch to where it belongs, occupying every inch of space available. If you haven’t been treated to Franklin’s blog, go here:
http://the-panopticon.blogspot.com/

Interweave publishes his book and they say this:
Franklin Habit is known for his witty writing and his New Yorker-style cartoons about knitting and life. His cartoons address the undeniable urge to purchase yarn, the (mostly) friendly rivalry between knitters, the expression of love through yarn and needles, and more!
The book includes seventy-five cartoons, deftly rendered in pen and ink with watercolor wash, in addition to humorous short essays on various themes of the knitting life.

You’ll find yourself in this fun collection of essays and cartoons. It Itches is also a great gift idea for knitters who speak the same knitting language.

Go to page 20 to read about Monsters in the Closet
Man vs. Skein pg 40 (this was my personal favorite!)
Immortality pg 50
The Underpants Knitters of Great Fussing-on-the-Wold pg 58
Advice from a Poncho pg 68
The Knit Stitch: Theme and Variations pg 82
Knittin’ with a Whip pg 90
It’s a Guy Thing pg 102
And there are more!
Is your book pile already too big? Don’t fret, this one’s a quick read, and will definitely keep you laughing all the way through it. Go here to order this wonderful book, or second thought, order 6 or 7 for all your knitting peeps! http://www.interweave.com/knit/books/it-itches/toc.asp (remember the stocking stuffer thing?)

And now for your free snowflake pattern:

Ok, so technically this one is crocheted, but I loved it’s simplicity. It would be gorgeous with a strand of silvery stuff (technical term for the lame that I tore apart to spin in with some of my yarn).

Try it! The free pattern is here:

http://www.theknittingparlour.co.uk/doc/christmas%20snowflake%20pattern.pdf

 

Next Pattern:

Comments

  1. I actually DID knit a snowflake! It is on Holiday Mystery Gift Along (a yahoo group that’s growing by leaps and bounds).
    I love your beautiful crocheted snowflake and will grab it after submitting this here comment!
    Visiting your site kept me busy for an hour!

Have you read?

Knit a Stunning Bestiary Scarf

I don’t even know what to say about this amazing knitting pattern. The Bestiary Scarf from Monstra & Mirabilia is so full of details it’s a little intimidating to talk about. 

It features, as the designer describes it, an “artistic encyclopaedia of Western mythical creatures.”

The pattern includes a dragon, harpy, Medusa, chimaera, centauress, phoneix, kraken, mermaid, sew serpent, cyclops, wyvern, Pegasus, amphiptere and amphibaena. (It’s a good thing there’s a photo of the proejct with everything labelled because I definitely didn’t know the names for everything.) It’s also designed like a landscape, with water and land creatures toward the bottom ends and sky creatures toward the top. 

The dragon is at the center and is worked sideways so it will show as upright when you wear it. 

The scarf is worked in double knitting, so the colorwork appears in the opposite colors on the other side. 

It’s worked in light fingering weight yarn (on size 0 US or 2mm knitting needles) and the colorwork is shown in charts. The pattern also includes some video tutorials and written instructions to help you along. The designer says the pattern is for intermediate knitters, and “advanced beginners may succeed with patience and the help of the video tutorials.”

When I was an advanced beginner this kind of a pattern would have brought me to tears, but if you love a challenge, and a project that you’ll wear and get tons of astonished reactions every time, this is the project for you. And of course if you have a few double knitting projects under your belt and are comfortable reading charts, this project shouldn’t be hard, but that doesn’t mean it’s fast. But lots of great things take time, and that’s never stopped us before, right? 

You can get a copy of this pattern from Monstra & Mirabilia on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Monstra & Mirabilia ]