Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Knit a Classic Striped Henley

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I have said this before, but henleys are probably my favorite type of sweater, especially for the non-winter months since a lot of the patterns for them I have seen tend to use lighter weight yarn.

I collected some henley sweater patterns here if you want to dive deeper into this genre.

The Old River Road sweater from Kay Hopkins recently caught my eye because it’s a classic henley look with a few fun details that elevate the design.

First, can we talk about the contrasting color on the button band? So cute. And it’s a super easy thing to do that makes it look handmade. The bands are also worked in double knitting (a little project like this is a great place to learn if you don’t already know this technique) which makes them look great on both sides.

The henley opening is deep so you’ll be working flat for a while, but the bottom part of the sweater is worked in the round. It features an easy allover textured stitch pattern that makes vertical lines, plus narrow, contrasting color stripes on the body and sleeves. Make the stripes all the same color, use an ombre or pull out your mini skeins to make stripes of a variety of colors. It looks like you’ll need nine buttons as well.

The design comes in 11 sizes and is worked in sport weight yarn. Finished chest measurements range from 35 to 69 inches, or 89 to 175.5 cm, and it’s intended to be worn with around 4 inches/10 cm of positive ease. You can always include more ease if you like, and you can make it longer if you want a completely cozy, wear with anything kind of top. Which you know I might just want that.

You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Kay Hopkins]

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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.