Knit a Cowl to Show Your Love of Potatoes

This was meant to be an April Fool’s Day joke, but it’s just like knitters to take something funny and make it into a reality.

I’ve told you before about Jamie Lomax’s doodle cowls and other projects (see also: arctic cowl, holiday doodle hat in this roundup of Christmas knitting patterns), and she, along with the designers behind Fangirl Fibers and Yarnaceous Fibers, decided it would be funny to do an April Fool’s Day set of doodles that can be used on one of her projects.

And what better symbol of pranks and follies than potatoes?

(Actually, I have no idea why potatoes, but I’m going with it. Potatoes are delicious.)

So while the idea was a bit of a prank, the potato doodle charts are very much real, and you can grab the charts to make your own cowl decked out in spuds.

Lest you think there’s just a chart of potatoes here, let me tell you, there are 10 different potato motifs for stitching up russet potatoes, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, French fries, crinkle fries, waffle fries, potato chips, hashbrowns and tater tots. It’s truly a design to make Sam Gamgee proud.

The cowl itself comes in three sizes and you can knit it using sport, DK or light worsted yarn. The charts are mix and match, so you can use all of them in your project or pick your favorites. Make an ode to fries in knit form, or pick the potatoes that best go with your yarn stash.

You can even get a kit from Fangirl Fibers and Yarnaceous Fibers to make your very own potato cowl if you don’t have the yarn on hand.

You can get the free pattern on Ravelry. And don’t miss the great guide to doodle patterns over at the Pacific Knit Co. website, which is a great place to start if you haven’t worked with patterns like this before.

[Photo: Jamie Lomax]

Next Pattern:

Blankets are a great blank slate project that you can change up in a million different ways. From color to stitch pattern to size, the possibilities are almost endless.

Jared Flood, the designer behind Brooklyn Tweed, was inspired by a log cabin quilt his mother made in 1995 to re-create that design in knitting, which led to more blankets and ultimate Brooklyn Tweed’s Knit and Crochet Blankets, which includes 25 patterns from an array of designers using different skills and techniques to make cozy, pretty blankets.

The patterns are divided into three aesthetic themes: traditions, minimalism and colorplay. The patterns are rated on a scale of one to five, with one being the easiest, and there aren’t any pieces rated five. Two blankets are rated one, 14 are two, eight are three and one is four.

In addition, three of the 25 patterns are crocheted, but they either use single crochet or granny stitch, so they are pretty easy even if you don’t do a lot of crochet. You can see all the patterns on Ravelry.

Some of my favorites include Rattan by Rastus Hsu, a chunky blanket worked in knits and purls with simple crossing stitches to make a raised woven look; Homewood by Seth Richardson, covers in dramatic, loopy cables; Ainur Berkimbayeva’s Tessellate, one of the beginner projects that doesn’t really look beginner but is totally worked in knit and purl stitches; Warp + Weft by Aist? Butkevi?ien?, which is mostly knits and purls but makes a fun woven look fabric that blew my mind a little bit; and the same designer’s Canyonland, a multicolored blanket with wavy stripes.

The patterns tell you how to resize them for different dimensions and include information on pattern repeats where it is possible to make a totally custom size.

Many different techniques are included here such as cables, lace, shadow knitting, intarsia and other colorwork techniques, as well as modular knitting and lots of sewing pieces together. The patterns are all presented with charts, but there are line by line written instructions available on the Brooklyn Tweed website if you need them.

The book ends with a deep dive into log cabin knitting, telling the story of the quilt Jared’s mom made and how he made it in knitting, as well as the multitude of variations you can make if you want your own log cabin style design.

The back of the book includes a little written information about some of the special techniques needed, but there are no photos.

This is a lovely book full of inspiration for knitting and crochet blankets for any skill level. If you like to make blankets as gifts or aspire to have a handmade blanket in every room of the house, these designs would be a great place to start.

About the book: 192 pages, paperback, 25 patterns. Published 2024 by Abrams Books, suggested retail price $24.99.

Next Pattern:

Have you read?

Leave a Reply