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]

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I know that my posts can be read at different times of year and in different years by different people, but as I write this we’re on teh cusp of summer. And I know a lot of people don’t knit as much, and certainly don’t wear a lot of knits in the summer, but I want to encourage you to make and to wear your makes no matter the temperature.

To introduce you to the joys of summer garment knitting, I offer the Tied Vest from Lion Brand Yarn.

This easy project is great to make and wear throughout the year but it’s especially good for summer. It’s worked flat in one piece from the bottom up, mostly in stockinette stitch with a seed stitch edging. The I-cord ties are worked directly onto the garment so you don’t have to sew them on.

The project uses worsted weight yarn, and calls for a blend of cotton and hemp that’s great for warm weather.

There are eight size options, ranging from a finished chest measurement of 35 to 62.5 inches, or 89 to 159 cm. That makes it sound like it should be worn with at least a few inches of positive ease, but the pattern doesn’t specify.

The ties at the front give it a casual look and make it great to wear over a tank top or T-shirt when the weather is warm.

I also think this one would be good to knit in wool or a warmer fiber, too, to make a version you could wear more comfortably in the winter months, too. Though of course you could layer the summer version over a long-sleeved shirt and wear it throughout the year, too.

The tied vest is a free pattern available from Lion Brand. You can also purchase a kit that includes the yarn and optional needles and stitch markers if you need them.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

Knit an Easy Hooded Vest

Knit Vests to Help Transition to Warmer Weather

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