Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Knit a Rainbow on Your Sweater

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Whether you’re still knitting for Pride, want to commemorate a rainbow baby in your life or you just love the colorful addition of rainbow stripes to anything you knit, the Rainbow Over sweater from The Drunk Knitter is a pretty way to stitch up some color.

The yarn used in the original pattern is actually a rainbow gradient, which makes it super easy to knit because you don’t have to change colors. But this would also be a great use for any rainbow colored mini skeins you have on hand.

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn and is worked from the top down with a circular yoke and bishop sleeves for high drama. You could also shape the sleeves more traditionally if you don’t want all that extra fabric at the wrist.

The pattern comes in 8 sizes to fit chest measurements ranging from 30 to 62 inches or 76 to 157 cm, with zero to 4 inches/10 cm of positive ease. The body is a little cropped but you can always make it longer if you want to. This would be super cute as a dress, too, though of course you’d need a lot more yarn and probably need to alter the pattern to make a tunic or dress.

The yoke has a bit of a textured stitch pattern, while the rest of the body is worked in stockinette stitch, making this a pretty quick and easy knit.

You can find the pattern on Ravelry or on the Drunk Knitter website.

And if you’re looking for more uses for those mini skeins, check out my post all about ways to use mini skeins from advent calendars or elsewhere. And if you are looking at rainbow knitting patterns because Pride is every day, check out my Pride knitting patterns and more general rainbow knitting patterns.

[Photo: The Drunk Knitter]

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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.