Knitter Stitching a Line to the Sea

Bellingham knitter and artist Christen Mattix says the idea to knit a stream to the sea came to her years ago and she toyed with it for a couple of years before it began to form in reality. She would sit on a bench with a view of the sea six blocks away, and since 2012 she’s been sitting on that same bench daily for at least an hour during her knitting season, which runs from May through November.

The strand runs across a street, so it’s length is hard to judge because it gets stretched and twisted by passing cars. It’s worked in a dark blue acrylic yarn that stands up to the wear and tear and is just the same color as the sea on its best days, Mattix says.

She says the project has brought her out of her shell because she talks to people about it as they see her knitting. It has also taught her patience and the fact that things take the amount of time they take. She says she’d like to make it all the way to the sea in another season, but it’s as much about the “process and poetry of it” as anything else.

What do you think about this project? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo via Whatcom Talk.]

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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