Holi is not really a holiday that you hear much about in the United States. It’s a traditionally Hindu holiday that usually falls in March and marks the beginning of spring, as well as reminding people that good triumphs over evil.
The reason this holiday should resonate with knitters is that it is also known as the festival of colors, and one of the traditions of Holi is to throw colored powder (called gulal) or colored water on people. I’m not entirely sure why, but it’s a great reason to break out colorful yarn and fun knitting projects that use a lot of colors.
For instance, the Holi Mitts from Jaya Srikrishnan, which are found in the book Color Style. It’s a super cute slip stitch pattern that actually makes using that many colors pretty easy.
Amanda Jones had a gorgeous cardigan pattern called Holi in The Knitter magazine back in 2011. Even without the pattern to go by, this is a really inspirational project.
Dagmar Reinschmidt has a great set of patterns called Holimoli, which includes a few hat variations, mitts and a cowl. The fingerless gloves are available for free, while the others can be purchased individually or as a set.
Charles Gandy has a pair of colorful socks called Holy Moly that have intentionally made holes in them (but in a really cool way) that I think would also be appropriate for Holi. Or just pull out your brightest sock yarn and make yourself a simple pair of Holi socks.
I also wanted to note that Madeline Tosh makes a colorway called Holi Festival, which is white with colorful flecks, as if it had been hit with gulal. You can check out all the projects that have been made with it on Ravelry for more colorful inspiration. I actually have a skein of this yarn and am now thinking hard about making a Honey Cowl with it because these look so pretty. What would you make with this colorful yarn?
Looking for more knitting patterns for knitted Cardigans? Check out these Knitting patterns we found on Etsy.
Specific to knitters, you can join our Knitting Patterns Only group to get, well, knitting patterns, ask questions and gain inspiration for what to knit next.
Looking for Yarn online? Check out Lionbrand our preferred source for purchasing yarn online.
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.