Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Knitting Patterns with Colorwork Shamrocks

by

Last year I did a roundup of shamrock knitting patterns that featured that symbol of St. Patrick’s Day on small accessories like hats, ties and cowls. I found some new patterns this year that aren’t on that list so I thought I’d share a few more mostly quick shamrock knitting patterns, mostly for wearables if you need something green to add to your wardrobe. 

I say mostly wearables because I couldn’t resist including this double knit shamrock and argyle pot holder knitting pattern. It’s maybe not a good project if you’re completely new to double knitting, but if you’ve done a project or two and are comfortable with the concept, this would be a fun one. It uses worsted weight cotton yarn and was designed by Jeannette Murphy. You can get a copy on Ravelry.

I found a great pattern for shamrock socks, which I would definitely wear all year long. Jennifer Beaulieu’s Shamrockin’ Socks show the shamrocks worked in different colors, which I love, but you could stick to a single color if you want. The idea is to use scraps and minis to make the shamrocks, which you should know by now is an idea I heartily approve of. But if you happen to have a skein of green yarn you want to use, that’s fine, too. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

A lot of places it’s still cold in March, so a shamrock hat is a good idea. Soft n Warm Creations on Etsy has a cute two-color shamrock hat sized for babies, toddlers kids and adults. It uses worsted weight yarn in two colors.

If you want a quicker knit, try the super bulky Shamrock Chic Hat from Kozy Kweens Handmade, also on Etsy. Since the yarn and the design are larger this should be a pretty easy one for knitters of all stranded knitting skill levels. (The pattern is charted.)

Or check out the Lucky Charm hat from Rosie Posie Knit Co. This one has smaller motifs so it will take a little more time to knit but the result is super cute. It’s sized for babies, toddlers, bigger kids and adults, and it uses two colors of worsted weight yarn.

Comments

Have you read?

Knit a Leopard Print Shawl and Learn about Yarn Substitution

When I was looking around for free knitting patterns to share recently, I came across this fun leopard print wrap from Yarnspirations. 

This fun bulky wrap gives you tons of practice with instarsia and makes a bold statement while keeping you warm. It’s rated for intermediate knitters and the design is charted but pretty easy to follow. And it’s only 50 rows and worked in bulky yarn, so it wouldn’t even take that long to knit. (You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.)

So what’s the problem? The yarn that the pattern calls for has been discontinued, and it’s not a yarn that a substitute for immediately springs to mind. 

The original yarn was Patons Alpaca Blend, a single ply bulky yarn that was a combination of acrylic, superwash wool, nylon and alpaca. 

My first thought was Lion Brand Hue + Me, which is an acrylic and wool blend, with two plies instead of a single. It looks like it has the colors you would need to make this fun shawl. 

But as I was thinking about it, I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to YarnSub if you don’t already know about it. This website is a giant database of yarn that can consider the qualities of the yarn you want to substitute and offer potential substitutions. 

It’s not only thinking about yarn weight, like I was, but also fiber content, number of plies, gauge and even the difference in yardage between one ball and another. It even looks at the price and can be filtered by your price range or preferences about fiber content (if, say, you’re sensitive or allergic to wool, for example, or don’t want to you acrylic). 

When I plugged in Alpaca Blend, it gave me a lot of different options, though many of them were self-striping or multicolored, which wouldn’t work for this project, and I don’t see a way to filter for solid colors only. 

Still, it’s a good tool to give you some ideas you might not know about or might have forgotten about, and it tells you how the new yarn is similar to the old one and how it differs, allowing you to make smarter choices when substituting yarns. 

[Photo: Yarnspirations]