Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Make a Sweater to Dupe a Fashion Brand

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Free People is known for its casual, boho look, and sometimes spendy styles that cause knitters and crocheters to say “I can make that!”

Amanda Solomon was inspired by the fashions of Free People to design her Dupe Sweater, which looks like something they would carry. (I cannot confirm it’s a direct dupe but it looks like several things on their website.) The pattern is meant to embrace the effortless style Free People is known for while providing knitters with an effortless, meditative knit.

Her version is made with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together for a marled look. It’s worked in the round from the top down and has deep drop shoulders that go almost down to the elbow, and an oversized fit for a casual and comfy look. The sleeves look to be about three-quarter length, but you could make them longer if you want.

It has a faux seam up the center front of the sweater, and it looks like there might be seams on the sleeves as well (I’d guess there’s probably also one on the back but no photos show the back).

The pattern is available in nine sizes, but the pattern information on Ravelry doesn’t give the measurements, it only says that the pattern fits from XS to 5XL. If any of you happen to have a copy or buy a copy of this pattern and want to let me know the chest measurements, I’d love to add them to this post.

If you don’t have a bunch of fingering weight yarn sitting around to make this sweater with, you could also work with a single strand of DK weight. Or mix and match a bunch of leftover yarn with a single solid color held together for a cool marled effect.

You can grab your copy of this pattern from Ravelry.

[Photo: Amanda Solomon]

A Perfect Sweater to Knit if You’re New to Knitting Sweaters

 

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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.