Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Planned Pooling in Knitting Projects

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Play with planned pooling in your knitting.Self-striping, self-patterning, speckled and otherwise colored yarns are really popular right now, and the interesting thing about some of these yarns is that they can look quite different depending on the size needles you use, the gauge you’re getting, how many stitches you work per row or round or whether you are working flat or in the round.

I generally think of pooling — where a particular color lines up on different rows, making a blotch or pool of the same color on the knit fabric — as a bad thing, but you can do really cool things with pooling if you are intentional about it.

Marly Bird has been doing a lot lately with planned pooling in crochet, but the same kind of thing works in knitting, too.

Crafty Crusader wrote a post a while back about using planned pooling in a hat project, which pointed me to the Planned Pooling website. This site allows you to plug in colors and note how many stitches are worked in each color as well as how many stitches are in a row and whether it’s worked flat or in the round.

This allows you to see what a knit up swatch or garment would look like, and you can play with the numbers to get different effects.

It’s actually really fun to play with and makes me want to try my own planned pooling project soon.

Have you ever played with planned pooling or had something unintentionally cool come up when you worked with a self-striping yarn? I’d love to hear about it.

[Photo: Crafty Crusader.]

Comments

  1. I have never done it, but think it is really cool, and I really like the picture you posted.

  2. I had a variegated teal cotton yarn from Hobby Lobby that I crocheted into a dishcloth using an extended single crochet stitch. It made an X on the dishcloth. I made 2 with that skein, which turned out the same. I couldn’t duplicate it later to save my life, but years later I found some planned pooling videos on youtube and yes, Marly Bird. I’ve not tried it with knitting yet, but would like to do that sometime, too.

Have you read?

Vintage Men’s Fatigue Cap Knitting Pattern – A Clever Beanie And Cowl In One

his vintage men’s fatigue cap knitting pattern is a clever tube-style design that can be worn as a classic beanie, watch cap, or snug neck cowl. A practical cold-weather knit with timeless military-inspired style.

There is something wonderfully no-nonsense about vintage men’s knitting patterns, isn’t there? No fussy extras, no over-complicated shaping, just practical pieces designed to be warm, useful, and worn to bits.

This Vintage Men’s Fatigue Cap Knitting Pattern is exactly that sort of project. It comes from the Jaeger Hand-Knit Series No. 44 and has that classic heritage look that still feels surprisingly modern today. The original pattern describes the finished piece as a knitted tube that can be worn as a cap, scarf, or used in other ways, which makes it a lovely little example of vintage practicality at its best.

The finished piece measures approximately 36 inches long and 8 inches wide, making it long enough to fold and style as a traditional fatigue cap or pull down around the neck as a snug cowl. If you have ever wished a beanie could double as a neck warmer on a bitter day, this is exactly the sort of clever old-fashioned design that makes you wonder why we stopped making things this way.

The construction is beautifully simple. The pattern is worked in stocking stitch using double-pointed needles, then finished into a tube. The original materials call for Jaeger “Super-Spun” fingering 3-ply yarn and No. 10 Jaeger double-pointed needles, so modern knitters will want to check gauge carefully if substituting yarn. A good fingering-weight wool or wool-blend would be ideal here, especially if you want that close-fitting, warm-but-not-bulky finish.

What I love most about this pattern is how wearable it is. Styled in navy, charcoal, olive, khaki, or grey, it has a very modern menswear feel. It would suit someone who likes classic winter accessories, military-inspired knitwear, heritage style, or just practical handmade pieces that actually get used. You could make it for a husband, dad, grandad, brother, son, or honestly anyone who appreciates a warm hat that does more than one job.

The PDF includes the cleaned-up knitting instructions along with the original vintage scan for reference. The listing images include modern digital mockups to show how the finished cap may look when knitted and styled, but this is a digital knitting pattern only, not a finished item.

This is not a complicated knit, but because it uses double-pointed needles and vintage-style instructions, I would suggest it for confident beginners or knitters who already have a little experience working in the round. If you are new to vintage patterns, this is a nice gentle one to try because the shaping is minimal and the finished result is genuinely useful.

If you are shopping for supplies, look for a smooth fingering-weight wool that will show off the simple stocking stitch neatly. Mary Maxim, Amazon, and other yarn suppliers usually have good options for fine wool and wool-blend yarns, and a set of double-pointed needles is one of those handy tools you will use again and again once you have them in your knitting bag.

This would make a brilliant handmade winter gift, especially for someone who is hard to make for. Men’s knitting patterns can sometimes feel a little thin on the ground, but this one hits that sweet spot between practical, classic, and just a little bit different.

You can find the Vintage Men’s Fatigue Cap Knitting Pattern PDF in the CraftGossip Etsy store.