Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Projects to Knit for Your Mental Health

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We missed sharing these projects in May, which was Mental Health Awareness Month, but any time is a great time to think about the health benefits of knitting, which include stress relief and a way to feel in control of something.

The Breathe for Four patterns by Molly Conroy give you a chance to choose your own knitting adventure on projects that are meant to be mindful. You can make it as a scarf, cowl or shawl, using any weight of yarn you like to make them any size you want.

The stitch pattern includes a breathing pattern (thus the name): knit 4, slip 4, purl 4 aligns with inhale for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4. (Add another hold at the end and you’re box breathing, which is great for stress relief as well as improving concentration.)

Because this style of breathing requires focus and is a little different from normal breathing, the designer recommends starting with just five minutes at a time of knitting and breathing together. As you practice more you can do it for longer periods, but make sure you’re really paying attention to your breath and connecting it to the stitch pattern as you go.

Yes, you could just knit these projects and breathe normally, but it’s a fun experiment to try to make your knitting as mindful as it can possibly be. If you try it I want to know how it goes for you!

As shown the projects were worked with DK weight yarn, but you can use whatever you have on hand and adjust the stitch counts as needed to make it work for the size you want to make. Choose a really nice yarn you’ve been saving up for something special, because knitting while you breathe is going to make this project take a long time to finish!

You can get the patterns for free on Ravelry, or if you’d rather you can download them from Hands On Knitting Center’s website.

[Photo: Molly Conroy]

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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.