Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

Quick Knit: Boot Toppers

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boot cuffsIf you’re still looking for something to stitch up for someone for the holidays or a little treat for yourself now that all your holiday knitting is done, why not whip up some cute boot toppers?

These are little almost like legwarmers that are just a few inches long and are usually meant to go under your boot and mostly show above the top of your boot. The idea is that it’s a little more comfortable to have just this bit of bulkier material at the top of the boot rather than wearing a big bulky sock that might get bunched up in your boot.

The Sweater Babe is offering a cute pattern for cabled boot cuffs that take a single ball of yarn; the pattern PDF retails for $3.

If you want to go the free route there are several options on Ravelry. Some of my favorites include Rebekah’s Boot Cuffs, which have an easy twisted stitch pattern and the super simple Boot Cuff from Lewis Knits.

Looking for more Boot Cuff knitting patterns? Check these out on Etsy as well as this Knitted Boot Cuff Pattern book on Amazon.

Have you ever knit or worn boot toppers? I’d love to hear about your experience. I’m thinking of making myself some really soon…

[Photo via the Sweater Babe.]

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Knit a Hat with a Flock of Chickens

It’s well known (among knitters, anyway) that knitters seem to love chickens as a motif and a subject of our knitting projects. The Emotional Support Chicken and all the other chicken knitting patterns are just the beginning of our devotion to farmyard friends. 

For example, there’s Farmer Dennis’ Chicken Hat. This free pattern from Stacy Black is a simple worsted weight beanie sized for adults and decorate with a couple of little rounds of colorwork fences and a flock of chickens strutting around the body of the hat. 

You don’t need a lot of any of the colors for the chickens, their facial features or the fences, so this is a great project for using little leftover bits from other projects. The main color for the body of the hat is less than a skein using the yarn suggested, so you might just have everything you need in your house to start stitching up this hat right away. 

The colorwork is presented as a chart, with a 16 stitch section that repeats around the body of the hat. All the color changes are shown on the chart but I think it would be easier to knit the whole chicken in the chicken color and add the eye, beak and other features using duplicate stitch when the knitting is done. That way you don’t have to carry those yarns around the whole hat for just a few stitches. 

As the name suggests, the original hat was given to a farmer who shared their eggs, but anyone who raises chickens or just has a thing for the fowl is sure to love this cute hat. It wouldn’t be too difficult for someone new to stranded knitting or reading charts to make, either, so if that’s you, give it a try. 

The pattern is available for free on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Stacy Black]

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