Quick Knitting Throws and Afghans

It may not quite be the season for snuggling up under a big blanket in the Northern Hemisphere, but let’s be honest, it’s going to be air conditioning season soon and then you’ll need blankets all over again.

Leisure Arts recently released two little booklets that will help you knit afghans and throws (is there really a difference?) in a jiffy.

Quick Throws to Knit by Rena V. Stevens has four patterns, one for each season. They’re all sampler projects, worked in panels or strips in different colors and types of yarn and in different stitch patterns. This would be a great book to work from if you have a large stash of yarn in similar colors that you’re looking to knit up into one fantastic project.

Rita Weiss’ Make in a Weekend Afghans to Knit has 10 projects, including baby blankets and larger designs for the whole family. They all use the same stitch pattern all over, though some include stripes or are worked in panels of different colors to make it a little more interesting. They’re mostly easy patterns worked on bigger needles so they go pretty quickly.

Either of these books would offer good inspiration if you are ready for a quick and easy stash-busting project or you need to make a blanket for a gift.

Don’t forget to join our Exclusive Knitting Group on Facebook. With over 25 Vintage knitting patterns available to download immediately. Subscription to this group is the cost of a single vintage pattern.

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Looking for more Baby Knitting patterns? Check these out on Etsy.

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I can’t resist a pattern that’s both useful and a little silly, and that’s exactly how I feel about the Rybka pouch pattern from the delightfully named Rat and Sea Witch.

I know you’re going to ask, because I did, too. Rybka means little fish in Polish. (And because you’re also probably going to ask, Rat and Sea Witch comes from people’s attempts to say the designer’s name, Ratasiewicz, which if you say it fast kind of sounds like rat and sea witch.)

It’s easy to make a little fish bag in different sizes to suit your needs. The pattern has specific instructions for an Airpods Pro case and a pencil case, but you could change the length easily to hold more stuff, and change the size in general by working with a different weight of yarn.

The pattern calls for sock yarn and mohair held together to make a fingering weight gauge, but you could try it with heavier yarn and see what size bag you end up with.

Whatever size you make it, this looks like a fun project for holding trinkets or everyday items. The mouth of the fish is the mouth of the bag, and it closes with a drawstring that is also the strap. I wonder, too, if you could make one of these with a small clasp frame that could be the fish’s mouth and then you could just work I cord straps that would attach to the sides of the fish.

I could also see stripes, or fish of different colors to use up your yarn leftovers. How about a sunglasses case with a little loop to attach to your bag? Once you start thinking about all the ways you could use a fish-shaped bag in your life, I think you’ll see that you probably need more than one.

If you make one of these I would love to know how it went!

You can grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Rat and Sea Witch]

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