Review: Tweed Yarn Knitting

There’s just something about tweed yarn. The shifting colors are always a surprise on the needles, and the texture of the yarn is great for accessories and garments.

Tweed Yarn Knitting: Over 50 Sumptuous Woolen Projects from Landlust magazine (based in Germany) is a celebration of these fun yarns and includes a ton of projects that would be really great for gift knitting.

The book includes 52 patterns for hats, scarves, cuffs, sweaters, vests, dresses, skirts and home accessories, all made with Irish tweed yarn. Each chapter begins with large pictures of the projects followed by the patterns, which makes it fun to browse for the patterns that catch your eye.

There are so many cute projects here, including headbands, hair ties, wrist warmers and boot cuffs that would be perfect little stocking stuffers. I also love the Jacquard Corset (pictured at top left on the cover) and the father and son Fair Isle pullovers, a sweater for dad and a vest for the little one. There are fantastic, colorful dresses for little girls, and a tunic dress with pockets for women. There’s also a nice range of pillows and bags.

The only problem I see is that there aren’t a lot of sizes for the patterns. The kid’s patterns, for instance, only have one size for each, while the women’s dress comes in two sizes and the men’s sweater in three. A few patterns have three or four sizes, but you need to check carefully before you get your heart set on a pattern, or be willing and able to alter the designs to fit you or their intended recipient.

Still, this is a really fun collection and there are a lot of great patterns that don’t rely on sizing. This book will keep you in fun knits to gift for a long time, and you’re sure to find some things you want to knit for yourself as well.

About the book: 128 pages, paperback with interior flaps, 50 patterns (no skill levels are given, but most are good for advanced beginner to intermediate knitters). Published by Trafalgar Square Books, June 2016. Retail price $23.95.

Looking for more Knitted Headband Patterns? Check these patterns out on Etsy. Headbands are a great gift idea as they knit up fast and are well received by friends and family. Everyone loves wearing Knit headbands right?

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

Have you read?