Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Take Your Scrap Yarn on a Voyage

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If all the writing I’ve been doing over the past few months about using your yarn stash and odd balls hasn’t yet inspired you to take on a stash-busting project, maybe this set of patterns will do it.

I love Wool & Pine Designs because many of their designs are really thoughtful in the way they use stash to make something that doesn’t look like a scrap yarn project.

And so it is with the Voyage set. These coordinating patterns for a cardigan, hat and mittens feature bold bands of colorwork such that each section can be two different colors, or you can go through a rotation through the project if you have more of some colors that you want to use.

To take the patterns one at a time, the cardigan is worked from the bottom up, mostly in the round, using steeks for the center front and sleeves. The sleeves are worked seamlessly from the top down using short row shaping, and are shown in the same color as the edging of the sweater. It has 10 sizes, with chest measurements from 30 to 66 inches (76 to 168 cm) and is meant to be worn with no to 4 inches/10 cm positive ease.

The mittens and hat use the same kind of stitch patterns, and you’ll probably want to make sure you have enough yarn to make your mittens match. Or not, if that’s more your style. The mittens are sized for small, medium and large adults, while the hat comes in sizes from newborn through adult large (eight sizes in all). That’s plenty to go through all your leftover sock yarn, mini skeins, skeins that will never really become socks, and then some!

All of the patterns are available on Ravelry as follows: cardigan | mittens | hat. If you order all three at the same time you’ll get a 20 percent discount.

[Photo: Wool & Pine Designs]

Have you read?

Pencil Knitting Patterns

Getting ready for back to school makes me think about pencil crafts, so let’s take a look at some pencil themed knitting patterns! 

I recently made a pencil on a circular knitting machine, and it was a fun, quick, easy project that uses little bits of leftover yarn (and if you don’t have yellow you can make it a colored pencil using whatever color’s your favorite). And if you want to make a bigger version check out this pattern from Orange Olive Road on Etsy.

If you want to knit a pencil pillow by hand, check out Sketchy, available on Ravelry from Shana S. Cohen. This one uses worsted weight yarn and has two size options and the choice to make a pencil with an eraser or a colored pencil. 

Pencil scarves seem to be the most popular kind of pencil knitting pattern, and there are lot of cute ones. This one from Cosy Craft UK mostly uses garter stitch, with some welts to add texture and what looks like an I-cord edging. It calls for DK weight yarn. 

If you want to go all garter stitch try this version from Emsley Co Creations, which uses five colors of DK weight yarn and just a little shaping to make the point of the pencil.

There’s also this fun, mostly stockinette so it looks like it curls a bit, pencil pattern that looks like it’s worked in chunky yarn from Little Knits Studio. This one uses just a little garter stitch and easy shaping for the point. 

If you don’t want a pencil scarf, how about some pencil socks? The No. 2 Pencil Socks from The Yarn Enabler are available from Ravelry and use five colors of sock yarn. They feature wide ribs to mimic the texture of a pencil and have options to be worked from the top down or the toe up. 

Needs Sharpening by Alexander Walker is a free pattern on Ravelry that uses five colors of sock yarn to make a sort of shortie sock. The little bit of black at the tips of the toes inspired the name. These, too, can be worked in either direction and are available in three sizes.