Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

Textures Add Interest to Stripes in this Kimono-Inspired Garment

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Knitting projects — especially garments — often use just one or two stitch patterns, but sometimes it’s fun to use stitch patterns like stripes or even in conjunction with stripes, changing color and stitch pattern at the same time.

That’s what Mama in a Stitch did in her Monaco pattern, a kimono-inspired boxy cardigan that uses four colors and about half a dozen stitch patterns.

The effect is of a fun scrappy project (and you could totally do the same thing with odd balls from other projects) but one that is still unified by the harmonious colors.

Grab the pattern for free on her website or there’s a link there to the ad-free version you can buy.

[Photo: Mama in a Stitch.]

Looking for more knitting patterns for knitted Cardigans? Check out these Knitting patterns we found on Etsy.

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Make Your Knitting Machine Scarves Better

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

  • the simple cinching method mentioned above
  • sewing the stitches together
  • three needle bind off
  • grafting
  • crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!