Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

This Fun Book of Knit Accessories Could be Yours

by

Boutique knitsBoutique Knits is a fun little book with more than 20 knit accessories with a high-fashion flair. Because who doesn’t want to show off their knitting skills on hats, shawls, mitts and other projects that everyone will notice no matter what else you’re wearing?

These projects have an eye for detail, and even the most basic patterns have fun additions, like that cloche on the cover with its sideswept brim like a flapper’s hair. There are buttons, beads, ruffles and lots of texture knitting in these projects, adding lots of interest for knitting and for wearing. Check out all the patterns on Ravelry.

If you’d like a chance to win this book, leave a comment on this post before the end of the day Sunday, May 7. I’d love to know if you have a favorite way to embellish your knitting. Mine is probably stripes, but I love a good picot edging, too.

Thanks for visiting, commenting and sharing, and good luck.

Comments

  7. There are so many beautiful hats in the book. I would love to do them all!. I like to embellish adding little beads or a last row in a different colour.

  9. I love to add beads anywhere I can, and I think a Picot edge adds a bit of interest to a hem!

  10. I love to add beads or found objects that have holes. I also like a little design pattern like a row of ducks. Everything looks better with fringe

  11. What a great giveaway. I love to embroider flowers and leaves on my knits, or little lambs on baby items. I also added crocheted vertical stripes one time.

  12. Ive a wonderful new daughter-in-law who taught herself to knit and does remarkable work. Would love to give her this gem .

  13. The patterns are beautiful!! I would love this book, so I could knit them all!! 🙂

  14. I’m fairly new to knitting, but I’m so excited to try different patterns.

  15. I love lace and try to embellish my items with lace patterns. I would love the chance to win this book.

  21. I’m often surprised to see how a single button can show off the beauty of knit projects, so simple and such a difference! Although the items in this book seem to fashiony for buttons… OH, how I love the cloches! 😀

  22. I love adding cable or lace details to patterns, but would love to try some beading. Thanks for this great giveaway!

  23. I like to add beads to some of my knitting, but mostly just follow the pattern

  24. I like a crocheted decorative edge. I like that felted collar in the book, and the diamond print shrug. Unique. 🙂

  26. I love to embellish my knits. The devil is in the details. I will add knitted flowers to hats, offset beads, add tassels and fringes. Just about anything I need to add that final touch that makes it mine. The options are endless.

  32. I like interesting edgings, too, or a little flower on the side of a hat.

  33. I’ve been known to add a little flower-loom flower, but I’ve gotten a lot of buttons (cats) that I think would be fun on that hat. chime while you walk!

  36. I’m lucky to remember to make my edges neat! Lol. But I do love adding beads or maybe a row or two of eyelets if possible.

  39. I like to explore a pattern and make it my own, therefore I may work it several times before satisfied. Embellishment for me is experimenting with the delightful colours and textures of the yarns to decide which ones suit the patterns.

Have you read?

Knit a Leopard Print Shawl and Learn about Yarn Substitution

When I was looking around for free knitting patterns to share recently, I came across this fun leopard print wrap from Yarnspirations. 

This fun bulky wrap gives you tons of practice with instarsia and makes a bold statement while keeping you warm. It’s rated for intermediate knitters and the design is charted but pretty easy to follow. And it’s only 50 rows and worked in bulky yarn, so it wouldn’t even take that long to knit. (You can grab the free pattern from Yarnspirations.)

So what’s the problem? The yarn that the pattern calls for has been discontinued, and it’s not a yarn that a substitute for immediately springs to mind. 

The original yarn was Patons Alpaca Blend, a single ply bulky yarn that was a combination of acrylic, superwash wool, nylon and alpaca. 

My first thought was Lion Brand Hue + Me, which is an acrylic and wool blend, with two plies instead of a single. It looks like it has the colors you would need to make this fun shawl. 

But as I was thinking about it, I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce you to YarnSub if you don’t already know about it. This website is a giant database of yarn that can consider the qualities of the yarn you want to substitute and offer potential substitutions. 

It’s not only thinking about yarn weight, like I was, but also fiber content, number of plies, gauge and even the difference in yardage between one ball and another. It even looks at the price and can be filtered by your price range or preferences about fiber content (if, say, you’re sensitive or allergic to wool, for example, or don’t want to you acrylic). 

When I plugged in Alpaca Blend, it gave me a lot of different options, though many of them were self-striping or multicolored, which wouldn’t work for this project, and I don’t see a way to filter for solid colors only. 

Still, it’s a good tool to give you some ideas you might not know about or might have forgotten about, and it tells you how the new yarn is similar to the old one and how it differs, allowing you to make smarter choices when substituting yarns. 

[Photo: Yarnspirations]