This Simple Knit Tray Will Have You Thinking Spring

I love having knit things in my home where I can use them all the time. It’s a reminder that what I do is useful, for one thing, but it also lets people know when they come to my home (if they didn’t already know) that making and using homemade things is important to me.

I don’t have any of the brilliantly colored Isaac Mizrahi yarn that Made by ChrissieD used for her Knitted Tray (alas, the nearest Michael’s is an hour away), but I think I may need one of these trays, anyway.

It uses exactly one skein of yarn (which is only 79 yards, so I’m sure I’ve got some super bulky in my stash that would work, and you probably do, too) and its worked in a square and for shallow rectangles for the sides, so it’s a super simple and quick knit, too.

Do use use knitting (or crochet, or sewing) to make baskets, trays or other storage vessels in your home? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo via Made by ChrissieD.]

Lots of craft designers are understandably frustrated about the proliferation of AI “designed” patterns and photos of projects that have no basis in reality. People who don’t know how to tell if a project is AI are often also frustrated when they see a picture for something but there’s no pattern because it’s not real, or they buy a pattern that doesn’t actually explain how to make the thing or ends up looking totally different from the picture.

Some designers have taken it upon themselves to try to make some of those AI patterns that we see online, often with hilarious results.

Katherine Foster was inspired by a famous AI elephant to make what she calls “AIlephant,” which is now a free knitting pattern on Ravelry.

Her prototype uses worsted weight yarn, but you can use whatever yarn you like to make different sizes of elephants.

The elephant features a cable running down the trunk and a different cable pattern on the back. It’s worked in pieces that are joined and stuffed as you go. It uses German short row shaping on the body and includes written instructions as well as a chart for the cable patterns.

Reading through the pattern, it sounds a little fiddly, which makes sense because it was designed to look like a pattern that isn’t real. But it’s doable, as evidenced by the handful of projects you can find on Ravelry. The ears on her version aren’t quite as big and round or maybe don’t sit in quite the same place as the AI version (which if you haven’t seen it there’s a photo of that on the projects page, too). But it’s a pretty honest replica of a dishonest photo, and a really cute elephant in its own right.

If you make this one I would love to hear about it!

You can grab the free pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Katherine Foster]

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