Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Tips for Knitting with Linen Yarn

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I’m sure I’ve knit with linen yarn before, but I can’t think of any projects I’ve made with it. I think I made a market bag once with a linen blend, and I have enough linen in my stash to knit a top, I just haven’t done it yet.

As an aside, if you’re wondering what linen is, it’s a natural fiber produced from flax. It’s a very labor intensive process, but it makes yarn that is strong, lightweight, durable and machine washable. It’s a great fiber to use and wear in the summer, whether you’re knitting garments with it or sewing or buying garments made from linen fabric.

There is a bit of a learning curve to working with linen yarn, though. It can be slippery and easily get tangled on itself. These tips for knitting with linen yarn from Jessica McDonald Designs are a great place to start if you’re contemplating your first linen knitting project.

The advice to not work from a center-pull ball is actually really great and not something I would have thought of as potentially causing a problem. But all her tips are great so click over there and check it out.

Her post shares a couple of her designs that are worked in linen yarn, but if you’re looking for more ideas, here are a few patterns I’ve shared recently that use linen or a linen blend yarn:

I don’t know that I’m going to get to knitting with my linen yarn this summer, but it’s definitely on my list to work with soon, and with these tips I’ll be all set for success with a lot less frustration.

Have you ever worked with linen yarn? I’d love to hear your tips.

[Photo: Jessica McDonald Designs]

Have you read?

A Shawlette with a Ton of Design Options

There’s a lot to like about the Eloise Bandana from Katryn Seeburger. This cute little colorwork triangle can be worked as a bandana or kerchief size or a bigger shawlette. 

It’s worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn so you can use whatever yarn you have in your stash and just make it as big as you can (since it is worked from the bottom up). 

You can see the two sizes from the photo, and also two colorwork options: strawberries and lily of the valley. 

But that’s not all the choices you have. In fact, there are 34 different charts you can choose from to knit onto your project. Some of the options include happy faces, a lobster, a pumpkin, a snail and a butterfly. There are cherries, peaches, tomatoes and radishes.

There’s even a blank square you can use to draw your own little design if you want to use something else. Or keep it blank and make it a plain checkerboard design. 

And while both of these shawls use the same icons throughout, you could also use different designs throughout if you want. Say a fall version with a bat, pumpkin, leaf and acorn, or a summer beach theme with sailboat, fish, lobster and a bird? I keep suggesting four different icons because the larger size has four rows of squares, but the smaller has three, so you could do stripes of the same icon or alternate a couple of different ones, whatever you like. 

Look through the finished projects on the Ravelry project page to see lots of different options, from rows to individual icons. There are also some projects that are smaller than the suggested size to make a smaller bandana. You could also keep going a make a bigger shawl working increases in the same way as you have been going. 

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Katryn Seeburger]