Use French Knitting to Make Cute Knotted Coasters

Do you ever do spool knitting or French knitting? It’s a different way to make knit cord, much like an I-cord, but if you have a little crank-powered machine that will make the cord for you, it’s actually a lot faster than knitting it by hand (and spool knitting is a great project for little kids who might not be ready for needles, too).

But what to do with all those lengths of cord? My Poppet has a great idea in these knotted coasters.

The knot looks super complicated but she promises it’s not too bad once you get the hang of it. And the results are lovely and would make a great housewarming or hostess gift without a lot of fuss.

If you make knit cords with a French knitter or otherwise, I’d love to know what you do with them! This is one of the things I’m planning to do with my students this summer, but I’m not exactly sure how to use them.

[Photo via My Poppet.]

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Linen stitch is one of my favorite knitting stitch patterns that, every time I use it in a project, I think about how I don’t use it often enough.

It’s an easy stitch to make, with slip stitches done with the yarn held to the front of the work on the right/front side and to the back on the wrong/back side, which makes the strand of yarn a visible part of the pattern.

It also makes a fabric that is thick and looks kind of like a woven fabric.

I recently used linen stitch to make a double-thick pot holder, which I worked in a kind of interesting way. I didn’t want to have to do any sewing on the project, so I started it from a crochet cast on and picked up stitches from the side of the cast on to make the hot pad all in one piece in the round with the edge sealed.

This requires working on two circular needles, which is another technique I don’t use that often and am always reminded how much I like it when I do.

The combination of double thickness and the stitch pattern makes for a hot pad that’s already pretty thick, but I also added a bit of old towel to the inside before I closed up the end to make it super thick and extra protective for your surfaces.

I found the engineering challenge of this construction method to be a lot of fun, but you could also just knit it as a tube (casting on twice as many stitches as I did) and sew up the ends by hand when the knitting is done. Either way you’ve got a useful and pretty addition to your kitchen, whether you work it in a solid color, stripes or as a stash busting project will all your cotton odd balls.

You can grab the pattern over at Our Daily Craft, or check it out on Ravelry.

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