Free Knitting Patterns, Instructions, Projects & Designs.

There’s nothing like a good challenge to spice up life! I had a blast (in panicky sort of way) participating in Ravelry’s knitting mayhem otherwise known as Ravelympics 2010. Thousands of knitters make projects with the idea of casting on during the Olympics’ opening ceremony and being done by the closing ceremony. Knitters can choose different events to “compete” in – hats, afghans, sweaters or dozens of other categories.

I, of course, had to choose the Designer Biathlon. I love the biathlon events in the real Olympics, and I love to design. But here was the challenge -  to cast on, design a project, write the pattern for it, photograph it, have it tech edited, and then publish it during the allotted time. Whew!

Here’s the result!

I chose Cascade 220 as the yarn, since it comes in so many great colors. The braided cable cuff is made first. I include instructions for grafting stitches together in pattern. When the hat is complete, the cuff is folded up. The circumference is about 20″, which will fit most women.

You may download the pattern for free here:

I adored working on the Beaumont Tam. Here it is, all done:

This is  Jared Flood’s pattern from his delightful book Made in Brooklyn. Jared’s amazing eye for design made the fair isle a lot of fun to knit. As I went along I’d happily (ok, and somewhat enviously) marvel at his genius for design.

I used the Classic Elite yarn Fresco as called for in the pattern. I had only three colors available to choose from, so I ended up with the brown and yellow. The yarn’s lovely to work with – very soft. The slight fuzziness caused some consternation when my hubbie took the photographs – he thought his pictures were out of focus. (The poor guy – he’s valiant for making forays into the yarn world.)

Toward the end of November I found myself  home in California (finally!) long enough to take two classes from Jared Flood, also known in the knitting community as Brooklyn Tweed. Besides Thanksgiving, Jared was one of the reasons I came back from Ohio at all. (Don’t tell him that – he’ll think I’m stalking him or something.) Jared was hosted by the fabulous Santa Barbara yarn and tea shop called Loop & Leaf.

The first class I took included  colorwork instruction using the Beaumont Tam/Beanie as the project. This is a lovely stranded pattern from Jared’s book Made in Brooklyn. Using Classic Elite’s Fresco, it has a slightly fuzzy look thanks to the yarn’s bit-of-angora mix. All I can say is that I feel like “AudKnits, Home of the Wonky Stitches” every time I knit stranded patterns. Including my own. I have to have faith that blocking will work its usual magic on my tam. Despite this photo’s depiction, the hat pattern is gorgeous – you can check it out in the book or among the projects on Ravelry.

The second class was based on Jared’s pattern Girasole. Described as “A traditional lace shawl”, the pattern is stunning and can be made up as a blanket, rather than a shawl, by using worsted yarn. I’m trying it in Cascade Pastaza. Jared explained that the llama content in Pastaza will make this a heavy blanket. (Sounds just right for Ohio winters.)  I’m making it in a rust color I never would have chosen except for a certain friend who (correctly) chastised me for being so predictable in always going for greens and blues. So there.

The coolest technique I learned in the Girasole class was the circular center cast on for Girasole. That and the various ways to put a lifeline into the work.

This thing is going to be huge when it grows up! It looks square now just because it hasn’t graduated to circular needles yet. Do you think I should aim for the next World Series as a completion date? Knitting blankets while my husband watches baseball seems to be a tradition now.

As I knitted Jared Flood’s Koolhaas Hat I wanted to break out into all sorts of Discovery Channel-like descriptions…”A Marvel of Modern Engineering”… “Structural Design at its Best”…

One of my favorite things about making Koolhaas was getting to the top. As I arrived at the decreases that shape the top of the hat, it started to dawn on my how brilliant Jared’s design is.

If you’d like to read Jared’s fascinating post about how his Koolhaas design evolved, you can find it here.

Taking Jared Flood (brooklyntweed) ‘s workshop on his wonderful KoolHaas Hat pattern reminded me a little bit of summer camp. I remember as a kid being all excited about learning some new craft – making popsicle stick recipe holders or plastic lanyards.

Fast forward, er, a bunch of years. Here we were, eagerly sitting around tables with our materials in front of us – in the grownup version it was yarn and needles – being taught the basics of travelling stitches. Jared showed us how to work his cables without a cable needle. It’s awkward at first, and I think I untwisted some of the twisted stitches when I couldn’t hang onto them. But it’s much faster than having to use the cable needle for every twisted stitch all the way around the hat. Jared is a terrific teacher – he is enthusiastic and explains things well.

I’ve been busy doing some other projects, like the never-ending Make It Mitered Afgan. So here’s the Koolhaas Hat so far.

If you’re interested in seeing how to make cables without a cable needle, and you don’t happen to have Jared handy to show you (boo-hoo), you might like to check out Episode 15 of Let’s Knit2gether.