Free Knitting Patterns, Instructions, Projects & Designs.

By now, knitters all over the ‘net have showed off their clever uses of Hannah Fettig’s darling Heart Pin. Here’s how I used one I made last night. This is on a package for Mary (of Mary’s Garden Sock renown). Happy Birthday, dear friend!

 I attached the heart to the ribbon by making a little loop on the back. I picked up two stitches on the back, knitted a couple of rows, then knitted them together with stitches a couple of rows up. Then I passed the present’s ribbon through the loop I had made.

If you like the Heart Pin, you might also enjoy Hannah’s book Closely Knit. Our LYS guru Alana arranged for Hannah to spend an afternoon at the shop. We got to see the projects from her book in person. They include all kinds of fun techniques that I can’t wait to try.

For a glimpse into the life of a Real Designer, check out Alana’s NeverNotKnitting podcast, Episode 4. In the interview, Hannah describes how she ended up writing her book and what it was like to create over 30 patterns and their projects all in about a year’s time. Amazing! All I can say is, the world doesn’t produce enough coffee for me to even consider such ambition.

Just (barely) in time for Christmas knitting, I have finished designing the Christmas Smock Top Socks. This is what the Mystery Sock decided it wanted to become. I love the way the smocking stitch lends a quilted, cozy look to the sock’s cuff. It took some trail and error to come up with the right number of stitches and rows to form an appealing look once the cuff is stretched out over the leg. I’m happy with how the proportions turned out.

I chose Regia 4-ply sock yarn for its crisp stitch definition. In the pattern I call for 9 sts per inch rather than the 7.5 sts on the ball band. I just hate walking around on too-loose knitting. It feels like some kind of couture torture involving twine! At 9 sts per inch, the Regia make a smooth, kind-to-the-feet fabric.

The sock is knitted from the cuff down. An important design consideration was that the cuff must be knit flat so the smocking’s horizonal bars meet up properly. Trying to knit the cuff in the round wouldn’t work because the rounds are really spirals. The “rows” would never match up.

Once the cuff is completed, the yarn is joined and the rest of the sock is knitted in the round. I hid some ribbing under the cuff to make sure the sock stays up through all the Christmas day festivities.

If you like the way Christmas Smock Top Socks truned out, you may want to check out the Pattern Store.

…and red. I just love Christmas, which may explain the Mystery Sock’s morphing into a holiday design. Jimmy the Vicious Attack Cat doesn’t care about seasonal matters. He’s just glad to have a project to curl up near.

So I’m working on a new sock pattern. For now I’m just calling it the Mystery Sock, since it’s a mystery to me why I can’t get the design written faster.

I’m using Regia 4-Ply. I am SUCH a stickler for sock soles, I always end up knitting on a smaller needle than called for to get a tighter fabric. There’s nothing worse than taking the time to knit a sock, then have it feel like you’re walking around on twine when you wear it. 

The ball band for Regia 4-ply indicates 7.5 st per inch. But even at 8 st the weave seemed too loose for me. So I stuck a stitch marker in my work, reduced the needle size, and got 9 st per inch. You can see that the stitches to the right of the marker have that “stringy” look, while the fabric to the left looks nice and smooth, like something your feet will appreciate.

Knitters should be able to obtain this gauge on #1 needles. As I work through the design process, I hope that when people knit up my patterns their feet will be glad for the tighter gauge I suggest.

This is where it all started. I suppose I could have put an end to it at the first hint that I was going to get obsessed. Again. But I ignored that inner voice which cried “Stop while you can!”

Three skeins of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock yarn. That’s all it took. (Plus a visit from my friend Mary, who has so much creativity that apparently she left some behind for me when she went back to Ohio.)

I didn’t mean to design a sock. I certainly didn’t mean to design anything in fair isle. But the shmooey yarn with bright spring colors drew me in and demanded I grab some needles. A design snuck into my mind as if it were a gremlin….  

With the help of the Stitch & Motif Maker software, here’s how the swatching process evolved for Mary’s Garden Socks.

A lot of trail and error, ripping out, starting over, and here is the final product:

 At a later date I’ll post more on the Stitch & Motif Maker, but you can imagine how helpful it is to be able to plan this sort of design out on a just-the-right-proportion grid.

If you like this sock you can find it my Original Designs in my Pattern Store. I find knitting it to be a nice dose of fair isle fun, and I hope you do to!

I’m on the home stretch of my Make It Mitered Afghan (from Creative Knitting, November 2007). This is the project I like to work on while keeping my husband company during baseball season. I serenely knit while he yells at the television. 

If this picture makes the project look interminable, that’s because it is. I started it in December 2007. I’m pretty sure I’ll have it done by the end of the World Series, possibly even the one this year.

Progress is slow, just like baseball. I’m starting to add the crochet edge. I tried to avoid doing this, since my crochet skills are about as good as my lunar landing skills. But the afghan really benefits from an edge, even a squirrely one.

If you decide to make this afghan, my best advice is to weave in the ends as you go. Each square produces two tails. That’s a LOT of weaving in! For me, the tails went much faster after my knitting buddy Sally taught me how to knit in the tails as went. There’s a nice YouTube video of this technique here.

Truthfully, I’ve enjoyed the heck out of this project. I love the Plymouth Boku yarn colors.  It’s easy to learn how to make the squares, so it’s perfect for mindless knitting. I can even pretend to listen when my husband tries to explain double plays and change-ups. And he pretends to listen while I talk about central double decreases.