Knitting Dragonflies

I have a girlfriend whose Mom crochets this pattern. She has so many and loves them. I made a few and they quickly became a favorite! These are great to make for gifts! Pattern is fast and fun. I use any cotton yarn, even scraps. Due to diagonal nature of the pattern and the double thickness of the hot pads they lend themselves nicely to color changes. These hot pads are very effective and almost indestructible. Hot pad pattern link Thanks mielkesfiberarts.com !! The pattern calls to chain 26, but I have made all different sizes! Smallest = chain 15, Largest = chain 45. The size I found was most useful was chain 36 for a larger potholder. Experiment!

I’m trying to get more adventurous with my knitting, well maybe that is not the word I’m looking for, although I need to be adventurous also. More fearless, I think. I hold myself back and wasn’t sure why, until I read a post (I’ll link it if I can find it here), about creativity and perfectionism. The fear of not finding the “right” pattern or it not turning out “good” keeps me from starting or finishing projects. I’ve tried to embrace the “it’s only yarn” mantra. This sounds silly but has helped me to finally bust out of a creative slump. The fear of not performing up to my expectations. Jodi gives the sweater a tail wag! Check out all of the lovely versions of this and get your own creativity going…. In that celebration of going all in and creating something, I cast on a very simple sweater, knitting flat in garter stitch. Although it looks super plain, that is the beauty of it. Oversized and cozy, it has immediate appeal. Scrolling through the Ravelry lineup of those that had

I had some acrylic yarn in my stash and had been knitting on a sweater, as a fast break I decided to make a sun hat. I found some video tutorials from BobWilson123, ( YouTube link ). If you are not familiar with her, she makes a lot of video tutorials on YouTube on crochet projects. She also has them written out in PDF on her website (link ) I believe all of her patterns are free, as of this writing. Her videos are excellent and I found her when I was trying to understand a crochet stitch pattern. I would highly recommend checking her out! The pattern I choose was her Mesh Sun Hat (link ). If you look at the people that have made it, there is one who used less increases than called for in the pattern to get a flatter brim. One increase every 4th Stitch instead of what is called for. I liked the look of this, and went with her suggestion. This pattern was very easy, and I’m not an advanced in my crochet.  Also I completed it in 2 hours. The  videos goes through the entire process of ma

It is getting hot and muggy outside. I’ve been working in the yard a lot and enjoying spring. Now it is heating up and I’m doing more knitting inside. Going through some of my stash I found some  hand dyed yarn (my own, I’ll link here the blog post about it). I’ve been trying to knit my stash down so the search for a pattern started. After spending quite a bit of time on Ravelry and Pinterest looking at.options, and finding lots of patterns I would like to make. I started a sweater then frogged it and finally settled on this simple over sized pattern. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mammas-hjemmestrikkede-genser-skappelgenseren Written by Dorthe Skappel it is the Mammas hjemmestrikkede genser. It is a super easy garter stitch oversized sweater. Taking a look at all of the knitters that had completed it (almost 900 when I looked at it) I saw that it flattered a wide selection of body shapes and ages. From toddlers and up. I feel in love and cast on. It went so well I dec

Asymmetric shawl/scarfs/wraps! Wow, all of the sudden they are everywhere. I have knit a couple and now understand the attraction. I love the added interest of the shape. A little quirky and different. Love the way the yarn, if it is self striping, patterned or hand painted, looks. The horizontal stripes will lay in a diagonal manner when you put it on. I think it is also easier to wear, the smaller end can be tucked in and make your scarf secure. This pattern is a free one from Peggy Maxheim, it is the Arlequin shawl (Pattern link ). I made my first one (link here ) extra large. I liked the way I could wrap up in it, all cozy. The small end helped everything stay where I wanted it to be. This one I wanted to be smaller, more scarf rather than blanket/wrap . (This pattern is very easy and suitable for a beginning knitter). A rather mindless knit, good for Netflix or movie watching. Or even ball games, sporting events and car knitting. I like that it has a little interest with th

This is one of my long term projects that I just wanted to get off my needles. When these types of patterns started showing up I was interested in making one. It looked simple and fast and cozy. What more do you want? Described as a wrap, shrug, bolero, and even sweater, it is just a large rectangle, either crochet or in this case knitted. When the rectangle is large enough. Just fold it in two, sewing the sides together. . Easy concept. I picked out a free pattern, The Lion Brand, Speckled Shrug ( free pattern here ) I always like to look at the finished projects on Ravelry and read the comments everyone has made that knitted the item.  Seems like knitters were split into two camps. The make it smaller and more fitted and Bolero jacket like. The other group was to make it bigger. I noticed that the problem with this shape of this pattern is a baggy bottom after sitting. (like once). I had already made another pattern that was a bolo jacket so opted to make mine fairly large and

This pattern is the Melanie Shawl (free pattern), This is a repeat knit for me. I made the first one a little longer and can actually double it and wrap it as a scarf. This shawl I used 3 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun, I didn’t know what to do with it. I had started another wrap with it that was crochet and forgot how I dislike working with the Homespun yarn. It is so splitty! Terrible to crochet with (for me anyway)!  Knitting with this is OK and it is soft and fluffy, easy to care for, machine wash and dry on cool air. This was super fast and fun way to get rid of this yarn and ended up looking very nice. Good to toss over your shoulders or I keep it on the back of a chair for anyone who gets chilled in the house. Need more options for a rectangle wrap? Check out these free knit patterns: From Tonia Berry, a classic wrap (l ink ), Look at her other free pattern on Yarn and Soul ( link ) Marji LaFreniere offers this pattern that has some textured interest to it (link ) From Li