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Christmas Knitting, Gifts and Free Knitting Patterns

free knitting pattern | Evie's Dream Scarf | faerwear

It’s no secret amongst my friends that I’m also an avid knitter, and there’s nothing like finding good free knitting patterns that endure. I’ve paid for plenty of patterns – I can tell you from personal experience that a LOT of work goes into one, even if it’s just formatting it for standards so you can post it on your own blog.

I had a crazy year though, and my knitting time was basically taken up by designing faerwear (that’s fine too – I love to knit and make jewelry, but knitting is one of those things that i do strictly for gifting and enjoyment as I am slow at it) – but it’s now the holiday season, and so I am knitting like crazy).

This is exciting because it offers the periodic excuse to visit a yarn shop (or Webs, or Jimmy Beans Wool, my two favorites for finding deals on commercially-produced yarns), have soft fluffy things in my hands for hours, watch a lot of period pieces (my favorite for knitting) and also because it means I just get to be creative, without worrying about whether something will sell.

Christmas gifts from me are generally hats, dishcloth sets and cowls – they’re all quick, easy, and always useful 🙂

That being said, I actually have several of my own patterns available, some of which are free and found right here on this website! If you’re on Ravelry, you can peruse all of my patterns together right here.

And yes, I do knit a lot of my own hat patterns as gifts – but I wanted to mention, also, two of my other favorite go-tos: the classic Felicity hat pattern, and Graham from Nutty Irishman Knits – both of these slouchy beanies knit up quickly and easily.

Eventually I will tell my very sweet and romantic story (the one that left me single-parenting all year) – but suffice it to say, that part of our lovely modern day love story saga is now over and my Canadian partner was granted a marriage visa this very morning! We will all be together as a family again in just a few short weeks – I’m so excited about the new life we are about to embark on, and all the creativity that is about to pile out of this household.

I have two more craft shows happening before Christmas – one this Friday and one this coming Monday evening (a “sip and shop” – lord help me, because I think that “sip” might mean “wine”, but that’s always a good thing when it comes to shopping). So I’m busy writing, making earrings, knitting, and mothering all at once right now and just reminding myself that January is going to be a big sigh of relief.

Happy Holidays!

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Seed and Linen Stitch Throw instructions

a very basic set of knitting instructions

A month or so ago, I acquired some delicious Araucania Lauca yarn for five dollars a skein. It was being discontinued. Its wool, silk and camel blend is very, very soft.

It’s an aran weight yarn – so if you want it and you can still find it, cool. Otherwise, substitute something really soft in a light worsted or aran weight.  There are just over 180 yards in each skein of Lauca so you’ll want to consider that as well.  I have three skeins of it.

I am not really all that much a fan of variegated yarn. EVER. I was, when i was a new knitter and tricked into believing the collection of colors would mesh into something cool, but then as i got further into my “knitting adventures”, I wasn’t so much a fan. Yarn barf, I believe I’ve heard it called…

It wasn’t until I brought this home that I started actually learning about how you really work with this stuff – using slipped stitches to break up the colors, etc…

Well – that trick doesn’t quite work for me here, as you can see – but it’s still pretty dope. While I’ve got some pooling, at least the edges of the color pools have been softened some by the blending created with slip stitching. And although my original intent was to knit a giant, brioche cable cowl with it – I realized before I actually started, thank god, that I would never, ever actually wear the result. More than likely I’d frog it a year later and do something else with it instead – like what I wound up doing with it.

So instead, I started a little throw. Because this matches my home perfectly in all ways – color, vibe, etc… It will look absolutely fabulous on my olive green seventies papa-san chair.

Here’s the basics – NO GAUGE!

With US10 needles (Knitter’s Pride Dreamz interchangeables) I cast on 151 stitches, and seed-stitched an inch or so of top border. If you want to use a different needle size or yarn thickness, simply cast on an odd number that creates the guestimated width you want (I say “guestimated” because you can try and sort of “guess” by how many stitches you’ve cast on, which will draw in some, or you can do some knitting math if you’re inclined to that. I might have been, before motherhood).

The border is continued on the sides by seed-stitching the first and last eight stitches of every row. Linen stitch comprises the center of the blanket. When you run into two slipped stitches next to each other, slip the first and just purl the second one – that way you keep the “bump” you need for the pattern.

I have three skeins of this yarn and will just knit until I run out (let’s hope I can get a squarish shape out of it!). At the end I’ll just add an inch or two of seed stitch border on the bottom and there it is. So simple, nice mindless knitting for Netflix, audio books and knit nights.

The effect and difference between the stitches is subtle, but apparent – and makes for a nice, FLAT throw that is also actually functional and warm, too – and all that slip-stitching mixes up those colors a little bit. There’s still a TON of pooling here, but it’s pretty dang cool anyway. I’m happy with the simple choice I made for this yarn. It’s lovely to work with.

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