Ah, strawberries – I love them! Strawberry season has always been one of my favorite times of the year. It conjures fond childhood memories. I spent many, many days at my grandparents’ farm growing up. I helped out with chores, played on roundbales, petted the cattle, explored the land, collected eggs from the hens, helped bale hay – you name it, I probably did it!
We love how breezy and airy the fabric of this scarf is.
Every May we celebrated the strawberry season by plucking strawberries from the plant, placing them into a little wooden carton (eating many more along the way), and carrying them back to the house. We’d help my mother and grandmother prepare the strawberries for freezing. My sister and I would sell excess berries at a little produce stand we set up at the end of our driveway. When I was in my early teens, my grandparents moved to the mountains and extended family took over the farm. That meant we no longer picked our strawberries there, but that didn’t stop us! We simply picked our strawberries at another local farm instead.
This fabric drapes effortless around the neck and shoulders.
My long-winded story brings me to the real point of this post…it’s National Strawberry Day and we have a pattern that celebrates these sweet fruits! We’re highlighting the Strawberry Kiwi Scarfarita – a free pattern from our website!
Strawberry Kiwi Scarfarita
This pattern is perfect for spring and summer. It is knit using Fibra Natura Lina – a delightful blend of linen and cotton. This is the kind of accessory you could easily toss on during early mornings of strawberry picking come May – or as you plant your seeds well before! We know the air is still cool – heck it’s very cold in many places – but that doesn’t mean we can’t dream about the coming spring and summer.
Lina is just right for spring and summer knitting, and now is the perfect time to cast on!
Seasons Greetings from the Universal Yarn Team! Today, we’re pleased to share a special free pattern with you for the Christmas season: the Carolina Holly hat (pattern link)! Holly – like poinsettias, mistletoe, and ivy – conjures images of the holidays. The spiky plant is evergreen and beautiful, and it was the inspiration for the Carolina Holly hat.
Playing with pine cones, as one does.
This free pattern is a load of fun to knit. It takes three skeins of Deluxe Worsted – and that’s enough to make two hats. Of our line of yarns, Deluxe Worsted might just be my favorite. It’s excellent for every type of project, creates long-wearing fabric, and perfectly balances softness with the crunch of pure wool that I love. Plus, there are so many colors to choose from. For this hat I chose Sangria, City Turf, and Slate, but there are so many shades of red, green, and grey in the palette. I encourage you to find the combination that leaves you feeling inspired! Prefer superwash wool? You’re in luck – our machine-washable Deluxe Worsted Superwash would work perfectly as a substitute.
Baby Bobbles!
I wanted to give this hat some special touches. A double-thick brim ensures a warm and comfortable fit. A row of mini-bobbles knit in a rich red create little holly berries, and a large red pom-pom balances out the pop of red. Finally, to incorporate the grey used in the brim, the same color is used to add speckles to the pom-pom. The speckled pom-pom idea was not my own. I was inspired by designer Kiyomi Burgin, who has used this technique in her own work. You can find her post on speckled pom-poms here (link).
Subtle grey speckles in a big, poufy pom-pom – what’s not to love?
For your convenience, I’ve also created a tutorial. I hope you find it to be helpful! You’ll need to make your pom-pom before starting. If you haven’t done this before, don’t worry! You can find Amy’s tutorial on how to make pom-poms here (link).
To get started you’ll need a pom-pom, scissors, tapestry needle, and contrast color yarn. Step 1: Cut your contrast color yarn into lengths of approximately 12″. In the pattern I’ve directed you to cut 15 pieces. Fold each piece in half. Step 2: Keeping the strand of yarn folded, thread the tapestry needle.Step 3: Insert the tapestry needle through the center of the pom-pom. Step 4: Pull one end of the strand through the pom-pom, but be sure to secure the other end.Step 5: You should be able to hold each end of the strand as shown. Repeat Steps 1-5 until you’ve used each of the strands you cut. If desired, add more! When you finish you’ll have a medusa-looking pom-pom. Give your pom-pom a trim so that the contrast color ends are flush with the rest of the pom-pom. Finished! Now you can secure your pom-pom to the hat.
I love cables. More than lace, more than mosaic, more than a dozen other techniques, cables just embody knitting for me. When you pair them with a good quality wool, even better. And when you make it a chunky wool so you can see your progress grow quickly, that’s a home run. So with no further ado, four popular cabled projects in our Deluxe Chunky 100% wool!
Honestly, I am forever astonished that this is a free pattern. It’s just gorgeous, and filled with the excellent attention to detail that Amy Gunderson brings to all her designs.
Take a look at those saddle shoulders. They let the cables run unbroken from cuff to collar.
The moss stitch underside is where alterations for size are made, to avoid disturbing the bold and beautiful Dueling Cables design.
This one was made in Deluxe Chunky 91904 Pomegranate Heather, but I keep thinking of going green, maybe with 61635 Deep Jungle which has a bit of blue as well.
This isn’t a free pattern, but it has remained a top 5 bestseller since its release. Take a closer look and see why!
Sized Small to 2X/3X, the poncho is fastened with two buttons on each side. You get good range of motion without looking like you’re swallowed up.
Lace is married to cables for the main body design – the best of two techniques joined together!
This is a pattern from Amy Gunderson. Here she is posing in the Catawba River Poncho she knitted for herself, so you can see how it falls. Really lovely!
We offered this scarf as a kit at the holidays last year, then as a paid pattern after the first of this year.
If you like cabling, but maybe not all over, or if you want to try it out in small doses, this is a great project. The pines at both ends that give the scarf its name are cabled, but the background and borders are seed stitch and reverse stockinette. Deluxe Chunky on US size 10 (6mm) needles goes fairly quickly in this simple, pretty scarf.
I made my own Rutherford Beret in Deluxe Chunky color 91467 Tulipwood, and I can tell you it’s an easy one-hank pattern. The cables are all single twists. And how cute is that little i-cord loop at the top? Easy to pull it off and hang it up by the door.
We had someone here in the office do a two-color version. Neat idea!
We hope these designs provide a little knitspiration.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a topic near and dear to us. So many of our friends and relatives have been touched by this awful disease. As crafters, our natural impulse is to reach out and comfort those we love with a gift from the heart. Here are a few options.
We designed this cap at the request of Yonca, our sales director. When she requested this cap, it was for a friend who was about to undergo chemotherapy. We wish we could say this was the last time a friend would need this kind of help. According to breastcancer.org, 1 in 8 American women will develop invasive breast cancer in the course of her lifetime (as well as 1 in 1000 men).
It’s knitted in the round in our Cotton Supreme DK, which we picked because it’s very soft, and chemo scalps can be quite sensitive – something to keep in mind when choosing yarn.
Amy Gunderson designed this one. She says she thinks of this as a knitted representation of rays of radiation zapping cancer away. We hope someone wearing this will feel the strength and energy Amy has put into this design.
This hat was originally designed for Halos of Hope, a non-profit organization that provided hats to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
This pattern is named for the shadow of cancer that affects the lives of so many. Cancer patients and their loved ones alike can feel like they are helpless and hopeless in their situations. We offer this hat pattern as a small token of comfort and a concrete action that can be taken – perhaps a knitting project will take your mind off of unpleasantries in your life, whether that means cancer or any other type of illness or grief. We hope the sun will shine again for you soon.
If you’re looking for a last-minute but thoughtful Father’s Day gift, you’re in luck. Today we’re sharing the Father’s Day Tie. This necktie takes just 36 grams of Deluxe DK Tweed Superwash!
I talk to my dad at least two or three times a week. He’s one of my best friends, and I feel so lucky for that. On top of that, my husband (and hesitant but equally gracious model for these photos) is a pretty fantastic dad to our dogs and cats. Yep – I am totally the kind of person who sees their pets as a ridiculously special part of my family.
Anyway, as we well know, Father’s Day celebrates all the great father figures out there. Yep, father figures – because it’s so important to recognize those that have played that role in our lives, regardless of a biological relationship. Whether that’s a spouse, friend, dad (or dog dad!), it’s important to take a moment to say thank you.
The Father’s Day Tie is knit flat primarily in linen stitch and features a spine of slipped stitches down the center. Paired with Deluxe DK Tweed Superwash, this accessory elevates an otherwise casual look. So what are you waiting for? Grab your needles and yarn and get started! You can find the pattern here (link).
If you’re like me, you love cables. Cables are especially exciting when the fabric is reversible. Yep, the Reversible Cable Blanket really is reversible (did you think we were kidding with that name?).
The backbone of this pattern simply is K2, P2 Rib framed by a border of garter stitch. Every 8 rows two sets of K2, P2 stitches are crossed, creating an elegant cable and reversible fabric. That’s really all there is to this pattern!
Cables, glorious cables!
Major is a perfect medium for this pattern. It’s quick to knit, incredibly soft, and easy to care for. Major is a bulky weight, 100% acrylic yarn that comes in a generously sized 200-gram ball. There are many beautiful, self-shading colors of Major ranging from perfect pastels to bold, vibrant beauties, and no-nonsense neutrals. It’s no wonder that this yarn is a customer favorite.
Better yet, this pattern is written in two sizes: a baby blanket and throw blanket size. Make one as a gift and another to keep for yourself. After all, you surely deserve to cuddle up to a squishy, cabled blanket.
It’s Amy Gunderson’s birthday today, and we’re celebrating!
From now until Monday 3/26/18, grab one pattern from her e-book Bamboo Pop Adult 2 for free on Ravelry! Just use codeBIRTHDAYGIRLat checkout, where it asks if you want to apply a coupon. This is a great collection of knit and crochet designs for Bamboo Pop, a lightweight bamboo/cotton blend perfect for (hopefully) warming weather.
Why are we doing this?
Amy’s the driving force behind our creative team – not only does she knit, crochet, weave, and sew, but she goes out of her way to nurture new talent and form partnerships that help bring our crafting community closer. We want everyone to appreciate her as much as we do!
(Plus, she’s travelling to Germany for the H+H handcrafting show right now, and every time someone downloads one of her patterns it sends a message to her phone, and I think it’d be funny to blow up her inbox while she’s on the road. )
My friends, winter is showing no signs of letting up, even here in North Carolina. We were blasted with 5-6″ of snow the other day. If you’re from a northern state as I am, that may not seem like much. But in the south it is a significant amount and is cause for much celebration and hot cocoa. And as we all know, any reason to pile on more knitwear is quite welcome.
Our free pattern this week is the Porthole Cowl, knit in a soft wintery shade of self-shading Major.
This cowl is knit in the round, showing off the shading of Major as it works it’s way upward in a bounty of texture and “porthole” lace. The color is quite subtle in color 118 Silver Blush. If you like more in-your-face-color, there are many options to choose from. Some of my favorites are:
