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!
Normally this would be where I’d make some joke about it being cold, but at this point, the weather’s a bit beyond that. Anytime people are being advised “avoid taking deep breaths, and minimise talking” while outside, that’s serious.
So maybe it’s time to hunker down, stay in, and make something bulky out of wool.
The Alpine Wrap is a great mix of lace and big yarn – thick enough to wrap around and bundle up in, or to wear loose as a beautiful accessory.
This gorgeous wrap is more than 6 feet long, but it goes by quickly – and it’s much easier than you might think!
The lace is varied, but it’s composed of basic stitches. If you can single and double crochet, you can make this.
Work the middle widthwise in rows. Then make the three color border in rounds, along all sides of the center. And because you’re using Deluxe Bulky Superwash wool on a US Size M/N (9 mm) hook, it’s going to grow quickly.
Designer Rachel Brockman chose to go with neutrals accented by 925 Adobe, a muted take on the 2019 Color of the Year that works well in this substantial piece.
However, while you could easily make this with four colors as shown, you could also use just one, or any number you wish. I’m a big fan of cool tones, so maybe Honeydew, Pulp, and Petrol Blue?
913 Honeydew, 928 Pulp, 914 Petrol Blue
Everybody, please have a safe, warm, cozy weekend.
The scarf gets its name from the plump yarn and extra-long length. Despite the length, this scarf knits up so quickly! Can you believe you only need to cast on 20 stitches?
This scarf mixes intarsia and self-striping Uptown Super Bulky Amplify for exciting results. We think this pattern is great for beginners looking to learn a new skill. Intarsia is easy, we promise!
Complimentary colors forever!
Be careful – if your outfit matches a free pattern too closely, your colleagues may insist that you model it!
It’s okay, though! I’m totally up for wrapping myself in knitwear all day, every day! Plus, I’m almost always cold! We wrapped this scarf around my neck many times. Perfect for the snowy weather the north has been experiencing this week!
We hope you enjoy this week’s free pattern! Have a fabulous weekend!
This is part 6 in a 12 part series highlighting designs from our 12 Days of Winter 2018 Collection.
My number one goal when designing a scarf is to make it look good on both sides. This can be quite challenging! Many/most cables have a definite unpleasant look to their wrong sided rows. Fair isle in a scarf is better done in the round because A) curling and B) floats. But simple knit/purl texture can be very nice on a scarf, and easy to work, too.
Oh hey – it’s scarf weather!
Echo Scarf (pattern link) is knit in Dona. Scrummy, scrumptious, buttery, and soft with amazing stitch definition:Â Dona. This scarf features a generous amount of ribbing at each end that flows directly into the texture and reversible cable patterning on the body of the scarf.
It may be difficult to tell from the photos, but the main stitch pattern is only an 8 row repeat. The patterning is also shown in the pattern in chart form and also written text. I am 100% a chart person, but I know that some knitters prefer text because their brains don’t always “click” with the way charts are presented. I’ll never pass up an opportunity to talk about chart reading because I believe they are so much easier (once you get the hang of them) to follow at a glance.
To illustrate, I’ve highlighted a few sections of the actual scarf below that correspond to the chart.
A blank square means to knit on the right side and purl on the wrong side, and represents stockinette stitch. A square with a dot inside it means to purl on the right side and knit on the wrong side, and represents reverse stockinette stitch.
The squares are visually conveying what the actual piece of knitting will look like. The blank squares which are stockinette look plain and smooth, just as they do in the finished piece. So the idea is that when you look at the chart and see this arrangement of symbols, you can know what stitches come next just at a glance.
As a reminder, whether you’re a chart or a word person, this pattern still has you covered. Remember, you can find Series 2 of the 12 Days of Winter Kit patterns on Ravelry.
This generously sized stole/shawl/scarf is knit in one piece from one end to the other. It uses Deluxe Chunky in my favorite heathered shade of gray, #91903 Charcoal Heather. On a size 10 needle, this is a project that isn’t going to take until next winter, either.
This project goes to show that rectangles do not have to be boring! The lace pattern in the main body of this stole uses centered double decreases which create angles on both cast-on and bind-off edges. The garter edging on each side also forms points, which brings me to the next thing I love about this piece – it is so easy to block!
To block, the easiest method is to use blocking wires and pins. You could also use pins by themselves on a blocking board. But I find it’s much easier to use the wires because I can stretch the item more evenly.
Because all four edges of the stole have points on them, I ran wires through the tips of these points, and then pinned my wires to a blocking board which stretched the whole thing out evenly. It’s almost always very important to block lace in order to open up the fabric, and also to even out the stitchwork.
Never used blocking wires before? This might be a good project to get started! I bet your LYS carries them – just ask!
Remember, you can find Series 2 of the 12 Days of Winter Kit patterns on Ravelry.
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.
Are you ever in the mood for some instant gratification, but with a little extra interest? Two words: chunky lace. We’ve got four projects here – two knit and two crochet – that you can finish in a flash.
Let’s start with the very quickest – the Chunky Lace Beanie in Deluxe Chunky (pattern link here). This was originally designed for a quick little free e-book of hats with pom-poms called Hot Hats. However, the detailing on the crown is awfully nice, so after its release, the original knitter reclaimed it, cut off the pompom, and now wears it every winter.
This quick lace topper takes just one ball of Deluxe Chunky 100% wool. 120 yards + US size 10 needles and you’re done. There are 122 (and counting) shades of Deluxe Chunky. Your LYS can help you find a color that’s perfect for you.
We mentioned Deluxe Chunky’s array of colors for the last pattern, but this one goes in the opposite direction.
It uses color 50004, Pewter Undyed Natural. The color here is the color of the sheep it came from. It’s a charming, rustic look that would work well with dresses or blue jeans.
The lace works up quickly on US size 11 (8mm) needles. Fringe finishes it off.
Wear it wide, or fold it in half for a scarf with a lot of depth. Fabulous.
This puff-stitch scarf is worked end to end. Shorten or lengthen it by changing the number in the beginning chain. Three colors of Deluxe Bulky Superwash play together – three balls of main color 932 Icy Gray, and one each of 913 Honeydew and 933 Sweatshirt Gray.
Such a sculptural, wrappable, wearable piece. Very impressive.
We’re pushing the boundaries of “lace” here, but this one is so quick and easy. Just one skein of self-striping Uptown Bulky Amplify and a N-15 (10mm) hook make this strikingly colorful piece.
We pulled the cowl down over the shoulders here so you could see how it’s constructed a little better. Really, it’s back bar half double crochet all the way around, row after row until you feel done. Super quick, but it gives the finished piece an almost knitted look. Neat!
In a couple of weeks, we’ll be looking at some fabulous cabled projects in bulky yarn. They rank among our most popular projects!
Look at how simple that is. This is exactly the kind of pattern that I would have loved as a beginner, and that I still love when I want to make something beautiful and not look away from binge-watching Jessica Jones.
Because it’s dropped stitches on a larger needle (US size 10 1/2), this pattern makes the yarn go a long way. One ball of Whisper Lace wool/silk for the solid bands, two balls of self-striping Cotton Supreme Batik for the wider variegated stripes.
Because the fabric is so loose and drapey, it scrunches up effortlessly – hence the name Scruncher Scarf. Here it is in an alternate colorway, folded in half and wrapped for an accessory that straddles “skinny” and “full.”
Obviously, this would be a great one to experiment with, colorwise. I’ll bet your LYS could put together some fantastic color combos.
