It’s Free Pattern Friday
Today, Taffy Twist in Uptown Baby Sport (pattern link here).
This sweet, lacy pullover actually began life as part of e-book Everybody Play Now!, a collection of baby and child designs by Amy Gunderson in Uptown Baby Sport and Uptown DK.
We love this yarn, and we felt like it was overdue for a new free pattern, so we’ve set Taffy Twist free into the wild.
Did you know? The reason you pull taffy is to aerate it. Hence the lace in this design!
You can make this pretty pullover with 2-3 balls of Uptown Baby Sport, even though it’s sized from 1-10 years. The lace and cable panel is both written and charted, and there’s a schematic included as well. We suspect making Taffy Twist will be easier than making actual taffy.
Have a sweet and delicious weekend.
Happy crafting!
It’s Free Pattern Friday!
Today, the Paper Doll Sweater in Dona (pattern link here).
When our Sales Director Yonca was with family for Thanksgiving, her niece asked for a custom made sweater.
(She didn’t actually write a note – it was more of a “puppy dog eyes” situation.)
She wanted a top kind of like what Yonca was wearing, but different in this way and that way, and a pullover, not a cardi… before long, it was an entirely new sweater. Fortunately, Yonca’s niece is very knitworthy.
Yonca designed the sweater in Fibra Natura Dona, a machine-washable 100% extra fine merino. It’s an excellent choice for luxurious projects that you won’t have to baby when they get a little dirty.
This sweater features a cabled yoke that goes all the way around.
And here it is, modeled by the giftee!
She was so excited to receive it! The only feeling better than getting a treasured handmade gift is giving one. We foresee other projects in this charming young lady’s future!
If you’d like to print a sweater to match the real thing, here’s a paper doll sheet, with some accessories for good measure. We hope you make time for play as well as work this weekend.
Happy crafting!
Looking at this pullover, it’s easy to see where it gets its name.
Huge cables rise dramatically up the front, carried up through the collar. It’s big, and cozy, and just the thing for midwinter.
The raglan-sleeved sweater is knit hem-up in pieces and seamed, with the cowl neck added in the round afterward. Deluxe Bulky Superwash wool makes the piece easy to care for.
Universal will be closed Monday and Tuesday for the holidays, and this might be the project that I grab some yarn for during the extended break. Cozy!
It’s sized from 3-6 months all the way up to 10 years. Whether your little one is “ooh, look at the tiny toes!” or “I can’t believe they’re growing up so fast!” you can still make them a fun sweater.
The stranding is very predictable. If you like to do Fair Isle without having to constantly refer back to the pattern, you’re set. Put on an episode of This Is Us and knit away without missing the juicy bits.
It would be really easy to customize. Fibra Natura Dona has a range of bold colors, both dark and light. Blue and white for a gingham look? Red and black for a classic checkerboard? Team colors for the little fan? There are a lot of possibilities!
This one’s a bit of an ugly duckling story, although of course the duckling was never ugly at all.
We had this garment in our studio for a long time, and kept looking askance at it. Squares on a jacket? We just weren’t sure about it, so it stayed on the shelf.
Then one day we were discussing upcoming Free Pattern Fridays, and someone picked up this cardi and put it on. Wow! It looked great! The ugly duckling had been a swan all along – we just couldn’t see it until it spread its wings!
We love how the tweedy gray grounds the piece, but the colorful flowery motifs work with most anything. This was a lucky discovery, with sweater weather finally here!
The Deluxe DK Tweed Superwash motifs are made separately, then seamed together. The pattern is written and charted, and contains a schematic for piecing it together.
There’s a lesson here about looking past first impressions. We’re certainly glad we gave this beauty a second chance.
This is a great example of how the right yarn can make a project really pop – no pun intended.
“Rawr! I would knit this myself but my arms are too short.”
This Bamboo Pop pullover has two wide bands of color, broken by a single row knitted in the coordinating accent color used at the edges. Without that thin line, it’s just not quite the same.
“Rawr! I can’t pick up stitches. I can’t pick up anything!”
This sweater is worked flat from the bottom up and seamed. Neck edging stitches are picked up and worked in the round. A circular needle is used to work the body because there are times in which stitches will need to be slipped to the other end of the needle during the stripes (for that single line of color).
“Rawr! Maybe you could make me a tiny cape?”
Oh, good grief. Excuse me, I need to go knit something for a tiny blue dinosaur.
We hope you let your inner child out this weekend.
Love colorwork but not Fair isle? This one’s for you!
Rachel Brockman used self-striping Adore Colors to do the heavy lifting in the body and sleeve stripes. Then she used mosaic knitting in solid Adore to create the design around the waist. Only one color is used per row. The design appears by slipping stitches in different colors, and voila!
Beautiful.
We hope you enjoy this lovely bit of Fall-to-come.
Look, I know it’s September, but here in the South we still have hot and humid days where the great outdoors looks like a melting Dali painting. True story: I once saw my cousin get stuck in an overheated parking lot when her high heels sank into liquefying asphalt, like a very fashionable mastodon caught in a tar pit. For this reason, I’m not giving up on summertime projects yet. Luckily, we have a really great selection of cottons, and some fabulous free patterns!
This cute top is sized from 1-10 years, and features a solid Cotton Supreme body with Cotton Supreme Batik for the stripes and the anchors on the sleeves.
The original black and white Cotton Supreme Batik has been retired, but there are some nice options available. What about this in a different shade of blue, with 41 Navy Salute (below) for the detailing?
Actually, since Cotton Supreme and Cotton Supreme Batik have exactly the same gauge, you could choose to go solid for both, or striped for both – there are a lot of options here!
This one’s quite similar to the Little Sailor – the differences are, a smaller needle for the ribbing (my edges tend to flare if I don’t do this!), and a different design on the sleeve. I like these two interpretations of what is essentially the same pattern because it shows what a difference the details make!
Team Cap all the way.
You can see how this could also become a fantastic superhero costume if you shifted that star onto the chest and made the design in red, white, and blue. Who wouldn’t want a tiny Captain America pullover?
Don’t get me wrong, we’re gearing up for Fall and winter. There are some great designs in the works. But as long as we’ve got some cute things to make, maybe it’s not so bad for summer to hang around a little longer.
Summertime can be a tough time for a needlecrafter. It’s hot, and a big project can weigh heavy in your lap, but you don’t want to put down the yarn. Fortunately, there’s always cotton!
Sized Small to 3X, this raglan-sleeved pullover features waist shaping, and is knitted from the bottom up in pieces. It’s quite stylish with a contrasting tank underneath. This is a nice three season piece.
The lace pattern is both written and charted, and covers front and back. It calls for Cotton Supreme DK, the lighterweight version of our popular Cotton Supreme DK. It’s very pretty as shown in a natural 702 Ecru, but there are a lot of ways to go with this one. Maybe a pretty pastel?
Or go dark, with something light showing through beneath?
We hope you stay cool, and keep on crafting. Have a great day!
We love a classic with a twist. This hoodie is constructed traditionally, in pieces and seamed, but two things make it special: one, the balanced panels on front and back – the ssk and k2tog on right and left panels add a nice symmetry – and two, the yarn.
