Free pattern – Page 3 – Hopefully Creative

Newsboy Cap & Beret

Two green wooly hats, with brim and without.

I have so much dyed yarn and not enough projects, so I cast on for a quick and easy hat to reduce the stash by one ball of yarn. The yarn was Donegal DK yarn, dyed with dark greens in December of 2023. I chose the Knitted Newsboy Cap by Nicola Robinsonova as the pattern.

I first cast on for a hat on 4.5 mm needles, and was on gauge following the instructions. The pattern is very easy and I managed to finish it fairly quickly, however, when I put it on my head it was more a beret than a newsboy cap. A bit too tight for my liking. I did continue to knit the brim to see how it would work together. I own some plastic brim inserts so I modified the brim pattern a little bit by knitting short rows to mimic the insert’s shape better. I pinned it together and it was just too tight.

Two differently sized newsboy caps on a ruler background

Newsboy Cap in dark green with blue buttons

Luckily, the pattern also listed a more slouchy version using 5.5 mm needles and after weighing my leftover yarn, I hoped I would have enough. So I crossed my fingers and cast on. Who knew that 1 extra mm of diameter would make such a difference! This new version is a perfect amount of slouch and makes a lovely hat. To add a safety/fun touch, I also knit a band with reflective yarn that’s attached with two very cute blue buttons. When I cycle in the dark, I should light up!

Leftover yarn from the knitted newsboy cap

Newsboy cap in dark green with detail of blue button

There is less than a meter of this yarn left, and my bucket of dyed yarn has reduced in size a little bit. My stash of hats has increased by two: one green beret and one green slouchy brimmed hat. Best way to ‘mess up’ a project is to end up with two great end products!

Experimental Pinks

Experimenting with colours and knitting machine settings.

At some point, I did some experimenting with dyeing yarn with some red sprinkles. I wasn’t a fan of the end result because it was very pink, and pink is the nemesis colour. So I decided to still use it but gift the resulting thing to a friend and get it out of my house. It was also a great opportunity to try out different things with my knitting machine.

I cast on almost the full bed of my knitting machine, since there are some broken bits not all needles can be used. Then started knitting as normal, decreasing one stitch on one side every four rows. The first thing I tried was gauge stripes (one of the examples in my instruction manual), by knitting rows with the largest gauge (10) and decreasing one step in the gauge every four rows until gauge two. Next, I changed the gauge every three rows, when that was finished every two rows and I even ended up doing 1 row per gauge change. It’s a fun progression to see.

Some simple flat rows came after before continuing with a different example in the instruction manual where two rows are knitted on a small gauge that makes tight stitches and then two rows knitting on a high gauge with looser stitches. The book also had a pattern with putting stitches on hold that looked quite interesting, like a hole with two lines of yarn through it. Because this was quite a lot of work per stitch, I only did a few rows of this.

I tried a section where I decreased every fourth stitch and then put those needles that no longer have a stitch out of work. When knitting, this creates a slightly larger hole between the stitches still in work and the non-knit needle. I like this one. To go back to normal, you add a stitch back to the needles that were out of work and put them back in work. The last one was a cable inspired pattern, I think. It didn’t work as nicely on the knit side of the scarf, so I’m not sure I’ll use it again.

Once all of the knitting on the main piece was concluded, before Christmas, the scarf disappeared into a bag to be forgotten. Until the start of April, when I decided that it was probably time to finish the thing. I wanted to add an anti-roll edge so I did the same thing as in my previous pirate’s cove scarf. It took most of the day, but I did manage to finish it. It’s been wet blocked to hopefully keep the shape.

It has since found its new owner and although I doubt it’ll be worn soon (summer and all that), I hope that it’ll be a useful addition to my friends wardrobe!

Roxy Blues!

All the blues in this sweater

Browsing Ravelry a while ago, I found a pattern that I really liked, called
Roxy Sweater by Lucienne Tricote. I even added it to my Queue on Ravelry, not an often used feature for me. To make it a reality, I needed a yarn that wasn’t too stripy, but I also didn’t want a solid colour sweater. So I decided to use multiple dyes to create a variation of shades of blue. The most accurate colour is in the final image of the post.

So I dyed some Gold Sport 300 yarn by putting four skeins into my chafing dish and adding different shades of blue over the top. I chose the Jacquard dyes 621-626, Sky Blue, Sapphire Blue, Brilliant Blue, Turquoise, Royal Blue and Navy Blue. Then I added a little 637 Gun Metal. The gun metal didn’t do much apart from somehow producing a few green spots? I decided not too care too much about that.

For the body, I cast on in twisted German cast on on size 3.75 needles, but this seemed tight. I knit the rib section and up to the row of eyelets. Then started the sleeves by casting on the stitches on size 4.5 needles (I think), this felt a lot better, much stretchier. Once the sleeves were done, I continued with the body until the point where the sleeves were supposed to be connected to the body. This was the single most boring knit I’ve ever done. I was so frustrated with the absolutely endless stockinette that I almost wanted to chuck it into a corner for a century. I did, however, persevere!

Once I had the body and sleeves at the right length, I decided that I hated the body cast on too much, so I cut it out. It was replaced by a much stretchier cast off. The body and sleeves were attached together and that marked the start for more interesting knitting, with the raglan sleeve decreases, the eyelet section and the garter stitch bit. I had to redo the neck section four times, too tight, too low, too stretchy, etc. I’m happy with what I ended up with though. The finished product is a little shorter than the pattern calls for, because I wanted to wear it with my dark dungarees. This is now my favourite outfit even if I will try to avoid endless stockinette handknitting with yarn this thin for a good long while.

Anna Crop Top

All the greens in a little crop sweater

I was looking through Ravelry again, as I sometimes do, and found a crop top sweater that looked really cool. It was the Anna Crop Top from Wiam’s Crafts and I decided that I needed one. So I grabbed some of my Ultra Aran and put it in the chafing dish. The sprinkle effect was created by putting 5 dye colours and citric acid in a little salt shaker and just shaking it all over the yarn. The colours were Jacquard Acid Dyes Spruce, Kelly Green, Chartreuse, Teal, and Emerald. In total, I dyed 4 skeins for the project.

When I started knitting this thing, I was extremely afraid that I’d run out of yarn. So I cast on two sleeves at the same time and hoped that it would work out. I did make a fair amount of changes to the pattern that led to both extra yarn used and less yarn used. In the sleeves, I started them with fewer stitches and decided to do gradual increases. But in the body, I added extra stitches to the bottom because it was very short.

When I knit the right amount of sleeve on both sides, I cast on the total number of stitches that I wanted to end with (a few more than per the pattern). Then some short rows to get the shaping effect. I tried doing the pattern instructions first, but it just turned into a lumpy mess so I gave up. One skein was enough for the full sleeve plus the start of the body. Then I attached another skein to one of the sleeve-body things and continued knitting the rest of the body, front and back. I didn’t want to join it in the middle but on one side, and used Russian Grafting to put it all together.

The join is nearly invisible on the knit side, but there is a little interest on the purl side, which is the side that is showing. Still, you don’t see if from any distance. I’ve not really worn it out yet. I tried it with a pair of dungarees that I recently made and am in the process of writing up, but it was still a little too short and I was worried about the cold. It might be more of a spring/summer thing than a winter thing.

Dinosaur Dog Coat

Doggy coat for warmth

My dad just got a tiny little dog thing, but I’ve been told that it’s regularly quite cold. So in order to help the creature feel more comfortable outside, I was asked to make him a little coat. I looked online for a pattern and found one from Wholefully. Apparently commenters weren’t always super happy with it, but I decided to give it a try anyway.

Since my dad and Timmy (the dog) live quite a ways away, the dog was measured by Cathelijne and then I made the coat from some other leftover fabric I still had laying around. For the outside, I used the scraps of my first dinosaur coat, in hopes that it would also provide some protection from the wind and rain. For the inside, I found some fleece for extra warmth.

I put in the measurements and drew out the pattern on some paper, then placed it on my fabric where it happened to fit perfectly on the tiny bit that I had left. As this is the third thing made from that dinosaur fabric, it’s been used more than expected. For the closures, some Velcro was attached to the front flaps and the tummy flaps. I lined the Velcro bits with some extra dinosaur to prevent it from sticking to the fleece. Lastly, a hole was added in the back for the leash to go through.

The whole thing was snail-mailed and unfortunately the tummy flaps were a little bit too short. I seem to remember that it fits when Timmy is wearing the coat by itself, but not when he’s also wearing the harness. So I’ve made some notes on the pattern so that if I were to made it again, I can add some length to the tummy flaps. Cathelijne has made a Velcro solution to make it fit now.

Greener Frog

A bright green frog for all your dressing needs.

The first frog was great, but he was more toad coloured than I wanted. So I decided to get on a new frog. This started by dying some yarn bright green and slightly lighter green. I think I measured ten grams from a skein of Titanium Sock yarn and then dropped it into a green bath. It didn’t exhaust entirely, so I dropped 10 more grams in to make some light green yarn.

As usual, the actual knitting time for a frog is very short, however, convincing myself to finish adding the arms and legs took several weeks yet again. I started him on October 22 and finished on November 26. The back, arms, and legs were done with a combination of the bright green sock yarn and DROPS Kid-Silk in 18 Apple Green and the tummy was the light green sock yarn and Søstrene Grene Mohair Blend in 1650 Blanc. He’s got wires in his arms and legs and is posable. I’ve not tried to pose him yet because I still want to make some clothes.

The original frog has since found a new home and I’m more than happy to have this one hanging out on the dinner table!

Apiarist Cowl

Honeycomb cowl from some blue and yellow yarn

Some time ago, I bought some lovely blue fabric to make a new winter coat out of. I’ve even decided on the pattern but I’ve not yet managed to convince myself to actually start the project. Instead, I’ve been working on accessories for that non-existent coat. The plan for the coat is that it will be blue with yellow accents and while I’m not sure if that’s going to work out, I have started with that idea in mind anyway.

Since I knew I needed a scarf and potentially a hat to go with my to-be-coat, I dyed some yarn with blues and yellows. I chose Ultra DK and added a fair amount of bright blue speckles and both soft and bright yellow speckles on 22 September 2023. Somehow the yellow came through a lot better but I do like the specks of blue here and there.

Once it was dry, I had to find a pattern to use. The one I chose was the Apiarist Cowl by Claire Borchardt and I started knitting on November 12. I did make a fair few changes to the pattern since I didn’t like the ribbed edge that the original has. A seed stitch edge was included instead. The hight of the honeycombs is also one stitch less (mainly because I can’t count for shit and messed up the first one and decided to go with it).

This was a quick knit (for me) that was mainly completed on trains over the course of a month and a half. Finished on December 26 and since worn fairly often. It’s just a little bit tighter than the Linen Stitch one that I’ve been wearing a lot this fall and winter. Did I entirely forget that I made another one that would work much better; yes. It’s been living in a box since I had to move all my shawls, scarves and gloves away from the hallway where they had been living due to construction dust.

Seas Shawl

Thick and thin yarn to make some waves.

In my last big undyed yarn purchase, I included 10 skeins of ‘Thick and Thin DK’-weight yarn. It’s single ply but it varies in thickness along the length and therefore has an interesting sort of effect. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, but I was intrigued by how it worked. So I set off to dye it with some soft yellow and green sprinkles on 3 June 2023.

Once it was dry, I had to figure out what to actually do with it. I tried several patterns until I ran across the Seas Shawl by Puff Updater. It seemed like a fun, slightly involved pattern that wouldn’t mind the uneven nature of the yarn. You can still lightly see the waves made by increases and decreases, hence the name, I guess. I started on July 23 and finished it on November 19. It traveled with me a lot, together with an ever more crumpled piece of paper with the instructions on it.

After blocking and pinning out some points, it turned out a bit smaller than I hoped. I knew I would never really wear it as it was. So I decided to ask one of my colleagues if she was interested and it has now found a nice new home. The end result is only a small part of what I enjoy about knitting. It’s mainly the relaxing nature of knits and purls that keep me coming back to the needles.

Grey-diation Shawl

Adding some details to stave off endless repetition.

To be honest, I don’t remember much about this shawl. I finished it a couple of months ago and from what I can recall, the knitting was very boring. However, it does have good colours, grey, white and black go with everything! And I have worn it out a few times since, so lets try to recap anyway.

My Ravelry notes indicate that I started this new shawl on July 1st, 2023 and finished it on 11 October 2023. Not too bad of a turn around. The pattern is Aranea by Erika Wine and I later incorporated Asscher by Christina Danaee into it because I was so bored. The yarn was the ‘grey-diation‘ yarn dyed in December 2022. The pattern is fairly simple, the only thing to remember is to make the ‘spokes’ by effectively knitting i-cord along the edges and three other spines. In the beginning, a stitch is increased on each side of each spoke every fourth row. Once you pass 40 stitches between two spokes, you start increasing every other row.

This is a lot of knitting stockinette and for some reason, my yarn didn’t want to run out. The shawl is supposed to end when there were 80 stitches between the spokes, but I still had a lot left when I hit those 80 stitches. So at some point, I wanted something, anything else to do but knit-stitches for an eternity. I found the Asscher pattern, which has a pretty cool eyelet pattern on the back and started incorporating those instructions in between the spokes. I deviated at some point and made an extra triangle. I also needed to keep in mind that the i-cord binding still needed to happen, so I kept weighing the yarn to make sure I had enough. Once I reached the end, I followed the bind off instructions and wet blocked it.

Since I wanted the lace design to stand out a little more, I blocked it with straight edges instead of the spiderweb intention from the original pattern. This was probably not the best idea because what I liked most about the Aranea pattern was the spiderweb effect. However, I’m definitely not making this by hand ever again. I had to force myself to finish it. It has turned out a pretty decent size and it’s definitely wearable. I now also know how that gradation effect in yarn will play out when knitting. I have learnt (again) that endless stockinette is not my forte and will try to keep this in mind with future projects.

Fall Shawl

Making a Pirate Scarf for a Kayaking Friend

Last year, when Karen and I dyed different kinds of yarn, one of them was colour-mix that has sat in my stash since. I do find that yarn very interesting and I thought it would look good with browns, so when I had some red-brown yarn leftover from the Fringe! scarf, that set my brain in motion. I put them next to each other and I thought they looked good together. I wasn’t sure I would have enough for something wearable, so I dyed another skein some lighter brown (and later overdyed it with even more brown) and started planning.

I found the Pirate’s Cove for LK150 by Christine Welsh on Ravelry when looking for machine knit patterns. It also had a video tutorial attached with it, which was really nice. The main idea for the original Pirate’s Cove was to use a thicker yarn and increase one stitch every second row on one side to create an asymmetrical triangle scarf. Because I used thinner yarn and my bed wasn’t too wide, I opted to increase one stitch every four rows to create a longer triangle. Different stitch or colour patterns were suggested at intervals, but the knitter can make their own choices of course. I chose to do the first section in the red-browns, then some striped red-browns & colour-mix. Next came some thin red-brown, brown and colour-mix stripes with eyelets and without eyelets. Some flat brown after and then increasing width stripes of colour-mix and red-brown. In the last section of colour-mix, I knit some triangles with eyelets. The final section was some straight brown.

Since the straight edges started curling, I followed the directions for a decorative edge in the pattern. I chose to do the edge in the brown. I was very worried that I did not have enough yarn, but I tried to do one side in a different colour and it was awful. So I pulled it out and just .. kept my fingers crossed. I did lose yarn chicken by about 10-20 stitches on the bottom corner, so I used some leftover red-brown to finish those last few stitches. You’ll only notice if you know, so ssshhh. This shawl has now made its way to Karen, as it should suit her Fall colours.

Tag: Free pattern