Easy Knitting Patterns

Posts Tagged ‘Easy Knitting Patterns’

After making the Cromwell Court Afghan, I decided to try to cut it down to make a baby knitting pattern. I wanted it to be a bit bigger than a regular baby blanket so it could be used on a crib or toddler bed, or become a preschool nap blanket. As far as easy knitting patterns go, I would rate this as an Easy+ (on the difficult end of easy) because of the increases and decreases in every fourth row, plus frequent (optional) color changes.

The final Spumoni Crib Afghan measures about 34” wide by 45” long. Here is the basic pattern, minus the color changes. To download a pdf file of the entire Spumoni Crib Afghan pattern for free, click here.

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Technorati Tags: afghan, baby afghan, baby blanket, baby blanket pattern, Baby Knitting Pattern, Easy Knitting Patterns, how to knit a baby blanket, vanna white

fabric.com Deal of the Day

Most of the knitting I do is making gifts for others. And most of those gifts are scarves or afghans because they fit with my philosophy of working easy knitting patterns that I can take with me, that don’t require my total focus, and that I’m likely to actually finish. I also tend to buy nice but inexpensive yarn, in keeping with my frugal living philosophy. My usual place to buy yarn is at my local Michaels store. I am signed up for their weekly emails and I try to plan my purchases to make best use of their sales and coupons. (Sign up here.) But not everyone has access to a local store, and sometimes the store doesn’t carry or has run out of a color I want. So I decided to look at the online options. As I quickly discovered, buying just one or two skeins of yarn online is not a good idea because of the shipping costs. By the time you add shipping, the cost of your one skein could easily be doubled or tripled, especially for an inexpensive yarn. That having been said, buying yarn can be a good deal if you need a lot of it. For example, I took a look around to see where the best deal was to buy yarn for the Cromwell Court afghan I reviewed in my last blog entry (Easy Knitting Pattern Review–Cromwell Court Afghan). That pattern takes eight skeins of Lion Brand Wool-ease Thick & Quick yarn which normally retails for $6.99 to $7.99 per skein. I discovered that fabric.com has the lowest price on shipping of any of the yarn websites I’ve looked at

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Technorati Tags: amazon, easy knitting pattern, Easy Knitting Patterns, fabric.com, frugal living

Most of the easy knitting patterns I either present or review on this site are for smaller quick-to-finish items such as scarves and baby blankets. (I try to practice UFO avoidance, as in “un-finished objects.”) But the topic of today’s entry is a grown-up-size afghan that measures about 46 x 54 in. This easy knitting pattern, called “Cromwell Court,” is available for free on the Lion Brand Yarn website here.

Many of those who submitted reviews on the Lion Brand website felt this pattern should be rated Easy+, even though the stated skill level is intermediate. You do need to know how to increase and decrease. In case you haven’t learned that yet, the pattern’s webpage has links to directions within the Abbreviations/References table near the bottom of the page. These directions are very nice, with both drawn diagrams and video to show you how to do it.

This pattern makes up fairly quickly (for an afghan) Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: afghan, easy knitting pattern, Easy Knitting Patterns, pattern review

My favorite baby knitting pattern is from Vanna White’s book entitled Vanna’s Choice Heartfelt Gifts to Knit and Crochet. She calls it Saw Tooth Edge Afghan (page 22). It’s definitely an easy knitting pattern because it’s almost all knitting. The hardest part of the body is remembering to change colors every two rows. The only thing you need to know besides the knit stitch is how to knit-two-together for the little Prairie Point-like triangles all around the edge. These Prairie Points take a long time to make, but they are what takes this quilt from boring to super-special.

Vanna’s original design calls for a boyish color scheme of Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: baby afghan, Baby Knitting Pattern, Easy Knitting Patterns, vanna white

I have this reputation for being late, like a lot of women. So why am I always late? I think part of it is that I am avoiding boredom due to being early and having nothing to do. I just can’t stand the thought of getting to an appointment 15 minutes early and having to just sit there.

But something happened to change all this about a year ago–I rediscovered knitting. It was all quite unexpected. I was at a church women’s retreat. There were two women there who sat and knitted all weekend. One of them even had Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Barbie, church, Easy Knitting Patterns, knitting needles, retreat

Here’s the second in my series of easy knitting patterns. I have actually made several of these in varying stripes and colors, depending on whether the intended recipient was male or female. The one in the photo was made for my husband. Rib patterns are nice for scarves because they look pretty much the same on both sides. They’re a really great off-to-college gift, too, if you work them in school colors.

One thing I really like about using quadruple ribbing for a scarf knitting pattern is that it looks Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Easy Knitting Patterns, ribbing, scarf knitting patterns, stripes

Technorati Tags: book review, Easy Knitting Patterns, how-to

Here’s the first in my series of easy knitting patterns. I made this scarf for a relative who’s in college in the south. The soft white color gives it a very feminine look. Made out of chenille yarn, the finished scarf feels reminiscent of wide-wale corduroy. Since the weather doesn’t get too challenging in the south, I made it fairly narrow. It’s almost more fashion than function. I’d make it wider if it was for someone facing a northern winter.

I started off with this particular scarf knitting pattern because single-ribbing is Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: auto-pilot, chenille, Easy Knitting Patterns, Scarf Knitting Pattern

What is it about knitting (or crocheting) that appeals to so many crafters, and has for so many generations?

Sometimes, I guess, it’s just in our blood. My dad’s mom was mostly into embroidery, especially pillow cases. But she also loved to do fine crochet, such as lacy borders on hankies. My mom’s mom was a professional seamstress, but she was known to knit a sweater now and then.

My mom would sew clothes on occasion, but she was really a knitter. At one point, she made herself about a half-dozen waist-length, lined jackets. She wore them with simple, straight wool skirts and had a lovely wardrobe on a budget. She knit everywhere—at home, on the bus, in the car—the needles were always clicking. She eventually taught herself to crochet and did a sofa-sized afghan not long before she died at the young age of 39.

But just having it in my blood is not the whole explanation. What is it that draws me to knitting Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: crochet, Easy Knitting Patterns, embroidery, multi-tasking