55 Free Patterns to Knit Before I Die

Ravelry has this function called the Queue.  It's a place to store all the patterns for things you want to make.  Or things that look really cool.  Or things that are really unique.  Or...  You get the point.  It's a lineup, a place to turn to for inspiration when you're not sure what you want to knit next, and a place to hold all those patterns that you know you'll get to some day.  Maybe you won't get to them; maybe you have QBLE, queue beyond life expectancy.  If you knit every day for the rest of your life, would you be able to get through all the projects in your queue?

I have a queue as well, but sometimes it fails me.  Sometimes I just don't have the right yarn.  There's also the issue of a lot of the patterns in there being far too expensive for my knitting budget.  How can I spend $7 on a pattern?!  That's, like, a skein of yarn or two packages of beads.

So here I have made up a super-queue, a knitting bucket list, to give myself (and hopefully you) some inspiration when my queue just doesn't do it for me.

1. Clapotis - a classic, well-known scarf/wrap/shawl thing that everyone but me seems to have made.  
2. Triangle Entrelac Shawl - who doesn't love a little entrelac in the morning?
3. Vortex Shawl - circular shawl that just wows me every time I see it
4. Glitz at the Ritz - an elegant beaded shawlette
5. Creoso - lace and cables in a unique heavy shawlette
6. Budding Shawlette - another chance to play with lace and beads, this time in a flower motif
7. Begonia Swirl - did I mention I like lace?
8. Elly - just one more, I swear
9. Estuary - two different lace patterns flow together in this water-inspired shawlette
10. Good Day Sunshine - Estonian lace shawlette with serious points
11. Sagrantino Shawl - 20 lace hectagons knit up and sewn together into a shawl
12. Bamboo Wedding Shawl - elegant rectangles of lace interlock in a rectangular shawl.
13. Strips and Stripes - colorwork scarf that plays with horizontal and vertical striping
14. Padma "Pashmina" Wrap - giant lace wrap brimming with elegance
15. Diagonale - laceweight stole
16. Colorplay - a rainbow scarf with fringe on both ends, the best in LGBT knit fashion
17. Pilsener Zigzag Scarf - unique zigzag lace pattern
18. Cerus Scarf - all linen stitch, all the time.
19. Starry Night - beads and lace in a dark blue, lightweight scarf
20. Wishing Cowl - long cabled cowl
21. Fillan Cowl - short cabled cowl
22. Cloche Divine - I don't even wear cloche hats, and I want to make this one
23. Once Upon a Tam - lace tam modeled after a hat from Once Upon a Time
24. Rosalina - cables, lace, and beads, oh my!
25. Pinwheel Beret - brioche in two colors on a slouchy hat
26. Alokananda Beret - stunning cabled beret
27. Rylands Cabled Hat - cabled in an entirely different way
28. Cafe Au Lait Tam - faux-cabled beret
29. Nottingham Hat - a completely different faux-cabled look
30. As the Leaves Begin to Fall - colorwork hat with leaves motif
31. Undergrowth - a completely different colorwork hat with a flower motif at the top
32. Shapely Boyfriend - everybody's got one of these simple cardigans but me
33. Wayside Lace Cardigan - it's knitting sideways!
34. Cadence - boat neck pullover with a lace pattern around the top
35. Pretty Mallory - raglan pullover with lace sleeves
36. Sequoia - shawl-collared vest in a heavy worsted yarn
37. Rose Trellis Shawl Vest - drapey vest with a lace pattern
38. Firelight - cabled vest
39. Thrummed Mittens - you know you want some of these toasty puppies
40. Yummy Mummy Wristwarmers - deliciously cabled fingering weight fingerless gloves
41. Magic Mirror - cabled mittens
42. Citadel Mittens - stockinette and reverse stockinette spell out the pattern in these mittens
43. Rubber Duck Socks - the ultimate in colorwork socks
44. Solstice Socks - mismatched socks that play with the different phases of the sun and moon
45. Basket Weave Rib Socks - unisex socks with an interesting texture
46. Free Bees - fun socks with lace bees 
47. Moon Socks - mmm, slippers
48. A Blanket for Seriously Cold People - giant squooshy bulky weight blanket made entirely of ribbing.
49. Norma - a lovely lace throw blanket
50. Modern Log Cabin Blanket - a bit of an updated look to a classic construction
51. Summer Leaves Throw - lacy summer afghan
52. Fancy Mug Cozy - everyone needs a mug cozy, might as well make it fancy
53. Elephant - isn't his little trunk adorable?
54. Texture Bite - the perfect little teddy bear
55. Catnip Bunny - our furry friends need a little love, too

And if you're a more visual person, I've also compiled all these patterns onto a Pinterest board!  

Travel Knitting

I've been sort of panicking all week because I don't have enough knitting to last for a 10-hour round-trip car ride.  Tomorrow, I'm heading off to Spokane to compete with my chorus in the Region 13 Sweet Adelines convention.  Yep, alongside my knitting, I sing sweet, sweet barbershop harmony.

But seriously, what was I going to do with all that time in the car?  Twiddle my thumbs? On top of that, I'll be sitting in an auditorium for many hours watching other groups perform.  I need something to work on, and I didn't have a project ready!

So I spent way too many hours on Ravelry this week looking for a pattern that

1. I already had the yarn for
2. Would take a significant amount of time to make
3. Didn't require me to look at the pattern the whole time
4. Wouldn't be enormous by the end of the weekend so I could pack it away when necessary.

It seemed impossible.  Socks are too finicky.  I found a LOT of lace options, but I couldn't immediately memorize any of the charts.  Hats I would finish in the first few hours (though I did consider bringing enough yarn to make 14 hats while I'm away).

Finally, I settled on a tank top.  I have this lovely purple yarn from Newton Country Yarns that's 75% Tencel and 25% Linen, perfect for a Summer project.  I found the Razor Cami pattern on Ravelry, and it only requires me to memorize a single round of lace!  I checked my gauge, and it came out a little bit big.  "No problem," I told myself; the pattern is for an XS-S, and I probably want a S-M, so that should work out.  I cast on yesterday, and I already like it (though it still seems a little small).  

Here's hoping it lasts through the weekend.  Maybe I'll pack some extra fingering weight yarn and needles just in case.  Mawata doesn't take up much space in a bag...

Blissful Brioche

Nope, not the bread, though you will wreck your diet just by looking at this Google search.

Please, just a taste?

Brioche knitting is a technique that creates a squishy double-sided fabric.  I've dabbled in it before to create a simple infinity scarf with a variegated yarn and a more complex cabled scarf based off of the Reversible Cabled Brioche Stitch Scarf pattern by Saralyn Harvey.  Brioche has its own rhythm, slightly different from the flow of regular knitting, and I found it very therapeutic.

But I wanted to step it up a knotch.  I kept seeing all these patterns for brioche knitting in two colors, like this wonderful hat:

Photo courtesy of the Ravelry 

That hat, the Pinwheel Beret by Nancy Marchant, blew me away.  It's so pretty, and the color combinations are endless, and I WANT one!  But the pattern is almost written in a different language.  I had no idea what a "bark" was or how to execute a "burp," so I thought this technique was beyond my reach.

Until, of course, I signed up for a Two-Color Brioche class as Vogue Knitting Live.  And who do you think taught it?  The very same designer, Nancy Marchant!  

I have to admit, I was a little bit disappointed with the class.  It cost a lot of money, and we spent the vast majority of the class trying to learn what she calls the "Italian Cast On," which was not an essential skill but a nice-to-know.  It felt like a waste of time to learn that one picky little trick instead of what we were actually supposed to be focusing on.  

Nevertheless, I did learn what a burp is (brioche purl stitch), how to read a brioche pattern, and how to work with two colors in this fabulous stitch.  Check out my perfectly imperfect beginner's swatch:

Isn't she lovely?

If you look closely, you can see my mangled stitches on the third or so row up.  Other than that and the poor color choices (they were just a couple scrap balls I had leftover), I think it turned out marvelously!  I'll put that in my success column.

If you want to learn more about this brilliant technique, check out Nancy's website, www.briochestitch.com.  She has tutorials and explanations for working the stitch with one or two colors, all the accompanying tips and tricks, and free patterns!  Her book, Knitting Brioche, is also beautiful, and I'm dying to get my hands on it, especially now that I know what I'm doing.  

FO Friday: Refreeze Hat

For once, I had the inspiration, know-how, and materials to make something unique enough to call it my design.  That's right: my very first design!

And it's on Ravelry!  That makes it double official!

Okay, enough with the exclamation points.  You get it: I did something new and I'm proud of the way it turned out.  When I'm being honest with myself, I think things like "Well, anyone could have come up with that pattern," or "You're not really making anything new, you're just combining knowledge that you already had."  It's a simple pattern.  All you need to know is cast on, knit in the round, 1X1 rib, stockinette, K2tog, and how to place beads on stitches with a tiny crochet hook.

That's the hardest part: the beading.  And again, I made it really simple by doing an easy diamond chart that anyone could have written.  But the technique for beading was a little time consuming.  For each of those 224 beads, I had to

1. Pick up a bead with a tiny crochet hook.
2. Slip a stitch from the left-hand needle onto the same crochet hook.
3. Slide the bead down onto both legs of the stitch (with much, much help from the tiny hook).
4. Put the stitch back onto the needle and knit it.

Can you tell I'm a technical writer in my day job?  I love lists.

If you need pictures to go with those steps, you could check out this tutorial from About.com.  The only difference is that she did not knit her stitch after it had a bead on it.  Maybe I did it wrong; maybe it doesn't matter.

I hope you like my pattern.  Try it out, and let me know if there are any mistakes.