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!  

Startitis

How many projects do you work on at once?  And how many is too many?

Assuming that we don't count the blanket I started five years ago that is still sitting forlornly in my closet waiting to be finished (let's be real, that is just never going to happen), I have

• 3 projects on needles and currently active
• 6 projects that just need a little bit of finishing (blocking, sewing seams, weaving in ends)
• 4 dead projects that need to be frogged
• and an ever-expanding queue of projects-yet-to-be.

Basically, I have this bad habit of starting a project and not finishing them before starting another project.  It's called startitis, basically a disease in the knitting community.  Check out the webcomic Worsted For Wear for a relevant example.  

Here's the first problem. I cast on in November (early November, mind you) for a scarf that I was going to give to a friend for Christmas.  And in my twisted, gnarled brain, I was going to finish that fingering weight, linen stitch scarf with 375 godforsaken stitches in a little over a month.  As an added challenge, I decided to knit the thing up in a different style of knitting than my usual, beloved throwing English.  Continental, I told myself, would be way faster.  And yes, Continental has been faster for this particular project, but I have to watch what I'm doing because I'm not familiar with the technique.  That means I can only work on this scarf when I don't need my eyes.  I'm (only) about halfway done with it, and it seems like it will never end.

So to fix the first problem, I have to cast on for another project.  This time, I want something to work on in my own style of knitting, English.  I choose lace, again in fingering weight yarn but at least it's on larger needles than the linen stitch scarf.  And the pattern is really interesting to me because it's not the same thing over and over again.  But, that's the problem.  I actually have to think about the pattern.  I can't memorize a lace pattern that's ten lines long, and I have to constantly be counting to make sure I decrease and yarnover in all the right places.  That means that I can only work on this project when I don't need my brain.  

So to fix the second problem, guess what I did?  That's right: I cast on for something else.  This one is a shawl that is so tediously simple that I can set my brain on auto-pilot and work on it while I'm in a meeting, watching tv, or reading a book on my Kindle.  The other great thing about it is that when I think I might want to burn it because I'm so bored with the pattern, that's just when the lace border will begin!  

Those are my three active projects right now.  The six projects that still need finishing are doomed to sit in the closet until I get really bored or until I have time to work on updating my Etsy shop.  They're looking at 6 months to life.  As for the dead projects, I will frog them when, and only when, I desperately need the bag they are sitting in or when I have a truly brilliant idea of what to do with that yarn.  

What's next up in your queue?  Because I'm thinking about casting on for slouchy cable hat...