Free knitting pattern: Heel Flap Scarf

I've been working on it since November, but it's finally out — my Heel Flap Scarf pattern! Woohoo! It's freeeeee, and it's a nice quick knit that you can make using pretty much any yarn, to make any size scarf you like. Just watch out: it curls, so you'll probably want to choose a protein fiber yarn that will let you block out some of the curly curling. ;)


Check out the pattern page on Ravelry, or go right ahead and download the pattern by clicking here.

I'd love to hear what you think of the design and the pattern, and of course if you knit it I'd love to see pictures, so come back and share! :D

A quick free knitting pattern: cup cozy, bottom up version

Free knitting pattern, anyone? Here's a quick little one for a cup cozy, knit from the bottom up. It's designed for a tall, handleless (handmade ... nom nom nom) cup because that's what my boyfriend uses all the time, so it won't work for a standard coffee mug — but hey, you could starch it and use it as a pencil cup? ;)

Simple Cup Cozy - Bottom Up Version
Design and pattern by Crystal Calhoun
A Star & Crossbones Knitting Pattern



This pattern is extremely adaptable to whatever yarn and needles you have, and to whatever cup you need to cover. Use whatever yarn and needle combo makes a fabric that you like; you could even use this project as a stashbuster, or to practice knitting in the round — whatever! It'll come out fine in the end, and if it doesn't, you can rip it out and start over without feeling too bad — it's a tiny project, after all. ;)

As you may have guessed from the name, I intend on knitting a top-down version of this cozy in a commercial yarn, which should help me figure out the real yardage. Stay tuned for that...

Materials

• Worsted weight yarn - or whatever yarn you like
• Size 5 dpns - or whatever size gives you a fabric you like
• Yardage — This will vary depending on the weight of yarn, but I used probably less than 30 yds of approximately worsted weight, 2-ply, handspun alpaca/wool blend.

Gauge

I didn't bother with a gauge swatch, since I was measuring my knitting as I went. In fact, you could use this project as a gauge swatch that actually does something functional at the end.

Preparation

Measure the diameter of the bottom of your cup. Also measure how far up the cup you want your cozy to go (that is, take a height measurement). Follow the below instructions only as far as they apply to your desired measurements.

You might want to knit to a bottom cozy diameter that's slightly less than the diameter of the bottom of the cup, since the knitting will stretch, and it's better to have it be a bit too small than to have it be too big and fall off your cup, right?

Go forth and knit!

Cast on 4 sts. Divide over 3 or 4 dpns. Join in round without twisting cast-on.

Place a stitch marker to mark the beginning of the round, if you like. (I always cheat and use the yarn tail hanging out of the cast-on as my "marker." When the knitting gets longer and kind of "swallows" the yarn tail, you can pull the tail up between the last stitch of the round and the first stitch of the round, so that it sticks out of the knitting and you can check where the round starts.)

Increase in every stitch (kfb) for three rounds. (If you have trouble controlling the needles at this point — I know I did — you can lay the needles on a table and knit using the table for support until the needles stop flopping around so much.)

Knit 3 rnds plain (all knit stitches).

Inc rnd: Inc in every st.

Knit 2 rnds plain. (Designer's note: I stopped after these two rounds for a bottom diameter of 2.75 inches. Stop wherever you reach the desired diameter, as directed below.)

Knit inc rnd again. Knit 3 rnds plain.

Continue repeating the inc rnd and knitting plain in between each inc rnd, increasing the number of knit rnds after each inc rnd by 1, until you reach the desired size for the bottom of the cozy.

Then, count the number of stitches you have on your needles, and choose a rib pattern that will fit into the number of sts you have.

I ended up with 64 sts, so I could have chosen any rib pattern based on a multiple of 2 or a multiple of 4 sts, like 1x1 rib, 2x2 rib, 4x4 rib or 3x1 rib. I chose 3x1 (k3, p1, and repeat to end).

You can just start knitting away in your rib pattern, or you can work a "turning ridge" of purl stitches before starting the ribbing. I just went straight into the ribbing.

Knit in your ribbing pattern until you reach your desired cozy height. I knit for 3 inches, then knit another half-inch of 1x1 ribbing to create a tighter top edge, since the cup I was knitting for gets bigger as it gets taller. (You may want to try the cozy on your cup while knitting and adjust your target height as seems reasonable.)

Bind off using a stretchy cast-off. I bound off in pattern (k1, p1).

Weave in the yarn tails and enjoy your cup cozy. ;D You can embroider it, sew on it, and otherwise make it awesome, of course. And if you do, I'd love to see pics!



License/copyright: This pattern and items created from it are intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You're welcome to redistribute the pattern for noncommercial purposes as long as you leave the credits intact. :D If you're interested in using this pattern or the products of this pattern for commercial purposes, please contact the designer at crystal@starncrossbones.com.

New Help for Haiti knitting pattern available

My first for-sale pattern is up in the Etsy shop, and you can also buy it through Ravelry from my knitting patterns page (no need to be a Ravelry member, either)! Woohoo!


Princess in the Wilds
(a Help for Haiti pattern)


75% of the price of any purchases of the pattern will be donated to Haiti disaster relief. I know I'm a little late to the game, but they still have a lot of cleaning up to do, and many groups are still taking donations, so I'll be donating most of the proceeds from this pattern indefinitely. I wanted to help more than I did, and hopefully I can do it through this pattern. If you didn't get a chance to donate before, or you missed out on most of the Help for Haiti knitting pattern stuff in January/February, well, here's another little thing you can do. :D Feel free to tell your friends, too, of course. I'd love to be able to make a sizable donation.

Ravelry is for Designers!

First, the hug monster pattern that I tested a couple of weeks ago is up on Ravelry for purchase — yayyy! Check it out! (It's worth it just to see the pirate version. ;))

Also, momentous news! I. Have. Been. Hooked up as a designer on Ravelry.

Behold, my profile now shows that I Design Patterns:



(The blue arrow points to the hug monster I made with that pattern I just mentioned.)

My official designer page is here, but I haven't done anything special to it yet, so it's just an echo of my personal profile ... with my designs attached at the bottom.

HURRAH.

:D

Free Knitting Pattern: Fiber Helper/Wrist Distaff

It's the week of the knitting pattern! This one's free and quick, and takes 10 or fewer yards of yarn. Of course, it won't be much use if you aren't a spinner or don't know one — but there's always room for a new craft, right? ;) Anyway, this pattern is for a wrist distaff. I'll probably make a PDF out of it later, but I wanted to post the pattern before I lost my nerve. Here 'tis.

Fiber Helper/Wrist Distaff
Design and Pattern by Crystal Calhoun
A Star & Crossbones Knitting Pattern



A tiny bit lacy, a tiny bit cabley, and they only take a tiny bit of yarn. Ta-da! A stashbuster knitting project for spinners or friends of spinners. For those of you who haven't used a wrist distaff before, there's a nice short demo video here.

Designer's notes: pattern structure

The wristband is knit flat, then joined together to become I-cord, which ends in a little bell or circle to help keep the fiber from slipping off. The "stopper" at the end is knit in the round — so you get a lot of technique for the tiny yardage. ;)

Added August 26, 2010: At least one person has also gotten a ruffled stopper using these directions. I think if you use a heavier yarn than recommended, or knit at a larger gauge than I did for some other reason, you'll probably end up with ruffles rather than a circle or a bell. Feel free to drop me a line and let me know if you end up with ruffles, or some other unexpected result, too!

Materials

• Around 10 yds of worsted-weight yarn
• Size 6 double-pointed needles

Stitch Patterns

Crossed Stitch (crs): Insert right ndl into 2nd st on left ndl, and knit. Knit 1st st on left ndl (st closest to edge of ndl). Slip both sts off left ndl at once.

And now, the knitting!

CO 4 sts. (Designer used the long-tail cast-on.) Purl one row.

Row 1 (RS): k1, crs, k1
Row 2 (WS): sl1 purlwise, p2, sl1 as if to purl tbl

Rep these two rows for 7 inches or until wristband is long enough to fit comfortably around your wrist with ease (it will need to slip on and off easily, but not be so loose that it will fall off while you're spinning). End by knitting a WS row, ready to start a RS row.

Next row, join wristband into a circle: Hold CO edge behind live stitches and, for all sts of row, knit into one live stitch and one stitch of CO edge at the same time.

Tip: If you find that easier read than done, try this technique for the wristband join row: Knit each CO/live st pair in two steps. Put the right needle tip into both the live st and the CO edge st. Hold the CO edge firmly with left hand, and draw the working yarn through the CO edge st. Then, holding the left needle as usual, draw working yarn through live st on needle. (Whew!)

Begin I-cord: Knit one row. * Without turning work, slide live sts to right end of dpn and bring working yarn to right edge of knitting; knit all sts. Rep from * until I-cord measures 4 inches, or desired length of wrist distaff.

Increase for bottom stopper and join to knit in the round:

Row/Rnd 1 (inc): kfb into all sts. (Divide sts over at least 3 dpns after the first rep of this inc row, and continue knitting stopper in the round.)
Rnd 2: Purl.

Rep these two rnds 1-3 times depending on how big a stopper you want. Knit one round. Bind off. Weave in ends. (I like to "weave in" the yarn dangling off the wristband by running it into the hollow space inside the I-cord, then bringing the needle out near the bottom of the I-cord and clipping it close to the I-cord — but not so close I cut the I-cord.)

Your fiber helper/wrist distaff is ready to help you enjoy making more yarn!

License/copyright: This pattern and items created from it are intended for personal, noncommercial use only. Please do not reproduce and/or redistribute this pattern without the designer's permission. If you're interested in using this pattern or the products of this pattern for commercial purposes, please contact the designer at crystal@starncrossbones.com. :D

Call to test-knitters: fingerless gloves are ready!

It's officially time. My first wristwarmers/fingerless gloves pattern — yes, the one I've been blathering about since late last year ;), the revised version of the gray wristwarmers design you may have seen — is ready for someone other than me to test-knit it. Dum-dum-da-DUM!


As mentioned before, I'll be giving out goodies for this test knit (and you'll probably get to choose between a couple of options). I'll also need a pretty quick turnaround — I'd like feedback by February 24. I knit one fingerless glove in one night, though, and they only take a little over 100 yards of yarn, so the deadline shouldn't be too difficult to meet. (These would probably make an easy Ravelympics medal ... wahahahaha. ;))

Vital stats for the pattern

• Yardage: 110 yards
• Yarn weight and type: smooth, evenly-spun, light worsted weight/DK to heavy worsted weight/aran (pattern includes information on two gauges)
• Yarn color (recommended): light to medium solid colors or long color repeats (like Noro yarn has) — texture will be obscured by dark colors or frequent color changes
• Recommended needles: size 7 double-pointed needles (set of 4)
• Gauge: for light worsted/DK weight yarn: 5 sts/inch; for heavy worsted/aran weight yarn: 4.5 sts/inch
• Difficulty level: beginner/advanced beginner
• Skills needed: CO, BO, knit, purl, decrease, using waste yarn, pick up and knit, reading simple charts, edited to add: knitting in the round
• Other required materials: 2 stitch markers, waste yarn (about 6 inches)

If you want to be in the Star & Crossbones test-knitting group, go to my shiny new test-knitter application form (I made it myself! OoooOOOooo!) and sign up! If you see anything wonked up about the form, BTW, email me and let me know. It's fresh off the keyboard, and I will much appreciate it if you point out anything ungood about it so I can fix it. :D The request for notification of wonked-up-ness applies across the board to the sign-up process, really.

And for the record, you absolutely do not need to be an expert knitter to test-knit. You just need to match or exceed the skill level required by the pattern, which is why I listed that tidbit of information above.

See you in the testing pool. ;D

My first original pattern, fresh off the needles!

Ta-da! The wristwarmers I've been working on test-knitting for myself are finally done enough to get a photo of them! Here's a sneak peek:


Now I need to proofread the pattern/make the edits I have written down, and off my pattern will go, into the wilds ... If you're interested in test-knitting it, there will be test-knitter goodies. :D More details on that when the pattern goes live.

Wooo!

The wristwarmer adventures continue (this time in green)

What I'm working on tonight:


That's the green, commercial-yarn version of that darn wristwarmers pattern I've been working on forever. It's a quick knit, but I haven't had the focus to sit down and do it all at once — partly because I'm afraid of the results. ;) Not that the pattern sucks. It's just that I feel like maybe I'm a crappier designer than I hope I am — but the best way to fix that is to find that out and work on it, right?

Now to go knit some more. I really want to have this darn pattern done this month. (A good birthday present for myself?)

Wristwarmer waffling: opinions needed!

Edited 8:12 p.m. Eastern on December 7: Now with new pictures! (You know, it's hard to photograph my own wrist at a non-funky angle when the camera needs to be on a tripod for stability...) Also, since they seem to show up brown on some people's screens, these are actually gray.

Here's a sneak peek at some wristwarmers I'm designing. (This will be one of my first publicly published knit patterns ... If I can convince myself to finish it! Writing fiction was never this waffle-inducing.)







(Top)


(Bottom)


What I want to know: What's your gut reaction to their appearance? Do you look at them and go "Eh" or do you go "Hmm, that looks pretty decent"? Or do you go "DUDE I WANT THOSE"? I doubt that last one, but hey! Anything is possible.

Also let me know what your normal style of knitting is, so I have some context. I don't really expect people who love the look of smooth stockinette knit in silk yarn to like these, but that doesn't mean I don't want your opinion. I just, you know, should understand where you're coming from.

I wanted to make these a relatively quick knit, but I didn't want them to be overly simple — a little contradictory, but not as much as it might seem ;) — so they're done in worsted-weight yarn but they have a kind of stupid amount of texture. I should have knitted the test in a lighter color to show the texture better, but I used what I had on hand, and now I'm wondering if I should reknit this exact design in a lighter color, or if I should tweak the design first and then reknit in a lighter color.

That's why I need your opinions. If the design isn't appealing enough as-is, then I'll rework it before I reknit it. What do you think?

Superfringe!

That's the second hairpin lace scarf, which is getting sent today for the "Anything you can do..." swap. More crazy crafting yet to come!