Favorite Patterns

[untonuggan]

I'm curious - what are some of peoples'  favorite patterns? I have some folks in my circle who just started knitting, or who just got back into knitting, or are curious about knitting.

So here's some musings I have, if folks are up for it amidst holiday knitting and general revelry/chaos:

• What are you knitting right now? (Unless it's super sekkrit)
• What's a pattern you've knit before and have knit/want to knit again?
• What are some good patterns for beginners?
• What's a knitting skill (cables, bobbles, lace, reading charts, entrelac) that you're interested in learning (perhaps because the patterns are sooo pretty/interesting/whatever), and you want to learn? Perhaps other folks can offer good suggestions on how to learn that skill...

(P.S. I hope the mod is okay with this.)

Comments

[jenett]

Ooh! I am currently finishing a sizeable rectangular shawl (a Harry Potter house unity shawl - folks on Ravelry can see more over here. It's very simple knitting (stockinette, with a seed stitch border, with the variation coming in stripes of color), but I'm very pleased with how it's turning out. (I do plan to write it up when I'm done, but it's a lovely project that takes no real thought beyond counting rows.)

Also, related to my recent question, I am in fact playing with double knitting, and finding it a *lot* easier than I was thinking I might. (though I did something deeply weird to a stitch last night, and need to figure out how to fix it.) This would be my answer to "Skill you wanted to learn" - the current application is a dishcloth, and again, folks on Ravelry can see photos.

I am sort of a huge fan of dishcloths as a method for learning technique, personally. They're smallish projects, done in fairly substantial yarn (I really like KnitPicks Dishie line, - they've got some lovely non-pastel colors). And if I'm making a dishcloth, I find it's easier for me to go "Meh, that's a weird thing, but it'll hold together" if I mess up, where I get a lot more finicky and perfectionistic with anything else.

[zombie]

I would be more than willing to make one of those House Unity Shawls, mmhmm.

[jenett]

My hope is to finish it and write up the details in the next week or two. (And of course, it'll work with any four colours of yarn with reasonable contrast, which is nice.

[aunty_marion]

I'm with you on the dishcloths! I keep a stock of the plain dishcloth cotton yarn in so that I can practise new stitches or techniques with it. Sometimes it can get a bit silly, mind you, like the time I ended up making a Moebius dishcloth...

[hazelwho]

I want to learn double knitting! Do you hold one color in each hand, or pick up/drop them as you go?

[jenett]

I have only just started, but I am:

- Doing English style (throw, and I am right handed, so working yarn is normally in my right hand)

- I keep both strands in my right hand. It took a little to figure out how to twist so things come out cleanly, but not very long. (like a row or two.) Working with two different colors, though, this is not that hard. (Though I'm starting with dishcloth cotton because it is big and easy to see.)

- Mostly, they stay in my hand and I adjust them as I go (twisting my hand, etc. as I move them back and forth - for people not familiar with double knitting, you start with them both in the back, knit the knit stitch, move them both to the front for a purl stitch, make the stitch with your purl yarn, move them both to the back for your knit stitch, etc. You're only actually making a stitch with one yarn at a time [1], but you move both strands.

- I do not have wrist/etc. issues, but I do notice I have to be careful with tension for double knitting - more than I am for other projects - and I am keeping an eye on signs of wrist strain. (and shoulder strain and neck strain, and ..yeah.)

[1] Except on the ends of the rows: I'm doing a K2 with both yarns together. I am not crazy about what this looks like, but for my actual application, where they'll be joined on the edges, it'll be fine.)

[hazelwho]

Cool, thanks for this!

I want to learn double knitting, but a lot of the instructions seem to be for people who knit with the yarn in their right hand. I knit with the yarn in my left hand, and there are plenty of fair isle instructions out there for continental knitters, so it looks like I'll learn fair isle first. =)