Free Pattern Fridays — August 25, 2017, Issue 18: Summer, Fall, and Everything In Between

There is something quietly magical about this particular stretch of the calendar year. August is still insisting it is summer, the heat still pressing against the windows in the morning, but anyone who pays attention to the light knows that something has already shifted. The afternoons are a little shorter. The shadows fall at a slightly different angle. And if you are a knitter, you have probably already started casting on something in a deeper color, something with a bit more weight, something that feels like October even if the thermometer has not caught up yet.

Welcome back to Free Pattern Fridays, Issue 18. This week we are talking about the in-between season, about knitting on vacation, about the patterns that are carrying us from the tail end of summer into the early promise of fall, and about the absolute wealth of free patterns out there waiting for your needles. Grab your coffee or your iced tea — whichever still feels appropriate — and let us get into it.

The Knitter’s Dilemma: You’re on Vacation, But Are You Really?

Ask any knitter whether they bring their knitting on vacation and the answer is almost always yes, followed immediately by a very specific kind of anxiety. What do you bring? Do you check a project or carry it on? Will the security line give you trouble about your circular needles? Can you really knit on the beach without getting sand in everything?

Let’s talk about vacation knitting as its own discipline, because it genuinely is one.

The golden rule of vacation knitting is this: never bring the project you are most excited about. This sounds counterintuitive, but think about it. Your most exciting project is probably your most complicated one. It is the sweater with the intricate lace yoke, the colorwork mittens with seventeen ends to weave in, the sock with the twisted stitch pattern you have been meaning to learn for two years. You are going to be distracted, possibly sunburned, probably enjoying a drink with an umbrella in it, and you are not going to want to count to seven on a four-count repeat while your family splashes around in the pool.

Vacation knitting should be meditative. It should be the kind of knitting where your hands know what to do and your eyes are free to wander. That means stockinette, that means simple textures, that means garter stitch and seed stitch and maybe a basic cable if you are feeling ambitious. It means projects small enough to stuff into a tote bag without reorganizing your entire carry-on. It means yarn that can take a little humidity and some sunscreen residue without holding a grudge.

What vacation knitting should not be: anything that requires you to be actively looking at your work more than every fourth row. Anything involving laceweight yarn and size one needles while you are sitting on a beach. Anything with a chart you printed out and will inevitably lose somewhere between the hotel breakfast buffet and the poolside lounge chair.

Free patterns are your best friend here, because you can print several out before you leave, stuff them in your bag, and then pick the one that matches your mood once you arrive. Which is exactly what this week’s roundup is designed for.

The Seasonal Crossover: Knitting for Late Summer and Early Fall

Here is the honest truth about knitting for the seasons: you are almost never knitting for right now. You are either knitting for six weeks from now or trying to catch up on something you should have finished three months ago. Late August is a beautiful moment in the knitting year because it lets you do both at once.

On one hand, there are still summer patterns worth making. Lightweight shawls, cotton tanks, market bags that are useful all the way through apple-picking season. On the other hand, early fall knitting is calling. Cozy cowls. Simple hats in chunky yarn that work up over a weekend. Cardigans in warm neutrals that will be ready just when you need them.

The patterns this week lean into both ends of that spectrum, and we are not going to apologize for it. If you are still clinging to summer, there is something here for you. If you have already emotionally committed to September, there is something here for you too.

This Week’s Free Pattern Picks

A Simple Summer-to-Fall Shawl

The shawl is one of the most versatile garments in a knitter’s wardrobe, and a good basic shawl pattern is worth having in your back pocket at all times. The ideal late-summer shawl is worked in a light fingering or sport weight yarn in a color that reads as transitional — dusty rose, warm taupe, sage green, deep teal. Something that looks at home over a sundress in August and equally at home over a flannel shirt in October.

Look for patterns that use a simple garter tab cast-on and build from there with minimal shaping. A top-down triangular shawl in plain stockinette or garter stitch is endlessly wearable, easy to customize in size, and travels beautifully because you do not need a pattern after the first dozen rows. Many of the most popular free shawl patterns on Ravelry fit exactly this description, and they are free for a reason: the designers know that once you make one, you will come back to their pages for more.

If you want a little texture without a steep learning curve, seek out patterns that incorporate a simple eyelet border or a yarn-over increase line down the center. These details photograph beautifully, add visual interest without requiring constant attention, and give finished shawls that polished, intentional look that makes people assume you spent far more time on them than you did.

The Weekend Hat

Every fall knitter has a weekend hat in rotation, or should. This is the hat that works up in a single sitting, that uses yarn you probably already have, and that solves the gift problem for roughly eight people on your holiday list if you just keep making them.

The classic beanie silhouette — a simple 2×2 or 1×1 ribbed brim followed by rounds of stockinette, finished with a clean decrease to close the crown — is one of the most searched free patterns online for a reason. It is useful. It is achievable. It is satisfying in a deep, uncomplicated way that more ambitious projects sometimes are not.

When choosing a free hat pattern, look for one that offers multiple sizes (child, adult small, adult large), specifies gauge clearly, and gives you instructions for both flat and in-the-round construction so you can work with whatever needles you have on hand. A good free hat pattern will also tell you exactly how much yarn you need, which matters when you are working from stash and trying to figure out whether that single skein of worsted you bought three years ago is finally going to find its purpose.

A Transitional Cowl

The cowl is arguably the most practical item a knitter can make for this time of year. It bridges the gap between summer and fall better than any other accessory. It is not as committed as a scarf. It is not as involved as a hat. It sits around your neck on cool mornings and gets stuffed in a bag by noon, and it does all of this with minimal bulk and maximum elegance.

Free cowl patterns run the gamut from beginner-friendly tubes of ribbing to complex cabled statements that require real attention, and both ends of that spectrum have their place in August. If you want something relaxing and portable, a simple double-knit or ribbed cowl in a squishy bulky yarn is going to give you tremendous satisfaction with minimal frustration. If you have been waiting for the right moment to try a new stitch pattern, a cowl is the perfect test ground because it is small enough to finish quickly and large enough to make the pattern legible.

Some of the best free cowl patterns online are what you might call “one-skein wonders” — designed to use exactly one skein of yarn, which means you can make a decision at the yarn shop, bring it home, cast on that evening, and have a finished cowl by the weekend. These patterns are especially popular in September when everyone suddenly remembers they want handmade holiday gifts but are not quite ready to commit to a sweater.

A Market Bag or Tote

Hear me out on this one. A knitted bag sounds like a summer project, and in yarn terms it often is — worked in cotton or linen or a cotton-blend that breathes and washes easily. But the honest truth is that fall is when a knitted market bag earns its keep. Farmers markets run through October in most parts of the country. Apple orchards and pumpkin patches and that particular weekend when everyone you know goes to pick their own something — these are all moments where a handmade bag is both useful and quietly charming.

Free market bag and tote patterns in simple mesh or elongated stitch patterns are everywhere right now, and many of them are genuinely beginner-accessible. If you have never worked with cotton yarn before, a tote bag is a forgiving first project. Cotton does not have the same elasticity as wool, so your stitches may feel a little stiff at first, but cotton also shows stitch definition beautifully and the finished fabric has a crispness that suits the structure of a bag perfectly.

Look for patterns that use a simple cast-on over a certain number of stitches, work in the round for the body, and then split for handles. Many free versions of this construction are available and the basic architecture is so simple that even fairly inexperienced knitters can troubleshoot as they go.

Yarn Thoughts for Late August

If you are shopping for yarn right now — whether at a local shop, a festival, or online — late August is a genuinely interesting time to be a consumer. Summer clearance on cotton and linen yarn is usually in full swing, which means you can often pick up beautiful yarn at significant discounts. Meanwhile, fall arrivals are starting to come in, which means new colorways in wool and wool blends, new collections from indie dyers who have been cooking up their autumn palettes since May.

This is also the season when yarn festivals tend to happen. If you are planning any fall travel and there happens to be a fiber festival in the vicinity, consider building your itinerary around it. The enthusiasm in the air at a yarn festival is genuinely contagious, the vendors are knowledgeable and passionate, and the experience of touching yarn before you buy it — of seeing colorways in natural light and feeling the drape and the texture — is something that shopping online simply cannot replicate.

For late-summer and early-fall projects, think about versatility in your yarn choices. A good worsted-weight wool or wool-blend is going to carry you through more projects than almost any other weight. It works for hats, cowls, mittens, shawls, bags, light sweaters, and a dozen other things. If you are building a stash and trying to be intentional about it, a worsted-weight neutral — charcoal, cream, warm gray, camel — in a quality yarn you love is almost always a good investment.

Notes on Knitting Portability

Since we talked about vacation knitting earlier, it seems worth spending a moment on the practical logistics of knitting on the go.

Circular needles in sizes six through nine are almost universally accepted on commercial flights in the United States, and the TSA website officially permits knitting needles of all materials. That said, discretion is still wise — a set of clearly labeled needles in a fabric needle case reads as harmless, while a loose collection of sharp metal objects stuffed in a carry-on pocket can raise eyebrows. Keep your needle case organized, keep your project in a dedicated bag, and have a printout of the TSA guidelines if you are anxious about being stopped.

Bamboo or wood needles are the traditional choice for travel because they are less visually alarming and quieter than metal, which matters when you are in a middle seat on a three-hour flight. They also have a little more friction than metal, which is actually useful when you are working in a tight space and do not want stitches slipping off unexpectedly.

A small zippered pouch for your notions — stitch markers, a tapestry needle, a small pair of embroidery scissors or a thread cutter, a row counter, and a crochet hook for picking up dropped stitches — will fit in a coat pocket and will save you tremendous aggravation mid-project. Pre-wind your yarn into a center-pull ball before you leave home so it does not roll under the seat of the airplane.

A Few Words About Free Patterns and the Designers Who Make Them

We talk a lot on this blog about free patterns, and it feels worth pausing occasionally to think about where they come from and what they represent. Knitting pattern designers — particularly the independent designers who publish free patterns on Ravelry, on their personal blogs, and on sites like LoveCrafts — are part of a generous creative economy that has been quietly sustaining the knitting world for decades.

A free pattern is not a lesser pattern. Many of the most beloved, most downloaded, most-made patterns in the knitting world are free. Designers offer free patterns for a range of reasons: to introduce themselves to new knitters, to give back to a community they love, to drive traffic to their shops and paid collections, or simply because they made something and want to share it. Whatever the reason, the result is a staggering archive of high-quality, accessible, beautiful patterns that anyone with an internet connection and a pair of needles can use.

If you download and enjoy a free pattern, consider taking a moment to leave a comment on the designer’s page, add the project to Ravelry with a note about how much you enjoyed the pattern, or follow the designer on social media. These small gestures cost you nothing and mean a great deal to the people who created the work.

Looking Ahead

Next week we will be moving more decisively into fall territory — the sweaters are coming, the mittens are coming, and we have a whole roundup of cozy-season patterns in the works. If you are not already subscribed, now is a good time to sign up so you do not miss Issue 19.

In the meantime: cast on something. Whatever is calling to you right now, in whatever weight and color feels right for this particular late-summer afternoon. Knitting is always present-tense, always immediate, always personal. The best project is the one you are actually making, not the one you have been planning to make since March.

Happy knitting, happy traveling, and here is to the beautiful, quietly restless stretch of days between summer and fall.

Free Pattern Fridays posts every week with curated free patterns, yarn thoughts, and notes on the knitting life. Issue 18 was published August 25, 2017.