Free Pattern Fridays — Friday, August 25, 2017, Issue 18: Summer and Fall Knitting with Vacations Thrown In

Welcome back to another edition of Free Pattern Fridays! If you’ve been following along since Issue 1, you know that every week I round up the best free knitting patterns floating around the internet, share a little about what’s been happening on my needles, and generally celebrate the fact that it’s Friday and yarn exists. This week is Issue 18, and I can hardly believe we’ve made it this far. August 25th already — where did the summer go?

Seriously, though. Where did it go?

I spent a good chunk of July and the first half of August on vacation, which is partly why things have been a little quieter around here than usual. Between packing bags, wrangling sunscreen, and trying to figure out exactly how many knitting projects I could reasonably bring on a road trip (spoiler: the answer is always more than fits in the bag and fewer than I actually want), blogging took a back seat. But I’m back, my tan is already fading, and my yarn stash is calling to me in that urgent, insistent way it has when it’s been neglected for too long. So let’s dig in.

This week’s post is a little different from our usual format. Because I’ve been away, I’ve got vacation knitting stories to share, and because the calendar is doing that bittersweet thing where it’s technically still summer but fall is absolutely around the corner, the patterns I’m sharing today span both seasons. There’s something in here for the knitter who wants to wring every last drop out of summer — a beachy, breezy project or two — and something for the knitter who has already mentally packed away the flip-flops and is eyeing the chunky wool with barely concealed excitement.

Both types of knitters are valid. Both types of knitters are, frankly, me depending on the day.

Vacation Knitting: The Dream vs. The Reality

Let me tell you about vacation knitting, in case you’ve never experienced the particular joy and heartbreak of it.

The dream goes like this: You are sitting on a porch, a beach, a mountain overlook, or a quaint café in a town you’ve never visited before. The light is golden. There is a warm beverage or a cold one, depending on the location. You pull out your knitting and you work, uninterrupted, for long, meditative stretches. You finish an entire project. Maybe two. You return home transformed, with completed objects and a sense of deep personal accomplishment.

The reality goes like this: You pack four projects because you can’t decide. You bring the wrong size circular needle for the one you actually end up wanting to work on. The project you chose for “easy travel knitting” turns out to have a lace chart you forgot about, which is completely unworkable in a moving car or a dimly lit restaurant. You knit about twelve rows over the course of two weeks and lose a stitch marker somewhere in the rental cottage that you will feel guilty about forever.

And yet — and this is the magic of it — those twelve rows are some of the best twelve rows you’ll ever knit. Because you knit them somewhere new, with different air around you and a different view out the window, and the rhythm of knitting is one of those rare portable comforts that travels with you as faithfully as your own heartbeat.

This summer I brought a simple stockinette hat in a beautiful heathered blue-gray yarn that I’d been hoarding for the right project. Hats are my go-to travel knitting. They’re small, they’re mostly brainless once you’ve got the gauge sorted, and they feel productive even in short sessions. I finished it somewhere on the highway between two states I won’t name, holding the finished object up in the passenger seat while my husband drove and said “Very nice, honey” in that tone that means he genuinely has no idea what he’s looking at but loves me anyway.

I also brought a shawl that I did not finish. The shawl remains in a project bag, silently judging me from the corner of the craft room. We don’t talk about the shawl.

The August Transition: Summer to Fall Knitting

Here’s what I love about late August as a knitter: you get to live in two worlds at once.

Outside, it might still be hot. The farmers markets are full of tomatoes and stone fruit. The days are long, even if they’re getting incrementally shorter. Summer hasn’t given up yet, not officially.

But inside a knitter’s brain, the fall catalog has already arrived. We’re thinking about sweaters. We’re thinking about cozy cowls and thick socks and the particular satisfaction of finishing a cardigan just as the first genuinely cool morning hits. We’re pulling out our fall yarns and stroking them fondly. We’re making lists.

This dual consciousness is actually perfect for Free Pattern Fridays, because today I can justify sharing patterns across both seasons without anyone being able to accuse me of being premature. It’s still summer — so the summer patterns are timely. But it’s also almost September — so the fall patterns are too. Everybody wins.

If you are currently in the deep summer camp and not ready to let go, I see you. There are some lovely lighter projects below. Dishcloths, a breezy summer tee, an open-work shawl that would be perfect for cool evening air on a still-warm night. Cast those on. Enjoy the last of the season.

If you are in the ready-for-fall camp and have already mentally transitioned, I see you too, and I respect you deeply. There are some chunky, cozy, deeply satisfying fall patterns in here as well. Grab your wooliest yarn and let’s do this.

Free Patterns for This Week

Now, the main event. Here is your roundup of wonderful free knitting patterns to kick off your weekend.

The Breezy Summer Tee

If you’ve been meaning to knit yourself a top-down, seamless summer knit top and just haven’t gotten around to it, this is the week. There are so many beautiful free patterns for simple, flattering tees worked in cotton or cotton-blend yarn, and they make absolutely perfect late-summer projects. Choose a yarn with a bit of drape — cotton-linen blends are wonderful for this — and a light, airy color. You might not finish it before the weather turns, but you’ll have it ready for next summer and the summer after that, and honestly a handknit top is the kind of garment that earns more appreciation every year you wear it.

The key things to look for in a free tee pattern: clear instructions for multiple sizes, a construction method that makes sense to you (some knitters love top-down, others prefer pieced), and yardage requirements that match what you have in your stash. Many excellent ones are available on Ravelry right now. Search for “summer tee” and filter by free patterns and you’ll find more than an afternoon’s worth of browsing.

The Classic Cotton Dishcloth

Don’t roll your eyes at me. Dishcloths are noble. Dishcloths are one of the great gifts of the knitting world — they’re fast, they’re practical, they use up small amounts of yarn, they make wonderful gifts, and they are the perfect project for that in-between, transitional time of year when you haven’t quite committed to your fall project yet.

There are dozens of beautiful free dishcloth patterns available, from simple garter-stitch squares to intricate lace designs that photograph beautifully and feel like a tiny luxury next to the kitchen sink. Mason-Dixon Knitting has some classics. Grandmother’s Favorite Dishcloth pattern has been circulating the internet for years and for good reason. Ballband dishcloths in bright cotton are endlessly cheerful.

Knit a stack of them in late summer. Gift them at holidays. Feel like an incredibly organized person.

The Transition Shawl

Every knitter needs a good transitional shawl in their repertoire — something light enough to wear on a warm evening but substantial enough to be useful when the temperature drops in September. The sweet spot is usually a fingering or sport weight yarn with a semi-open stitch pattern. Something with a bit of lace but not so much that it becomes a full lace project requiring charts and total concentration.

Crescent-shaped shawls are perennially popular for this. They drape beautifully, they’re easier to wear than a large rectangular shawl, and the increases at the edges give you a satisfying sense of growth every few rows. Search Ravelry for free crescent shawl patterns — there are genuinely hundreds of them at every skill level.

My personal recommendation for this time of year is something with a solid section and then a lace border, so you can do the mindless stockinette rows while watching television and save the chart for when you’re alert and paying attention.

The First Fall Sweater

Okay, fall knitters, this one’s for you.

If you are going to knit one sweater this fall — and I deeply believe you should — cast it on now. Sweaters take time. The satisfaction of finishing a sweater just as the weather turns is immense, but only if you start early enough. Late August is honestly the ideal time to cast on a fall sweater, because if you knit at a reasonable pace you’ll have it done by late October and you can wear it for the entire rest of the season.

For a first fall sweater, or for anyone who wants a relatively quick and satisfying project, look for a simple drop-shoulder construction in a worsted or bulky weight yarn. Drop-shoulder sweaters have no complicated shaping, they go quickly, and they have an effortless, oversized look that suits the cozy fall aesthetic perfectly. There are beautiful free patterns for them on Ravelry, on individual knitting blogs, and on yarn company websites (Lion Brand, Drops Design, and Paintbox Yarns all have extensive free pattern libraries worth exploring).

Choose a color that makes your heart happy when you look at it. This matters more than you think. You will be looking at this yarn for weeks.

The Fall Hat Medley

And then there are hats. If sweaters feel like too big a commitment right now, hats are the answer. A simple, well-fitted beanie in a beautiful wool yarn is one of the most satisfying quick knits out there. You can make them in a weekend. You can make one for every member of your family. You can try a new stitch pattern or colorwork motif without committing to a sweater’s worth of it.

Look for patterns that use DK or worsted weight yarn for the fastest results. If you want to experiment with stranded colorwork — those gorgeous two-color patterns that look impossibly complicated but are surprisingly accessible — hats are one of the best entry points. A simple fair isle band around a hat is beautiful, achievable in an evening or two, and will make you feel like an absolute wizard.

What’s on My Needles Right Now

Since we’re catching up after a vacation gap, here’s the current state of my project queue.

The aforementioned blue-gray hat: finished, worn exactly once, already a favorite. The yarn was a dream to work with. I’ll share more details in a future post.

The aforementioned shawl: still in the project bag. Still judging me. I have vowed to pick it up this weekend, partially because I feel guilty and partially because it really is going to be beautiful when it’s done.

I’ve also just cast on a pair of socks in a gorgeous hand-dyed fingering weight that I picked up at a small yarn shop we stumbled on during the road trip. This is one of the absolute best things about traveling as a knitter: every town has the potential to contain a yarn shop you’ve never been to, and local yarn shops are one of the world’s great pleasures. This particular one was in a converted Victorian house, smelled of wool and wood floors, and had a cat sleeping on a basket of hand-dyes. I bought more yarn than I budgeted for and have absolutely no regrets.

The socks are in a colorway that looks like a sunset — deep oranges and warm pinks fading into a dusty rose. Very fall, honestly, even though I bought them in summer. Some yarns have a season of their own.

A Few Notes on Fall Yarn Shopping

While we’re on the subject, let me say a few words about fall yarn shopping, because if you’re anything like me, you’ve already started mentally — or physically — stocking up.

Fall is when the good wool appears. The yarn companies release their fall collections, the indie dyers put out their autumn colorways, and your local yarn shop starts filling up with the kind of thick, lofty, richly saturated yarns that make you want to wrap yourself in them immediately. It is genuinely one of the great retail events of the knitter’s year, and I say this as someone who tries very hard to maintain a “stash diet” for at least some portion of every year.

A few things worth keeping in mind as you shop for fall projects. First, think about what you actually want to make, not just what the yarn looks like in the skein. (This is advice I give myself constantly and follow only intermittently.) A gorgeous, thick single-ply yarn that photographs beautifully might be wrong for the sweater pattern you have in mind. Check recommended gauges, check construction requirements, check fiber content for anything that will be worn against skin.

Second, consider your actual knitting pace and your project timeline. It is very easy to buy yarn for six sweaters in October and then feel vaguely oppressed by them all winter. Give yourself permission to shop for what you’ll realistically make. Or don’t, and just buy all the yarn anyway, because we both know that’s what’s actually going to happen.

Third, support your local yarn shop if you have one. They are genuinely irreplaceable spaces in knitting communities, and they need our business, especially from September through December. The expertise of a good yarn shop staff member is worth more than any amount of online searching. They know their stock, they can feel the yarn with you, and they’ll talk you out of a bad project decision or talk you into a perfect one with equal grace.

Looking Ahead

As we head into September and the official arrival of fall, Free Pattern Fridays is going to lean heavily into the cozy. Sweaters, cowls, mittens, socks — the whole autumnal knitting glory. I’m also hoping to share a few posts about project planning for the holiday season, because the holiday knitting panic is real and the only way to survive it is to start thinking about it in September, however much that makes you want to look away.

For now, though: it’s Friday. It’s still August. The sun is still warm and the yarn is still beautiful and the weekend is full of possibility.

Cast on something wonderful.

Happy knitting, everyone. If you make any of the patterns mentioned in this week’s roundup, I’d love to see them — share your projects on social media with the hashtag we use in this little corner of the internet, or leave a comment below with what you’re working on. There is nothing I love more than hearing about what’s on your needles, wherever in the world you’re sitting with them.

See you next Friday.