Join the Sassy Stripe KAL

It’s no secret that I love a good striped shawl, especially one knit in lovely relaxing garter stitch. There are just so many things to love about stripes, not least the opportunity to play with colour and to stashbust into the bargain.

As it’s been far too long since I had a good, chilled out knitalong I thought now would be the perfect time for a shawl KAL, specifically a stripy shawl KAL.

We will start on 1st June and it will be hosted both in the Everyday Knitter Facebook group and also on Instagram with the hashtag #SassyStripeKAL.

As a little thank you for taking part I’m offering a 25% discount on selected shawls from my website, all of which were either knitted with stripes, or lend themselves well to some stripe love. No code is needed for this, just use the button below to shop the sale shawls and then look out for the KAL posts on Facebook and Instagram.

As for me - I’m thinking I’m going to reknit my I Heart Stripes shawl which is in dire need of some new pattern photos. I just need to ferret through my stash first and dig out the perfect yarn.

How about you, can I tempt you?

How much yarn do you need for a Mitered Square

If you have ever contemplated the size of your leftover yarn bag and thought of making a mitered square blanket, then this is a post to bookmark and come back to for reference.

Ever obsessed with using up my leftover yarn - which mysteriously keeps replenishing itself when my back is turned, I took it upon myself to do a little investigation and work our how much yarn I needed for mitered squares of varying sizes in both DK and sock weight yarn.

The results I present below for your knitting pleasure because as we all know, the only thing more frustrating than running out of yarn with just a few rows to go, is ending up with lots of slightly smaller balls of yarn (that are too small for the square size you’ve chosen).

I have to add the caveat here that YMMV - your mileage may vary.

I weighed these squares on my digital scales which only go down to 1g increments so there may be some rounding up/down. Also your gauge and specific yarn weights might give different results, but hopefully the amounts below will serve as a guide.

Yarn amounts for sock weight yarn:

Using a 3mm needle and at a gauge of 28sts per 4”. In the list below 10x10 is shorthand for 10 sts by 10 sts.

10x10 1.5" less than 1g
15x15 2" 2g
20x20 3" 4g
25x25 3.75"6g
30x30 4.25" 8g
35x35 5.25" 11g

Yarn amounts for DK weight yarn:

Using a 4mm needle and at a gauge of 21sts per 4”

10x10 2" 2g
15x15 3" 4g
20x20 3.75" 8g
25x25 4.5" 14g
30x30 5.5" 18g

You can find all of this information along with my in-depth tutorial for creating your very own Mitered Square Blanket in my e-book, which is for sale at the link below.

If you’d like to read more about Mitered Square Blankets and their construction - I have a blog post and tutorial here that might help.

The Comfort Blanket KAL is back for 2023

I'm delighted to be able to announce that the Comfort Blanket KAL is back for 2023. It ran very successfully in 2020 and 2021 but last year I missed it due to the death of my Dad.

The year doesn't seem complete without my most popular KAL event though so I figured it was a good time to dust it off and relaunch it for another year.

Tell me more...

The Comfort Blanket KAL 2023 is a 4 week KAL which walks you through every step of planning and getting started on your mitered square blanket journey. I say journey because these blankets - typically knit from leftover yarn are generally considered to be long term projects. No one is expecting you to knit a blanket in 4 weeks - please don't worry.

Instead the KAL is intended as a springboard to get you started, with ideas and inspiration as well as practical tips for planning and construction.

The KAL will start on May 1st and each Monday for 4 weeks you'll get an email with that week's topic. The information will also be available within a dedicated Facebook group where you will be able to hang out with fellow Comfort Blanket KAL'ers and chat about your various projects.

And at the end of the KAL you’ll get an ebook containing all the information from the 4 weeks, along with a few other tips and tricks.

Previous year’s participants

If you took part in the previous KALs sit tight, as the joining instructions to the Facebook group and your automatic invitation will be heading your way soon. 

We all know that these blankets are a labour of love and you are welcome to come and join us again to add some more mitered squares to your work-in-progress. Or if you are a finishing superstar and you want to join in with another - because one mitered square blanket is never enough - it would be lovely to have you on board too.

Done is better than perfect

I've been doing a lot of thinking about perfectionism this week - partly as a continuation of last week's Tuesday Tip where I talked about the one piece of advice I'd give to all knitters.

Handknits are meant to have imperfections in them - it shows they were made by a human being not a machine.

That being said, it reminded me of when I shared a photo of my mitered square blanket - back in the day when I thought it was finished - and someone helpfully popped up to point out the square where the line runs in the opposite direction.

Luckily I'd seen it already, and decided that I could very easily live with it. But if I hadn't, or I was of a more fragile disposition I'd have been really upset.

But people of course love to point out others mistakes, it's a real human trait and well recognised psychologically.

In fact brands/companies will sometimes include an intentional error in their social media posts - as the slew of people pointing out the typo or the flaw will boost engagement.

Essex Is United - is a community FB page which started during the pandemic and they are past masters at this. They usually include a tiny error - in a jokey way - and then stand back and watch their comments section explode as people fall over themselves to point it out. It doesn't even matter that 120 people before them have done so, they still want to add their comment.

Why do humans do this? I've no idea

But in knitting terms, it's probably best that if you see a mistake in someone else's work that they are proudly sharing online - that you pretend you didn't

Not So Vanilla Socks

Not So Vanilla Socks: cuff down and knit in a gradient yarn from Gusto Wool (Urth Yarns)

Sometimes you need some plain vanilla socks, sometimes you just need something a little bit more. When I came across this lovely gradient yarn from Gusto Wool (kindly gifted to me by Urth Yarns) I knew that I wanted to knit something quite simple, that would let the lovely yarn take centre stage.

This yarn - Echoes by Gusto Wool comes in 2 x 50g matched gradient skeins - making it perfect for a project such as this. And the pattern is a simple, two-round repeat which is easy to memorise.

This is a cuff down sock, knit with a slightly longer leg than usual - all the better to show off that gradual colour change. Paired with a traditional heel flap and a rounded toe this is a perfect sock for either gifting or for yourself - ideal for travel projects.

Although I’ve used a gradient yarn here this would work equally well with mini skeins - try the clasped weft join to avoid dealing with ends. Or it would look fab with a self stripe yarn too. In fact my next pair might be just that.

Embrace imperfection

This week's Tuesday Tip is less of a tip and more of a mindset shift, and it's around the idea of perfection.

If I could offer knitters - both new and old - one piece of advice it would be to let go of the idea of your handknits being perfect. If we want something to be perfect and to look as though we bought it in a shop we can just go ahead and buy it.

Machines make the same thing, in the same way each time. They churn out endless, identical items untroubled by fatigue, emotion or thoughts and feelings.

Human beings aren't like that and thank goodness.

Think about it in terms of an average adult sized sweater. It will contain 1000s of stitches all of which you have created perfectly. There might be a couple of stitches that aren't - why on earth would you chose to focus on the 1 stitch that's wrong, rather than give yourself credit for the 1000s and 1000s that are absolutely perfect?

Embrace imperfection - life's way too short to focus on the tiny imperfections, especially as they are the things that show our humanity.