She wanted to have an otter sweater, so we used the halibut sweater pattern she recently did as a template and I plotted out an otter on graph paper using the matching dimensions. Thought others would appreciate her work!

I started a blanket 10 years ago and put it down shortly after starting. It was on 30” circulars and I just kept casting on until I couldn’t fit anymore stitches. I was new to the hobby so I figured it would just be “blanket sized.”

I picked it back up about 6 months ago determined to finally finish this thing. I transferred it to 60” circulars to give myself more working space, and during that transfer I counted 450ish stitches, but that would just be a big king sized blanket right? So I kept going. But after about 9 balls of yarn and only 2 feet in length finished, I gave up and decided I would just crochet the blanket instead.

Halfway through my crocheted version, I ran out of yarn and made the sad decision to frog the knitted project for salvage yarn. After removing the circular needles, I thought it’d be interesting to see how wide the blanket actually was.

After straightening it all out I stared at my work, utterly dumbfounded, that I had been working on a 35 foot wide blanket this whole time. I am SO GLAD I did not finish this project as I would’ve cried at the monster I had brought into the world.

tl;dr - You should really pay attention to the size reference chart on your yarn and count the stitches when free-handing as a newbie.

pattern: Olivia‘s Cape by Amy Gunderson

I did really enjoy knitting this, but the finishing work (especially the silk ribbon for the steeks!) was so tedious it languished as a WIP for months. I love the end result :)

I started working as a professional costumer this month 🥳 These are some pieces I’ve been working on for the past couple of months, not for any particular projects, but just learning how to get better at knitting and grading :)

Three are renditions of other patterns that I’ve previously made and posted in this sub. I have to say that remaking the same patterns has been one of the best ways for me to get better at a ton of stuff. I have found that not only does it force you to think critically about your work, you also learn how to reproduce results, gain confidence with seeing direct improvements and become more detail oriented.

I’ve also found that I really love working with blocks — they are a great tool when working out how to grade patterns or when dealing with tricky vintage patterns :)

because he's now my fiance! A few days after I finished the sweater, he proposed :)

Hello dear fellow knitters,

I hope you don't mind me sharing my newest (third) design: the Scarf of Life. When I was about to start double knitting my first design, I already had the idea for a scarf about evolution, but I was intimidated by the subject and wanted to do it justice, so I delayed it. But now I've done it and I'm SO HAPPY AND PROUD. I couldn't wait for it to be done, but now that it is, I already miss working on it.

Last time someone told me to add designer flair, but I don't have that option, so maybe someone can do it for me? I hope it's okay to post this here. When I got started designing I posted here first and the enthusiasm I received was so motivating (thanks❤️), so... I just enjoy posting here.

Bye x

I once tried knitting the Novita Tanssien pleated skirt pattern but hated how heavy it was getting in the recommended yarn. I also could not stop thinking about a whole knit dress with a pleated skirt. Years later, I fell in love with Drops Flora, and figured it could work for this project, both in terms of composition and price (I needed 20 balls!). So I got to work last December, drafting the skirt with a little help from the Novita pattern but mostly on my own (I mainly used it to figure out how to... you know, pleat the pleats at the waist lol) and completely self-drafted the bodice.

The skirt alone took 6 months to knit (and nearly gave me carpal tunnel syndrome 😅), and after that I had to take a few-month break due to health-related stuff. But it is finally done!!! I'm thinking of turning this into a pattern for anyone else mad enough to knit a knee-length dress in fingering weight yarn 😆

really delighted with how it came out :)

My most recently finished top. The yarn I used is Holst Garn's Supersoft in the colour Tobacco and the pattern is Design No. 819 A Smart Style for that Long-Planned Holiday from Economy Knit Book Vol. 1 (1930s). I bought the PDF from Subversive Femme's website.

I made this using my knitting machine (Toyota KS901 and KR501), some handknitting (the moss stitch bowtie), crochet (the buttons, neck edge and key hole) and finishing by hand (seams and bind off edges).

Before knitting the top I rewrote all the instructions to make it easier to knit on the machine. Here are some things I always do since starting machine knitting that help a lot with the end result.

• use my gauge swatch to rewrite everything in terms of rows (instead of the usual "work even until work measures -- cm")

• write down the positions of my active needles whenever I have to increase, decrease or transfer stitches to the other bed (as with the front of this top)

• draw a diagram and write out the key measurements, such as yoke width, bust circumference, armhole depth etc. and so once I'm done with a new piece I immediately press it with my iron and compare to my diagram.

As for the construction I knit the body flat bottom up and the sleeve flat top down. For the shoulder shaping instead of the traditional staircase cast off, I used short rows and a three needle bind off. I decided to omit the original pockets as I didn't like the shape and felt it would become a bit too busy with all the other details. I crocheted the buttons and stuffed them with scrap yarn. I used the instructions from another vintage pattern for the buttons, but can't remember which. However there is a free pattern for similar buttons from Elizabeth Cranmer on Ravelry called Ball Buttons.

The row gauge of my final piece differed quite a bit from my swatch (36 rows as to 32 rows), but I decided to continue in this fashion as I would still have enough ease at key places such as the armhole and I felt the bracelet length of the sleeves and cropped body would actually work well with the design.

If you have any questions about my process please feel free to ask :)

I'm currently working towards creating reproductions of vintage knitwear and grading patterns, so if you have any constructive criticism on the quality of my work I'm all ears as well :)

This is Tin Can Knit’s Simple Sweater pattern. I made the fingering/sport weight version using Hobbii Friends Extra Fine Merino and Friends Kid Silk held together, both in the color Sunflower.

I posted months ago when I finished knitting my Low Tide Sweater, and I’m back to show it in action! We got married yesterday at Hags Head, Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. I made the skirt too. ☺️ I spent so much time worrying it would be too hot but ended up I was still a bit chilly with the wind! Anyway, I’d only ever knit a scarf and 3 socks when I decided to just go for it and knit this sweater and I am so proud of how it turned out!

My current crazy wip. I've made the charts in fiddle stitch using the basic picture I've drawn. I just wanted to share my journey since it's almost finished. I had many doubts after the first panel but it's turning quite fine. With many flaws but still, one of its kind 😏

Please don't tell me the two circular flowers in the chest area look like nipples. It's too late, I've already weaved in 90% of the ends and almost finished the second sleeve, it's too late 😭

Long story short, some time ago I had this weird idea of stripey dachshund sweater for my mom. I learned to crochet in April, so initially I wanted to crochet it. After reading a random comment that knitting is much better for wearables, I decided that it's time to learn!

Well, turns out if you want to knit a topologically connected dachshund, you need to learn intarsia... And all these increases decreases... And a bit of sewing on top of that! I was warned, that for the first project it might be a bit too ambitious, but since I'm more stubborn than smart I've decided to learn everything in the process.

There were a lot of mistakes, my tension still isn't perfect, my intarsia could be better, and I've had to fully re-do sleeves, because apparently not all superwash merino is created equal...

Anyway, I'm quite proud of myself! From not knowing how to hold needles in October to the whole sweater with my own idea implemented in December! But most important, my mom absolutely loves it! Now I'm ready for more and more knitting!

Some mandatory info here. Yarn: Hobbii Friends Extra Fine Merino XL in colors Cream, French Blue, Midnight Blue (even though I followed all washing instructions it felted and shrunk a bit, so I ended up handwashing the whole thing) Needles: 3.5mm and 4mm. Pattern: Gartrell Crew by Tanis Lavallee (loved this pattern, so beautifully written!) Chart: me and StitchFiddle, I don't know if I'm allowed to put a link here.

My daughter’s daycare organized a special Hungry Hungry Caterpillar day. Since I’m a very normal person I decided to knit a special cardigan for the day.

Pics 1-3 are glam shots, of course.

Pic 4 is blocking my sweater once it was finished.

5 is a knitting check in before I put on sleeves.

6 is a fit check before I knit the shawl collar.

7 is my gauge swatch once the yarn was finished drying.

8 is a glam shot of the finished yarn!

9 is the yarn once it’s been plied.

10 is the beginning of plying. (It’s a 3 ply yarn).

11-13 are the process of spinning the singles

14 is a look at what one of the batts I spun from looked like once it was blended and taken off the drum carder

15 is me deciding between blending pink silk or blue silk with the fiber. I chose blue, obviously.

16 is what the clean fiber looked like once it was picked open to make it easier to blend on my drum carder

17 is the fiber now clean and drying in a towel.

18 is an example of what the water looked like after the fiber had been soaking for 24 hours. 🤢

19-20 is what the fiber looked like when it was first sent to me! Completely dirty and raw. From a brown Tunis named Josephine Baker!

For those curious, I started scouring the fiber on 12/18/24 and I finished my sweater on 9/14/25! So this took about 9 months from start to finish.

(Pattern: Hechima Collar Sweater by Noriko Ichikawa!)

Had to go with the classic Sullivan costume from Monsters Inc. I followed an ancient pattern from an old knitting magazine that I don't even want to credit because it was so poorly written. Then I used a rug hook tool to add all the fur. That part took probably longer than it took to knit the bodysuit. But it was so worth it!

Tomato sweater by Studio Klara Small dog sweater by DesignerForDog

Inspired to post by the outrageously beautiful second place winner who posted recently, I was absolutely shocked to have won first in my category and Grand Champion at the Washington State Fair! I've only been knitting for two years and this was my first time entering; I fear I've accidentally peaked! Pattern is a slightly modified version of the Medokvit by Teti Lutsak, knit in De Rerum Natura Ulysse 🧡

I planned on just doing fair isle for the colour work, then realised I would have to carry the dinosaur colours all the way around. Didn’t feel like this was the project I would learn intarsia for (mistake), so I figured it would just be easier to duplicate stitch the face onto a blank sweater (it wasn’t). I also vastly underestimated my colourwork chart-making ability. Original plan was to just use some square graph paper I had lying around and roughly trace the google image. But since knit gauge isn’t square that didn’t work. My solution? Hand-draw a grid onto a blank A4 sheet at the exact scale of my sweater - 4.1x3.3mm. Then sketch and colour the dinosaur as best I could. I think this alone took me 2 solid days? I was in a rush to make it for Christmas, so, 3 days and 39 hours of duplicate stitching later he was done :’) It’s hard to describe the burn in my right forearm. Never again.