Will you share your favorite easy but fun knitting "recipe"?

the easiest thing to knit is exactly what you are tired of. Knit, knit, knit, and keep on knitting until your piece is exactly the size of a placemat, then bind off. That is the easiest, plain and simple.

Here is a pattern for a great roll brim hat that I’ve used a lot. These are fun and easy to make. Sometimes I like to knit something that I don’t have to keep track of a stitch pattern or rows. You can just knit and watch tv and relax. I like to add a stripe sometimes or use varigated yarn. These are good hats to make and donate to Caps for Kids.

I like knitting entrelac hats. They look much harder to make than they actually are. It’s good practice on picking up stitches.

I’ve gotten a lot of use out of Hip Knits. All of the projects are structured for beginner knitters. I made some cute sweaters from this book.

BTW I thought it was funny you called it a recipe because that’s what my grandma always calls patterns and it makes me chuckle!

I’m currently knitting a new purse for myself. It’s a simple 50 stitch and “knit ten million times” pattern, where you knit a long rectangle, then fold it in three, sew up the sides on two of the folds and the last fold is the cover flap. Then I’ll make up a fabric strap, knit up some pockets, and voila a new beautiful bag for me!

I’ve never done any actual knitting beyond simple knitting. I’m looking into doing some cute crochet amigurumi dolls, or possibly making some gloves with interesting patterns, but I’m having more fun making and dyeing the yarn than doing anything with it :)

I’m knitting a sleeve for my mini laptop right now. I don’t know why because I never take it anywhere, but I had a couple skeins of some really cool chunky yarn with an eyelash running thru it. I was going to make a scarf, but I literally have about 30 scarves, so I decided on laptop sleeve.

I have also been working on a cabled baby blanket for my bestfriend, but I just havn’t had the motivation to finish it. I only have about 10 rows to go…

Thanks for all the ideas everyone!
@PandoraBoxx: That hat looks super-cute! I can’t wait to try it and yours @knitfroggy! Wish there was a picture though. It’s always nice to know what it’s supposed to look like.
Aw, and that’s really sweet, about your grandmom! I didn’t know anyone else called them that!

@YARNLADY: Are you suggesting I make a placemat? It’s kind of hard to tell. We seem to be on different planets today, as usual.

Since I asked the question, I’ve also been experimenting with striped scarves, like this and this. So now I have lots of new things to try. :-D

@La_chica_gomela I love those scarves! I adore the brown blue combo. I’m a big fan a varigated yarns and found some last winter that was brown/blue called Earth and Sky. I made several hats and scarves out of it. The lavender one looks very elegant.

@knitfroggy: Thank you!! :D
The lavender one does look elegant! I just meant it as an example of vertical stripes. I can’t do that fancy lacy pattern yet, but maybe someday!

@La_chica_gomela You will do it! All you can do is practice, practice and practice some more. When I was a newer knitter I wanted to learn to make socks. I tried so many times and failed just as many. Then one day, I made a sock, a wearable sock! I was so happy. Now, I can just get some dpn’s and some sock yarn and make socks with out even thinking about it. I think the best advice is to not give up. If you are trying something and jack it up, rip it out and try again.

@knitfroggy: Thanks for the encouragement! That’s what I ended up doing last night with the hat I was working on, but at least I was able to salvage the majority of it. I carefully un-knitted at least 20 rows of work though. But knitting is like football, no pain, no gain.

@La_chica_gomela That’s the spirit! When I first started I think I un-knit just as much as I knit. At times I’ve gotten bold, pulled the needles and started just ripping. When it works it’s fast, but if you can’t get all the stitches picked back up it’s horribly frustrating. I’ve been knitting since ‘01 and I don’t think I’ll ever get enough.

@La_chica_gomela Yes, I believe a placemat is even easier to make than a scarf, since you asked for easy.

@YARNLADY; Ah, I see. Well, thank you. I was just confused because you never said “How about a placemat?” or “Here’s how I make a placemat: First cast on X stitches with an x weight yarn…”. I felt like you were suggesting I make something like a placemat…or something…

Knitted pillows could be fun. I’ve seen some really cool shaggy knitted throw pillows.

What about doing a knit along? I’ve never done one, but once someone that goes to Stitch and Bitch at the knitting store near my house was working on a 1860’s shawl pattern as part of a knit along. It sounded intriguing.

@PandoraBoxx: What’s a knit along?

It’s where several people sign up via e-mail to knit the same pattern. Depending on the complexity of the pattern, you are e-mailed part of the pattern every few days, and at the end, everyone shares photos of their results. I was looking for an example to send you, and came across this site that has lots of photos of past projects. It’s nice because other people are working on the same thing, and if you run into problems, you can ask people who are working on the exact same pattern.

@PandoraBoxx: Oh, how interesting!

Have you tried anything besides garter stitch scarves and stockinette hats?

If not, there are two axes on which you can expand. One is in garment architecture (how do you shape the sleeves so that they fit on the sweater? How do you make the heel of a sock so that it can go over the heel of the foot when you put it on, but still be snug? The other is in knitting techniques—colorwork (stranded, mosaic, intarisa, entrelac) and texture (cables, lace) are the two major divisions.

You might also do well to pick a project that inspires you even if you aren’t sure you know enough to finish it. There are very few difficult techniques in knitting, and you can learn to cable or knit lace much faster than you are thinking now.

@PandoraBoxx: not all knit-alongs are surprise knitalongs where the pattern is revealed bit by bit. In some cases, they’re even well-known patterns that some of the participants have knit before.

@cwilbur: I’m more interested in techniques. Can you give me a specific project, as long as it’s a manageable size and doesn’t require loads of concentration I can probably handle it.

To answer your question, I’ve played around with different stitches on scarves, such as seed stitch, different styles of ribbing, and a few that I just kind of made up. They probably have names, but I don’t know them.

I’m actually really interested in colorwork right now. I’d like to make a scarf with two different shades of coral yarn I have. If you have any step-by-step instructions you’ve used that are good, I would be much obliged.

@La_chica_gomela Sorry for the confusion. I was just trying to say if you didn’t like knitting scraves, you could just use the same pattern and stop when it gets long enough for a placemat.

@La_chica_gomela: one of the best books ever written on stranded colorwork, Alice Starmore’s Book of Fair Isle Knitting, is being republished later this month by Dover. There are patterns (and they’re specific enough that they have to be called patterns—you can adapt the principles, but the stitch counts have to be right on) in that book for tams, sweaters, and (if memory serves) gloves.

Before venturing any further, it’s probably a good idea to get your hands on a knitting reference book—there are a lot of good ones, but I like Montse Stanley’s Knitting Handbook (also published as the Reader’s Digest Knitting Handbook most). It explains the absolute basics of most of the important techniques and serves as a good reference for all the obscure things you’re likely to forget—like exactly what a “centered double decrease” is).

@cwilbur: Thanks so much! I’ll definitely get those! Lurve to you!
@YARNLADY: Okay, well, thanks for input. I’m just not that excited about doing “exactly what I’m tired of”, and you still haven’t included any specifics.

As if I didn’t have enough things to try with everyone’s great suggestions, I just found some more of exactly what I was looking for on this page on threadbanger. In case anyone else has the same question in the future, it’s an awesome collection of free patterns there.

I really like both of these:

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall05/PATTbloom.html

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer07/PATTwisp.html

Both are from knitty.

The first is a very easy shawl that introduces you to short rows without needing to wrap and turn, so that’s nice. The finished shape is great too. (I did mine in a fingering weight yarn without bobbles. I didn’t really follow the pattern in terms of ‘do x 5 times’ or whatever, but knit it until I ran out of yarn.)

The second looks complex, but has some very easy lace + garter stitch. (I also did this one in a fingering weight, which has more heft to it and is easier to knit with (I think) than lace weight yarn.) It makes a great winter accesory—scarf, ‘hat’, shawlette, etc.

Make sure you are wet-blocking these yarns! The drape is sooo much better after you do.

@evegrimm, great patterns!

Haha, thanks @PandoraBoxx!
I also really like the Sonnet. It’s rated as a mellow, so it’s definitely possible for a beginning knitter; it’s a cardigan, has some basic shaping and is knit SIDE TO SIDE! O_o

It’s also a great way to encourage making gauge swatches…the sweater works for any gauge, any yarn, but you need to make a gauge swatch to fill in the blanks!

Thanks for the lurve!

How is your knitting coming @La_chica_gomela? Have you tried anything more challenging yet? I’m working on Christmas scarves for the girls at work and my family. Some of the patterns I’ve used I got from this thread, which is cool.

@knitfroggy: Well, I finished the hat that I mentioned earlier, and I’ve been working on the matching scarf for quite a while now. It’s my own variation of this scarf but made with a self-striping, thick-and-thin yarn I bought in Argentina, and instead of the stripes being only two rows, I have a few big blocks of each color-type. With only two rows, you couldn’t tell that it was even two different yarns because the colors of the self-stripe are so similar.

It’s cute, the hat is stockinette, and the scarf is a 1×1 rib, so they look like the same pattern, but the scarf has a bit more weight to it, and it’s interchangeable, so there’s no front and back.

I was doing it on some long metal straight needles (size 8) and I finally got a circular bamboo one. It’s been going MUCH more quickly (and more fun) since then. I’m pretty sure I got the suggestion of using circular needles even for non-circular projects. So, THANK YOU!! :D

@La_chica_gomela No problem. I seriously think it goes way faster and is less clumsy. You should post some pictures!

This scarf is stupid easy and looks great. (If you use only one color yarn. I think two looks ridiculous.)
I’m making these gloves as we speak, just because I want to work with a loom for a while. It’s super fast and easy and they look good.