FREE PATTERN FREE-FOR-ALL

Did you see the latest announcement from LionBrand.com that all their patterns, and there are thousands, are now FREE?

LB free one 0809

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/80243AD.html

This is a boon to us – and a GREAT way for a company to sell a lot of yarn. As you all know by now, I’m swimming in yarn. I don’t need to buy any. But, when did need ever have anything to do with YAS (yarn acquisition syndrome)?

Well, my yarn Donnybrook is upon me. I’ll be buying no more yarn for a while. Gotta use up or give away this HUGE stash before I expend more income on yarn that just sits, staring at me, yelling ‘nanny boo boo – you need to crochooo’.

No kidding! Doesn’t your yarn yell at you? Also, I believe that all the colors and textures I don’t LOVE get together in the dark of night or closet or plastic tub and MATE TO CREATE MORE skeins like them. I mean, how much orange yarn does one PINK person need? I didn’t buy all that orange yarn – ummm, or did I? Well, if I actually bought it, it was at a thrift store or a garage sale. Really! Tune out now if you don’t believe me. Non-believers are unwelcome here…..

But, I digress. Back to free patterns. Lest you run out of items to crochet, here are some sites you must visit. Cuidado! Warning! Caution! These sites are ALL addictive. You’ll spend way too much of your crochet time surfing these sites. But, a crocheter’s gotta get inspiration from somewhere, right? So here goes:

If you haven’t spent a month browsing this site, you’re don’t REALLY have PAS (pattern acquisition syndrome):

http://www.myhq.com/public/c/r/crochetpoet/

Same goes for these:

http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/

http://home.inreach.com/marthac/links.html

And, here are a few others that I enjoy visiting:

http://momsloveofcrochet.com/doilypatterns.html

http://www.littleprojectscrafts.com/freepatterns.htm

http://jaybird-designs.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=14

http://www.cbel.com/crochet_crafts/

Whew! That’s all for now. More soon. Now, go forth and surf!

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When I knit socks (which sadly I have not done in a while; need to get a new pair on the needles soon!) I generally stick to pretty simple designs and colorwork that isn’t all that detailed.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a fancy sock, I’m also just pretty lazy and I figure a project worked on size 0 or 1 US needles is going to take a long time even without the added work of intricate colorwork, so why make it more complicated?

But there are definitely socks out there I’d be willing to make an exception for, and I think Tangled Bliss by Annette Schleicher may just be one of them.

If you can’t tell from looking, this is decidedly an advanced knitting pattern. There’s brioche for the cuffs, complex looking colorwork done with the ladderback jacquard technique, multiple charts, and colors changing everywhere.

There are links to tutorials for all the special skills in the pattern, but still it would help to have a handle on these concepts before you get started.

The pattern uses three colors of light fingering weight yarn at a whopping 31 stitches per 4 inches/10 cm (that’s 7.75 stitches per inch/2.5 cm).

Would you believe me if I told you that this pattern was designed for a speed knitting contest? Speed would be the last thing on my mind.

But again, I think all the work for these fancy socks would be worth it. I love hoe the colorwork looks like an old tile floor, and think of the bragging rights when you tell people you made them yourself. (Though of course you did; have you ever seen store-bought socks that look anything like this?)

Best of all, this pattern is available for free on Ravelry, so there’s no reason not to give it a try if you’ve got the skills. If you do, I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Annette Schleicher]

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Have you read?