Search for Car Related Knitting Patterns

Living in a city, it would be very difficult to have a car. Even if I could park on the street outside of my apartment, snow emergencies would be crazy! I miss the freedom that owning a car would provide. (The only car I ever "owned" was my great-grandfather's '87 dodge, but I never had the title.)

I got to thinking... what kinds of car related knitting patterns are out there? I predict that I will find at least two categories of patterns, toys and functional items for a car.


Toy Car Knitting Patterns

• School Bus - There are pockets under the windows so you can put little knit people on the bus! This is so cleaver and cute, it would make such a great toy for a young child.
  

Car Related Clothing Knitting Patterns

• Jacket with Cars and Borders - This child sized jacket (cardigan) has little car and trucks running around the body. This is very subtle, you have to look closely at the pattern to see the cars and trucks. Colorful and fun. Would work well for dressing up your kid.
  
• Cardigan with Cars - From the same studio as the previous pattern, this cardigan has larger cars that are immediately visible to the eye.
• Jacob's Car Hat - This has the road running around the crown, and a flap on top you can put a traffic light on. You could use little car pins to drive on this road.
  
• Trucks Sweater - This child's sweater has one large truck near the bottom front of the sweater. Adorable!
  
• Trucking Along Bib - Seed stitch border, stockinette center, the trucks are made as a simple outline with purled stitches. This would make a good project for a beginning knitter.
• School Bus Scarf -This is an elongated yellow school bus with cutout windows.
• Keep Trucking Baby Cardigan - The three color truck is on the back of the sweater.
  

Car Related Home Items Knitting Patterns

• Car Tea Cozy - I would call this red car a sedan, complete with registration plate!
• Police Car Tea Cozy - This was made from the same designer as above (although they are published on different sites.) Blue lights on top. Maybe you could modify one of these two patterns to be a taxi cab.
  

Car Related Knitting Charts (These are sometimes shown as washcloths, but the chart of the car itself could be incorporated into other projects, or colors could be added. "Single Color" indicates that the chart could be knit on a washcloth with just knits and purls. )

• Taxi - The chart even says "Taxi" in the middle. Single color, so could be done with K/P.
  
• Truck - Single color, you could add a tiny logo or something to the side.
  
• Garbage Truck - This is like the above truck chart, except it is large and there is a compartment that gives it the silhouette of a garbage truck. Single color.
  
• Fire Engine - Ladder is included. Single color.
  

Knitting patterns for your Car

• Car Seat Baby Blanket - There are many baby blankets that I have not included, because although they were designed with the car in mind, there is nothing that really separates them from other baby blankets. This pattern has a hole for buckling the seat! You won't loose this blanket!
  
• Simple Steering Wheel Cover - Circumference is 46 inches. Garter stitch. This is a uni-sex cover.
  
• Fuzzy Furry Steering Wheel Cover - This is a good way to use novelty yarn!
• Steering Wheel Cover - The resulting knit object is shown on the wheels of 4 different car models. Also knit with fluffy novelty yarns.
  
• Kawaii Steering Wheel Cover - 48 inch steering wheel circumference. The pattern also has recommendations on how you can keep it from slipping on a wheel.
• Car Cozy - That's right. a CAR cozy... as in you put it ON YOUR CAR! I love the part where the pattern says "...quickly realize that this is too much knitting for one person, and invite other knitters to make cozy parts." It is shown on a VW bug.
  

Wow, I really expected that I would find a lot of toys. Unfortunately, there are not very many patterns available for free! I found great toy patterns that cost money, but that is not the purpose of my pattern searches.

I would like to give a shout-out to Keith, who inspired me to do this search.

Cables Away!

Cables can be intimidating to beginning knitters, but they're not as difficult as they seem. Here are some books that contain some really great instructions for learning how to create cables in your projects.

Inspired Cable Knits: 20 Creative Designs for Making Sweaters and Accessories by Fiona Ellis

The introduction is not the best for beginners who are not used to cables. I feel that it is meant more as a reminder than as a reference.

The Patterns:

• Inspired by Change (Joining in Friendship Sweater, Go with the Flow Tank, Open to Change Top, Practice Makes Perfect Hat and Scarf Set, Gathering Intentions Sweater)
• Inspired by Nature (Wrap Yourself in Nature Wrap, Putting down Roots Sweater, Knots and Bark Sweater, Inspired by Your Surroundings Men's Sweater, Order and Chaos Cardigan)
• Inspired by Energy (Tree Pose Yoga Bag, Sounds like Fun Child's Sweater, Beachcombing Pillow, Potential Energy Men's V-neck Sweater, Power Cables Unplugged Summer Top)
  
• Inspired by Time (Ripples in Time Baby Sweater, Evolving Traditions Cable and Fair Isle Sweater, Metro Retro Men's Sweater, Celtic Icon Hooded Zippered Cardigan, Peek-a-Boo Summer Sweater)
  

My favorites from this book include the Practice Makes Perfect Hat, which is square shaped and has tassles like pigtails coming off the sides. It is very whimsical. Order and Chaos looks warm and cozy. Peek-a-boo is delicate and feminine.

The patterns are beautiful, but they do not happen to inspire me. After this first reading, I have not added any of the patterns to my queue.


Cables Untangled: An Exploration of Cable Knitting - Over 20 Designs & More than 100 Cable Stitches by Melissa Leapman

As someone who is starting to design her own projects, a book like this is fantastic as a cable reference. A reference for both how to chart cabled projects, but also the stitch portion of the book divides the cables in a very logical way so you can easily compare different twists and find the one that would work best in your own project.

The reference portion of this book is extraordinary, and not just the cable reference. If you have never tried cables before, you would benefit from the introductions in helping you read the cable charts and how to make a cabled stitch.

The Patterns:

• Simple Projects for Cabling Beginners - Simple Hat and Scarf Set, Women's Simple Pullover
• Accents for the Home - Perpendicular Squares Afghan, Entwined Cables Pillow, Aran-Style Afghan, Harvest Tweed Afghan, Rug with Faux Tassles, Two-Color Pillow, Sampler Afghan,
  
• Clothing for Women - Tweed Pullover, Poncho, Fringed Skirt, Cotton Raglan, Turtleneck, Sleveless V-Neck
• Gifts - Men's Intertwined Cables Pullover, His/Hers Reversible Scarf, Little Handbag with Handles, Child's Crewneck Pullover, Men's Tweed Pullover, Baby Blankie
  

The intermixing of colorwork and cables in the Two-Color Pillow is exquisite. I had never imagined how beautiful it could be to mix the two together. I want to buy this book, and have added it to my Amazon Wishlist.

More Felted Oven Mitts

I really like this felted oven mitt pattern. I have used this pattern multiple times before. I continue to use up my remnant WoTA yarn from KnitPicks to create oven mitts. I love giving these as gifts.

Striping Pattern (starting from CO edge): 5 gray, 4 dark gray, 10 gray, 10 black, 20 gray, 20 dark gray, 10 gray, 10 black. Thumb: 9 gray, 9 dark gray.


Striping pattern: 5 gray, 5 other remnant color. The same pattern was used on the thumb.

So I tried to machine wash the oven mitts to save my hands some grief. I only have access to front loading washing machines, so I tied them up in a pillowcase and gave it a whirl. One cycle was not enough to felt them completely, although there has been some progress. I also had to pry apart the insides as they had lightly felted together. It was still worth it, and I can use hand felting to go through the rest.

Mitts after one round of machine felting. See how there is still a lot of definition to the stitches.

It appears that the light gray doesn't felt as well as darker colors. I wonder if it's been bleached, like white yarns. I completed the rest of the felting by hand. Hand Felting Tip: Sometimes it helps to let the item dry completely in the middle of the felting process. When you place the dried object back into hot water, it shrinks up, making the end of the felting easier.

The finished oven mitts.

Laura's Hermione's Cable & Eyelet Hat

My friend Laura is a a huge Harry Potter fan. We once tried (foolishly) to have a marathon and watch all of the movies in one sitting (we made it through the first two). I could not imagine a better pattern to use than "Hermione Loves Ron" the hat Hermione wore in the movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I want to use Sidar Country Style DK wool (machine washable - 45% Acrylic, 40% nylon, 15% wool) in Color 423 (dusky pink) and size 3 knitting needles. There are two patterns for this Hermione hat, one using worsted weight wool and another with sport weight (this one is available for free at Ravelry, but you have to make a free account).

I like the way the ribbing looks on the WS more than the RS, so I inverted the project after this row. When weaving in the loose ends I took care of the tiny hole.

right side (left) and wrong side (right) of the ribbing

I did 5 repeats of the cable/lace instead of 4. I suppose that this makes the hat longer than it appears on Emma Watson in the movie, but I preferred to make this a hat versus a cap.

Side of hat (left) and top of hat (right). I thought the deceases were really pretty.

Enjoy the hat, Laura!

Annemor #5

I had been given some nice Sidar Country Style DK wool (machine washable - 45% Acrylic, 40% nylon, 15% wool) in Color 411 (cream) and Color 423 (dusky pink). I thought that these would make a pair of mittens from SELBUVOTTER: Biography of a Knitting Tradition. I usually make gloves with fingering weight wool, so to use the DK wool I decided to adapt a child's size pattern to an adult woman's small.

Modifications to the Pattern:

• DK weight rather than fingering
• Size 3 (3.25 mm) needles
• After the cuff patterns, there is an increase round, followed by 1 round in the MC. I knit 3 rounds in the MC at this step instead of one.
  
• In the main charted pattern, I inserted 4 rows in between the birds. This required some (trivial) adjustment to the palm pattern (which was a 7 row repeat).
  

These fit my small hands, and should fit the hands of the intended recipient! I haven't done too much with DK wool, and I love the way that it felt on my fingers.

Teach Yourself Visually: Handspinning

Teach Yourself Visually Handspinning (Teach Yourself Visually Consumer) by Judith MacKenzie McCuin

The teach yourself visually series does have fantastic pictures. There are stretches for the spinners hands, and really clear instructions on how you should be holding things. These pictures were extremely helpful to a novice like myself. The book is not just for the first spinning attempt. It discusses how to work with more advanced fibers, color and ply. If spinning is something that I want to seriously persue, I would add this to my bookshelf.

Slightly Smaller K1B Baby Hat

Earlier this year, I designed a Knit-One-Below (K1B) baby hat. The finished size had a 14" circumference, which would fit a baby 3-6 months. The K1B fabric is stretchy, so the hat would be able to fit an older baby. I wanted to make the same hat smaller so it could be a gift for a younger baby.

The hat was knit with 100% cotton Peaches & Creme, Gum Drop (Color 205) on size 3 (3.25 mm) double pointed needles.

The only details altered are the number of stitches that I cast on, and the way I did crown decrease. I cast on 54 stitches instead of the 60 in the pattern. K1B cloth is so stretchy, that I could have reduced the CO stitches even further. This hat is closer to the 3 month of 3-6 month range.

New Round 1 for Decrease: *K1B, (K1, K1B) 7 times, K3tog*, repeat from * across (48 sts)

Old hat: 14" circ, 6.5" high. (circ is actually closer to 15 inches)
New Hat: 13" circumference

In the hat shown on the pattern page, the K1, K1B pattern eliminated pooling. Here the color changes are more frequent, and it softened the pooling by mixing it up a bit. I'm actually THRILLED with how the spirals came out. If I had not made this a K1B hat, then I would have seen more horizontal stripes since the colors repeated every other row.

References

• How to Knit One Below - videos by ChemKnits
• Baby Size Chart
• The book that inspired the design: Knit One Below: One Stitch, Many Fabrics by Elise Duvekot
• Free Pattern - Knit-One-Below (K1B) baby hat