New Pattern: Animal Patchwork Blanket

March 31, 2019March 31, 2019 | julieandtheknits

(AKA The slowest project ever) I started this blanket a few years ago as a side project and would only knit when on holiday, hence why it took me months to finish it. And it’s taken me even longer to write up the pattern, but it’s finally here!

I initially created this blanket for Lindsay‘s little girl, Matilda. The whole time I was making it I thought ‘by the time I’m done she will be too big for it’, but luckily (I’m a lazy knitter and don’t really measure my work from the start) it ended up being quite big for a baby blanket – it’s around 70x84cm.

Lindsay is the talented maker behind Em&Sprout and is one of the reasons why I started knitting squares in the first place. Remember the 30 animal squares I knitted back in 2014? I created them as part of her #animaldoodleaday challenge on Instagram! I then used the squares to make my first ever patchwork blanket and wrote up the pattern for all 30 squares – you can find it here. The response to this pattern has been incredible and worth the effort!

When Lindsay asked me to make one of these blankets for her little girl, I knew I wanted to try something a little different and improve my design skills, plus the initial blanket was a bit small anyway. So I mixed it up and alternated animal squares animals in Intarsia, with plain seed stitch squares (my fave stitch). I redesigned some of my original animal squares, and added a couple of new animals: an aplaca and a panda (don’t think I need to justify why I chose these cuties).

To join the squares together, I decided to give crochet a try and I instantly fell in love! It gives the blanket such a pretty finish. So I went on and made a crochet border too. Finally I stitched on a fleece backing and I was done!

Years later, the pattern for the animal patchwork blanket is finally available! It includes the instructions, a stitch library and individual animal charts. It’s a very complete pattern and ideal if you’re looking to learn new (and easy) finishing techniques. I really hope you love this pattern and I can’t wait to see your creations!

Buy The Animal Patchwork Blanket Pattern on: ETSY | RAVELRY

My Knitted Pictures

October 9, 2014June 29, 2016 | julieandtheknits

As you know, this year I decided to start publishing my own patterns as well as working on commissions. My first pattern was 30 Animal Squares and I still can’t believe the response – thank you to everyone who has purchased it on Craftsy, Ravelry and Etsy! So naturally this made me want to look through my pattern notebook and pick my next project.

I am super excited to introduce you to the new collection of patterns – The Framed Knits!

The idea of ‘knitted pictures’ came to me after I saw all these cool cross stitch framed pictures online. I thought ‘yarn should be up on our walls too’! And the Framed Knits were born. They are really fun and quick projects and make a cute addition to your home decor.

The Framed Knits collection includes 3 patterns: Under The Sea, Dream Big and Phone Home. Each piece was knitted using the Intarsia technique (and a little bit of fairisle).

Who doesn't love unicorns? — Who doesn’t love unicorns?

These Framed Knits patterns are sold as PDFs and are now available on Ravelry and Etsy. You can purchase each pattern separately or as a set at a special price here! I hope you like them :)

Click here for more patterns.

Happy Knitting!

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30 Animal Squares

May 5, 2014June 29, 2016 | julieandtheknits

It all started on Instagram on a cold December evening. As I was going through my feed, I came across one of these ‘one photo a day’-type challenges, something I never take part in, but this one was different. The wonderful Lindsay from Em & Sprout (who I interviewed before, read the post here) came up with a fun challenge to draw one different animal a day throughout the month of January. I LOVE animals, but I can’t draw, so instead I thought this project would be a great way to develop my chart design skills. For those of you who are not familiar with chart design, this is what we knitters use to create a pattern. This was also a great opportunity to discipline myself in a month where I would probably get a bit lazy.

So every day, I ‘doodled’ the animal on graph paper, then knitted it as a square and posted the image on IG. Not only was I amazed at how much people liked them, but I discovered many talented drawers/illustrators. You can see all the photos from the challenge by searching for the hashtag #animaldoodleaday on Instagram.

Here are my animal squares:

This challenge turned into something much bigger than I expected! Due to the huge interest my animals received, I decided to make the patterns available as an ebook so anyone can use them to make their own cute animal squares.

You can buy the the pattern for my 30 animal squares in my Etsy shop, on Ravelry and Craftsy. If you’re only interested in one or a few animals, just contact me by email at julietheknits@gmail.com and we’ll work something out :)

A lot of you have also been asking what will become of my squares. I have sewn them together and framed them. As there were only prototypes I didn’t want to make a blanket as it would be of no use. This framed knit would look lovely in a child’s bedroom, but this one will stay in my knitting room for now :)