Easter booties for your favorite baby duck

Duck booties, what could delight more this Easter? The duck bootee pattern is now available in Icelandic and Russian, as well as English. Add this free knitting pattern for duck socks to your Easter patterns file, created with sock yarn on US 2 needles (2.75 mm).

photos property of Jeny Staiman/http://handmade-ideas.com/

Jeny Staiman of Seattle, Washington, is the designer of these cute duck booties for baby who is not yet walking.

High Line hat and cowl, new patterns for the New Year

with permission, APeterson, High Line NYC

My last New Year's resolution was to write down every knitting pattern of my own that I picked up my needles to knit. One year later, it's paying off. Here it is the High Line Hat and Cowl NYC.

Put entrelac knitting on your "to learn" list

photo courtesy 2sides2points.com

Entrelac knitting creates a beautiful basket-weave pattern of knitted stitches and can be created flat or in the round. Online 'how to' entrelac youtube videos and online courses are available for your convenience. But you don't have to be an expert knitter, because simple knit and purl stitches, k2tog and p2tog, and picking up stitches are all you need to know. Choose a yarn like Noro Silk Garden, which is variegated and has long color repeats for a quilted look of many colors and stranded knitting. You can also use solid colors to obtain the basket-weave fabric with the free scarf pattern below. 

Knitting gifts for knitters

If you are looking for a knitting gift for your wife, mother, husband, good friend, or good friend who's a knitting buddy, too, Ann Hood's new anthology of knitting stories, life intertwined while knitting, is one of the best gifts. "Knitting Pearls: Writers Writing about Knitting." Just one of many gifts for people who enjoy crafting and supporting handmade artists.

...and there's more...More goodies are available on Etsy, all handmade in the United States....

Knit and crochet hats needed for overseas US troops

A little late to the post for this Veterans Day, but the need continues long after the celebration to honor present and past vets ends. Late last night Classic Elite Yarns tweeted and jarred my memory about charity hats for soldiers. There is a continuing need for warm hats for our US troops and hat patterns are readily available to crochet and knit in the round or on straight needles. Wool or natural fiber, alpaca and merino, only for overseas troops, please. And Warmth for Warriors wants you to include a tag with your email address and yarn content. Visit here for more info.

'Handbrake' cowl pattern sales support cancer research

"Let's put the 'Handbrake' on cancer!" is the slogan for a fundraising campaign organized by Dan and Kay Jones, a British couple who knit together and air delightful podcasts from their Darlington, UK, home on YouTube. 100% of the sales from their new unisex cowl knitting pattern, "Handbrake," goes to support cancer research as Dan has recently achieved survivor status. The pattern will cost you less than a cup of coffee! And as of this writing, over 700 have been sold in just a few days into this fundraiser.

"Outlander" inspired knitting and crochet patterns

From cowls to shawls, gauntlets and fingerless mitts, STARZ's Outlander series has inspired many a knitting and crochet designer to write. And most Outlander-inspired patterns use worsted or bulky yarns. A pattern for Claire's shawl on "Outlander" has been published just this week.

Claire's shawl pattern requires 400 yards of worsted weight yarn and uses a US 17 (12mm) needle.