Find Free Knitting Patterns to Help You Give!
Homey afghans make great free knitting patterns for charity!
Everyone loves free knitting patterns, especially when you're knitting for charity! Well, nothing makes a better donation than a beautiful, homey afghan, and I have great free knitting patterns to bring your afghan to life! Of course, there are lots of free knitting patterns for afghans online, but this one creates a cozy, sweet-looking afghan with a minimum of fuss and a lot of fun.
A Homey Idea
Are you bored of knit one purl one afghans? Looking for something new? Try knitting a special afghan to remind hospitalized patients of home!
This pattern is created from Sarah Bradberry's free knitting patterns for single squares. The result is a very cute little house in the center of a block. For this pattern, you are going to make twenty of these squares in a variety of colors. You could do it all in one color, of course, but how dull! Instead, I suggest bright greens and blues, or purples and pinks -- whatever makes you smile!
Use the linked free knitting patterns to learn to create the house squares. Here's a clearer breakdown of the abbreviations the pattern uses:
Abbreviations:
K= Knit
P= Purl
K2tog = Knit 2 together
P2tog = Purl 2 together
T2R= Knit into the front of the second stitch on the left hand needle, then into the front of the first stitch. Slide both stitches off only after you've completed two knit stitches.
T2L= Knit into the back of the second stitch on the left hand needle, then into the front of the first stitch. Slide both stitches off only after you've completed two knit stitches.
yo = yarn over (wrap the yarn underneath the needle once. This creates a loose stitch and results in a hole in the finished work -- don't worry, it's supposed to be there).
Creating the Afghan
Once you've created twenty squares, it's time to bind them together. Use a yarn needle and a matching yarn to sew four squares across, five squares down. But we're not done yet! We need something to keep it all together -- that is, a border!
You can use these simple free knitting patterns to create borders in any color. You're going to knit four strips, then sew them around the edges of your afghan. Assuming you followed gauge correctly, your afghan should be 36 " wide and 45 " long, but you might want to measure to make sure. You can easily adapt this pattern to a shorter or longer length.
Border instructions
Continue using size 6 needles. Cast on 15 stitches. Proceed in a box stitch (K2 P2 for odd numbered rows and P2 K2 for even numbered rows). To give a nice, straight edge to your border, knit the first stitch of every row and purl the last stitch of every row, ignoring what the pattern tells you to do.
IMPORTANT: your border should be six inches longer than the afghan on two sides. For example, if your afghan measures 45 " by 36 ", you would wind up with four strips measuring 51", 51", 36", and 36". This is so that the borders actually join up when you sew them on.
Once you have all four strips, sew the two shorter ones to the afghan first. Then add the longer strips on opposite sides. There you have it: a cute, cuddly afghan to remind any hospital patient of home! These squares and afghans make great free knitting patterns to share with your knitting group.