Our new home of Bristol, UK, inspired this scarf. The title comes from the phrase “Shipshape and Bristol fashion,” meaning “tidily tied down and secure,” from when Bristol was a bustling marine port in the 1800’s. You’ll be warm, cozy and fashionable in Bristol today with this scrumptious, woven-look scarf.

I designed this fun chevron pattern to play with the color changes of the Knitcircus Modernist yarn; you can switch it up and use stash yarn and vary the stripe section lenth as I did, or choose to make the sections of equal length (yardage may vary). Somerset, my new home county in the UK, provides plenty of inspiration and lots of chances to ...

The loss of Brew City dyer Tahra to COVID-19 rocked the midwest knitting community. On the one-year anniversary of the pandemic declaration, I cast on this cabled hat pattern with the one skein of Brew City Yarns in my stash. This pattern honors all we’ve lost to the pandemic. It’s free, and I also encourage you to donate to

This hat started as a fun experiment, trying to come up with an unusual pattern without regular repeats, but still easy to execute because all of the cable crossings were in the same round. Of all my handknit hats, this one garnered the most compliments, so I wrote it up for you!

Created to celebrate the Knitcircus Store Grand Opening with twice the space! Narrow stripes make this kite-shaped garter-stitch shawl fun to knit. The pattern uses one 50g/200 yd speckled handpaint and one 50g/200 yd semi-solid colorway to create the stripes.

A wild and crazy yarn makes this simple scarf look extraordinary! Alternating between sections of garter, stockinette, and easy lace stitches keeps it interesting to knit.

This yarn knits up into a gorgeous riot of color, and a simple pattern shows that to best advantage. With easy stitches and simple shaping, it’s a joy to knit and wear.

This dense slipped stitch pattern makes a very warm hat. You will be stylish and cozy while you hit the slopes. Or maybe while you stay in the lodge knitting, sipping hot chocolate, while everyone else hits the slopes.

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” Aesop

This generously oversized shawl was designed for the 2018 Knitcircus Advent Club. The construction and pattern stitches are intended to provide a low- stress project you can enjoy during the hectic holiday season.

Pine Lake is a quick asymmetrical shawl. Knit one up in a weekend and you’ll be ready for the cold December winds.

On the slopes or in the lodge, or maybe just out running errands in town, this slouchy hat will keep you toasty warm. It works up quickly in 3x1 rib, and has a forgiving fit with lots of stretch. Make several for everyone on your gift list!

An elongated triangle shawl in a delicate all-over eyelet makes a perfect 1-skein project. Finish it off with a picot bind-off for a little extra zing!

Sometimes the simplest ideas make for the best projects! This alternating-striped scarf is fun to knit and works up quite quickly in a DK yarn. Play with two gradients like the scarf shown, pair a gradient with a semi-solid, or use your favorite speckled handpaints for equally charming results.

A sunset of texture radiates from the center of this half-circle shawl finished to perfection with a mesh band. The knitting is as soothing as dusk at the lake after a glorious day with your best friends.

Pick your two favorite colors and make the stripe magic happen! Use a strong contrast for graphic pizzazz or choose a more subtle pairing.

Take your knitting in a new direction! Simple increases and decreases create a dramatic chevron shape.

Who doesn’t want a burst of rainbow color? This hat makes a strong statement but the knitting flows effortlessly.

This shawl has a cheery disposition and will make a great companion wherever you travel. An asymmetrical triangle

When you have some yarn with a lot going on, sometimes you just want a simple shawl to show it to great advantage. This shawl is the perfect way to use that yarn and it’s simple enough to take along wherever you have time to knit.

You found it! This fun-to-knit shawl makes the most of coordinating impressionist and gradient skeins. This asymmetrical triangle shawl features eyelet rows to accentuate the gradient color changes.

Celebrate the power of generous action with the Kindness is Everything pattern for the 2018 Kindness KAL. Soft colors alternate in a calming rhythm, finished with a lace border. This top-down triangle shawl begins with a garter-tab cast on and includes both written and charted lace instructions.

Using a dynamite gradient for the body of the shawl, and a neutral semi-solid for the lacey border, this updated triangle shawl is a quick knit! Knit in our worsted weight Ringmaster yarn base, your shoulders will be snuggly warm when the weather turns crisp.

This stripy hat pattern is a fun, quick knit to experiment with fading two colors together.

Stay warm in style this winter!

Have fun playing with a continuous gradient and a complementary speckled yarn with this easy and graphic shawl. The color changes dyed into the yarn tell you when to move to the next section of the pattern.

This cozy cowl is perfect for a beginner or as your next take-along project. The work goes fast and ribbed stitch is simple as can be. Make one for you and three to give to all your nearest and dearest.

Impressionist speckled gradient yarns make this simple cowl appear complicated!

Whether you’re escaping a hyperspace bypass, touring some fjords or finding the Question to the Ultimate Answer, this hat will be almost

Feeling lacy? This lightweight cowl is perfect for an evening on the beach or a night on the town. Speckle, gradient, or solid, this pattern works well with any yarn.

The stripes in this scarf just appear as you knit! The complementary edging gives it a feminine style. A pretty quick knit in worsted weight yarn.

Mesh, lace and a soothing color make the Kindness KAL shawl a lovely project to keep or give to a loved one. Intuitive increase construction and understandable lace patterns make it less difficult than it may first appear! Finish before March 1, 2017 and Knitcircus will donate to a good cause!

This textured Seed stitch hat works up fast so you’re ready for snow this weekend!

This lacy bandana works perfectly on a chilly summer night, and the dropped stitches make for a very easy openwork texture. The construction is simpler than you might think! You only need 200 yards of fingering, so this could be a great stashbuster.

A lacy cowl for spring is just the thing! This easy lace pattern moves up and down like a carousel at the fair. Design inspired by our collaboration with Erin Lane Bags for their Indie Yarn Carnival!

My beloved childhood home was on Pickford Street and I love this bandana shape so much I’ve given it this cherished name. I experimented a lot to perfect this simple shape that looks like a shawl but fits and knits like a comfortable cowl.

This cozy cowl knits up in a jiffy. Nice chunky yarn and knit-purl texture works up easily in afternoon.

Easy and functional, this scarf lets the yarn do most of the work!

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep/But I have promises to keep/And miles to go before I sleep.” Inspired by Robert Frost’s

Inspired by Firefly’s River Tam, this soft reversible cowl makes the most of a simple stitch pattern. You only knit with one color at a time, but the textured stitch makes it look impressive. Work the smaller version for simplicity or the longer one for options; wear it down or loop it double for extra warmth.

A fun, simple and reversible cowl works for all the gals

Super-stripy handwarmers make the most of self-striping sock yarn and knit up quickly for gifts or to keep for yourself! The decorative edging gives them a feminine touch.

A fun, simple and reversible hat works for everyone on your gift list! The addition of the big, fluffy pompom puts joy in my heart.

This crescent-shaped shawl is easy to work, with some fun chevron lace at the edge.

Luxury fiber handspun and fairly traded from a women’s group in Afghanistan meets a beloved lace pattern in this perfect holiday knit. Unbelievably soft and drapey.

Sending some love to the old-school machines that process our yarn from fluffy batts to spun and plied yarn, as well as the age of steam, gears and airships. Having beautiful yarn available is a revolution indeed. Whether it’s the modern era or your favorite ahistorical Victorian London, when it gets chilly, it’s time for some textured Aran and...

The fun-to-work stripe pattern and easy-to-remember increase structure makes this half-circle shawl a relaxing and refreshing knit whether you’re on vacation in the tropics or dodging winter winds.

Deep green leaves look all the more dramatic as colors start to change in the fall. The colors of trees at twilight make the perfect background for a leaf panel in this triangular, top-down shawl.

Named for the alluring heroine of Moulin Rouge; diamond lace is a girl’s best friend! This half-circle shawl works up with two beautiful diamond lace sections bracketed by simple eyelet increases. Perfect to show off a favorite yarn. Colors inspired by a rooftop love song, complete with pink umbrella and Paris twilight.

A quick knit with a fun textured cable; just two repeats and you’re ready for crown decreases! Knit up in a day or two for someone you love.

One of the students in my grown-up knitting class brought in mitts similar to this and asked if she could knit some new ones. Knit flat, no thumb gusset, seamed up the side, worsted weight…as it turns out, perfect beginner mitts! When I bound them off, the finished purple mitts were instantly claimed by my darling daughter. She loves them, and ...

Stripes of incandescent green inspired by the striations of the

This versatile cowl can be worn long, doubled or pinned for

This sideways shawl works up relatively quickly with one skein of a special yarn. The lacy cables remind me of a filigree necklace, and will dress up any occasion!

Cables and lace combine in this easier-than-it-looks

Why should mice have all the fun? The Cat’s Paw Eyelet and garter stitch of this crescent shawl suggests the kind of party cats have when dogs are out of town…

In the heat of summer, a lacy wrap for breezy mornings or air-conditioned restaurants is just the thing. The traveling vine stitch used does require some work on both sides of the stole, but I think you’ll find the pretty lace pattern is worth the attention!

The shawl begins with a lace pattern in a repeat of 3 sts. As the pattern grows, the lace panel widens, to double the number of stitches every 20 rows. The Oblique Lace panel is repeated between increases to give the shawl its half-circle shape. There is one knit stitch at the beginning and end of each row for stability.

Cuff-down socks with a fun chevron lace pattern like the waves in a mermaid’s inlet home. First released as part of the Knitcircus Gradient Yarn Club Summer 2013.

Wear this shawl anytime and think of the promise of spring! Subtle lace leaves in three tiers make an elegant half-circle shape. Just like vines making their way up a brick wall, the leaves sprout from a single center lace stem and then branch out into a more complex pattern with each layer of lace.

Ribbed cables wind around this fun striped cowl, which knits up quickly in chunky yarn. Named because Johnny from New Stitch a Day (my video collaborator) lives 3,000 miles away, so this cowl is well-traveled! Of course, it would also make a perfect accessory for skiing, either downhill or cross-country. This warm, chunky cowl is worked flat an...

Toe-up socks with lacy diamonds; diamonds are a sock’s best

When spring comes around and you’re so happy to be outside, throw on this stylish and cozy textured cowl. Quick and easy to make, with just enough texture to keep it interesting, designed in the colors of an April afternoon.

Named for the many-hued colorway of the Dragonlfy Fibers yarn, this scarf will bring you nothing but good vibes. Designed specifically for a highly-variegated yarn, this reversible stitch pattern cuts down on the appearance of pooling and the i-cord slipstitch edging shows off the different

Named for my wonderful knitters at Van Hise Elementary. This project is perfect for learning the purl stitch, practicing knitting in the round and binding off. In self-striping yarn, you don’t have to worry about changing colors. Works well as a set with the Van Hise Hat, also a free Ravelry download.

Named for my wonderful knitters at Van Hise Elementary. The easiest hat pattern ever, perfect for knitters just starting out, or total relaxation for a more experienced knitter. All you have to do is cast on, join the work in a circle and knit. No bind off or purling needed! Pompom photo tutorial included.

Lace and stockinette stitch in the round, with a three-needle bind-off join, this project is a great stashbuster, needing only 50 yds of sock-weight yarn. Put your favorite potpourri inside and slip in a dresser drawer, or give as a gift bag for small, precious things. An exclusive pattern for the Knitcircus All Wrapped Up Yarn Club and will be...

Stripes and lace, two of my very favorite things, combined into one soft,

Quick-to-make wristwarmers show off a

An easy lace pattern creates waving diagonals as you make your way through the color changes of this fun cowl. Purl stitches add interest whether seen from the right or wrong sides of the project. Wear loosely looped for relaxed style, or double up for a cold morning.

The leaves in this shawl grow slowly but surely as they reach for the edge. The deceptively-simple lace technique increases with each repetition, creating an arched rainbow shawl shape. The pattern is named for a family favorite book character: Lindy, the imaginative youngest child in the Last of the Very Great Whangdoodles. Like the many-color...

Cheerful colors and a pattern that goes round and round and up and down! Inspired by the beautifully-made carousel in downtown Saint Joseph, Michigan, this cowl knits up quickly in one skein of chunky yarn.

Oink Pigments has the best yarn names! When I saw this “Mean Evergreen” colorway, I knew that the hat couldn’t be called anything else. The reversible lace rib shows off the lightly-variegated colors and the worsted-weight hat knits up in a jiffy. Made to go with the Mean Evergreen Cowl; available individually or as part of the Knitting Recipes...

Oink Pigments has the best yarn names! When I saw this “Mean Evergreen”

This crescent shawl makes the most of one skein of special-hand-dyed yarn. The complicated-looking lace border has a secret: it’s really easy, and only takes two rows for the dramatic dropped-stitch wave pattern. You just need a bold technique, not even a chart!

Mix it up with different stitch patterns in the same cowl for entertaining knitting; this one uses a rib, a textured stitch, and an easy lace. Worked in Cascade 220 Heathers, the cowl adds a cozy, understated touch to your cold-weather outfit.

Cuddly-soft yarn with a textured cable pattern will keep your neck cozy this fall and winter; this tall, super-slouchy cowl won’t let the chill winds in!

Next-to-the-skin softness and a reversible texture pattern make this cozy cowl fun to wear, whether you like it close-fitting and tall, or a looser style. The stitch pattern reminded me of the beautiful Blue Mounds of Wisconsin, an ancient mountain chain worn to rounded hills and a wide valley, which still houses the Wisconsin River. Available ...

Reversible, and with a little bit of lace and texture, this cowl gets its stylish figure-eight shape from one little twist during the cast-on. Very easy, but looks impressive! Available as part of the Knitting recipes: Hats and Cowls e-book or individually.

The Cat’s Paw eyelet lace made me want to call this slouchy hat after our beloved young cat, Foxy (named by my daughter for his orange coat). Neenah is a town in Wisconsin’s Fox Valley, named from the Hoocąk word for “water” or “running water”. It was the site of a Ho-Chunk village in the late 18th century. My grandmother lived there in a tiny ...

Wisconsin’s biggest city has plenty of vibrant style! Get spotted in this relaxed and fashionable hat biking to the Milwaukee Art Museum or sampling some locally made ice cream.

Reversible lace combined with this luxurious yarn makes a perfect cowl to wear long or doubled for extra warmth. Wear on your way to work or out to dinner in downtown Chicago!

Named for a delicious Jeni’s Ice Cream flavor, this shawl uses a combination of textured stitches, eyelets and lace to make a triangular confection.

Developed for the Spin-A-Shawl Ravelry Group and the Sow’s Ear LYS! A great introduction to lace, this half-Pi shawl includes two different leaf lace patterns and a Dk-weight yarn.

Sister to the Balm to the Soul Shawlette 1, this shawl allows you to fall into a rhythm with repeated stockinette, texture and lace sections. Once you’ve finished the first sequence the others roll off your needles, giving you peace of mind as you knit this shawlette for yourself or as a comforting gift.

A great first foray into crescent shawls; works up fast in garter stitch and fingering or worsted weight yarn. The self-striping, no-knots gradient yarn shifts from color to color seamlessly. Sit back and let the yarn shine in this meditative knit.

The textured stitch pattern keeps your needles clicking away and before you know it, you’ve got this cowl to wear long or wrap twice for chunky, happy warmth. Sold together with the Woven Reed Hat; also part of the Knitting Recipes: Hats and Cowls e-book

This satisfying triangular shawl will soothe your spirits. Enjoy simple textures and easy lace while watching the colors unfold under your needles.

The allover cable pattern gives this slightly stretchy hat a fun, wavy texture; perfect for a winter hike to Warren Dunes State Park or excursion to your local coffee shop.

This reversible ribbed hat can be made as a beanie (shown) or longer for a slouchy hat and/or long, turned-up brim. The companion to the Definitely Hers hat from the Knitting Recipes: Hats and Cowls e-book; available individually or as a set with the Hers hat.

Part of the Knitting Recipes: Hats and Cowls Book, this cowl uses simple charted and written lace worthy to be spotted in the DIY-rich Williamson Street neighborhood of Madison, Wisconsin.

A great first pattern to try the top-down technique. The Noro yarn does the fancy color changes for you, and the mock-cable rib needs no cable needle; pattern includes both ribbed and twist-stitch to make it a great gift for almost anyone! With a polarfleece lining, you’ll add extra warmth and softness and evade the itch.

Fun to knit, this hat is vanilla with a twist—the plain-looking yarn turns out to be warm and touchable Ringmaster Worsted, and the easier-than-it-looks spiral pattern reminds me of soft-serve ice cream.