I've been asked several times for suggestions about good designs for a first time color knitting project. If anyone else out there has suggestions for this list let me know. I'll re-publish it occasionally. These are patterns where the charts are easily memorized and there is not a lot of simultaneous shaping going on.
Mittens
1. One of my favorite Blackberry Ridge designs (and one I'd love to knit again) is
the Bosnian mitten kit. These warm mittens are knit from a thick wool and even include a third color for contrast. I had to force myself to give these beauties away. Definitely an easy knit. I had some of the extra third contrast color left over so I duplicate stitched it in the center of the chart design on the front of the mittens.
2. The Halland mittens from Folk Mittens are also a pretty simple knit with an easy peasant thumb. I did change the cuff slightly - I think I added a line or two of the darker color to make more of a contrast.
I also changed to vertical stripes for the fingers for some reason.
Hats
1. One of the very first colorwork patterns I ever did was the Mushroom Cap from Homespun Handknit. EXTREMELY easy to do and lots of solid color knitting in between the stranded color knitting. You can use more than two colors also for a wilder hat. No photos since I made this many years ago.
2. The Peruvian Hat from Vogue Knitting Hats (the first one) is pretty easy and a good way to use up bits and pieces of stash yarn. The hardest part probably isn't the colorwork, it is the shaped garter stitch ear flaps.
Socks
1. I know that Nancy Bush's Folk Knitting in Estonia designs look complicated but not all the designs are and if you like using thinner yarns, I recommend Laila's Socks. I've knit this design twice, once with Wildfoote, and the charts are very easy with lots of straight stripe knitting between color knitting to speed things up. These socks have a round toe so you don't even have to bother doing Kitchener stitch.
This design does have color jogs. Look at the bottom of the sock feet in the book
photo and you'll see that the stripes don't match up. In this situation I'd agree with the designer and say just ignore it. The pattern is done in a fine enough yarn and probably no one is going to have their face that close to your socks to notice.
I can't find my photo of the socks but do check out Saartje's gorgeous version using a solid color and a variegated color titled Marina's Socks HERE.
Sweaters
1. If you're ready for a Dale of Norway sweater knit circularly with steeks, I
recommend Sirdal. The color charts are very unintimidating as opposed to some
Dale designs and there are only two colors. I made the Sirdal cardigan out of
Nature Spun sport and I do want to say that the sleeve cuffs are a bit wonky. They are split slightly and have a buttonhole. The only warning I have about this classic design is that the fancy Norwegian buttons and braided trim cost more than the yarn for the entire sweater. There are specific trim and buttons for the sweater which I wanted to use. The photo HERE shows the pullover version.
There's also a cute baby version of Sirdal HERE.
