What Is Weekend Knitting?

It's the name of a book, but it's also what YOU can knit up in a day or two or three or...

There's a book called "Weekend Knitting" by Melanie Falick; I haven't read it yet, but its popularity got me wondering. I read a few reviews on Amazon and realized the book might be considered misnamed. The author doesn't intend for you to be able to finish the projects in a weekend. Maybe a project will take you a few weekends.

I imagine the book was intended as knitting projects for knitters with busy daily lives who can maybe only pick up their needles on weekends. Knitting as therapy: stitch by stitch, unwind from your hectic week and think only of the lovely creation unfolding before you. Take your time and enjoy the process, but make the projects small enough that you can feel the gratification of completion sometime soon.

This reminded me of one of my dreams: a knitting vacation. I'm not the cruise type, but imagine one of those European group tours, like "A Week of English Gardens", only what if it was "Scandinavian Knitting" or "Fairisle Getaway" or "Italian Knits"? How about a weekend at a cottage on the ocean, maybe Nantucket Island, with a group of fellow knitters?

What project would I bring along? Lately I've grown tired of my yarn stash and am making way for new materials. I view my stash in terms of "what will knit up quickest?" I think of amount of yarn of the same type, needle size and of course the simplicity of a pattern. These would all qualify as "weekend knitting" materials.

Here's what I've knit up so far: a watchcap and a snail hat using Elizabeth Zimmermann's patterns in "Knitting Without Tears". The watchcap in Prime Rib Stitch using bulky yarn and size 10 1/2 needles knits up super fast and is so elastic the one I knit will fit anyone from child to adult. The snail hat takes a little longer and has to be knit to size since it does not have anywhere near as much stretch, but it is really cute.

These things are good to know if you are trying to surprise someone with a gift. You can't take measurements and then still surprise them, can you?!

Then I knit a "scarf" with a lovely variegated mohair/wool blend, using up odds and ends of colors. This took one day, but I ran out of yarn before it reached scarf length, so it's a dresser runner. My cats love to sleep on it. My cats also love the felted beds I made them. I'll share that pattern at a later date.

How much yarn could I use up in a weekend? I'm a relatively slow knitter, especially if I'm chatting or watching tv while knitting. I think I would pack a suitcase with about two dozen skeins of different colors of sock yarn, double pointed needles, and plan on knitting socks for my husband, sons, their wives and my two grandkids. That's who would appreciate them the most. Wait! And me. Why do I always forget about me? I'd knit them for me first because I could "remember" while trying them on myself.

And I'd try knitting from the toe up, I've never knit socks that way before but have been dying to give it a go.

On my shopping list: batteries for my camera, then I'll be posting pictures here like crazy.

PS. If you're off for a weekend, seems like you'll need a Weekender Bag - White Trim Classic Motorcycle Duffel Inspired by Balenciaga, Compare to $849.00, only $49.99