Everything seems to be Plant Based these days, so how ’bout some Plant Based Projects! I’ve got three practical and fun-to-knit accessories made from plant fibers to share today. Starting today, please take 30% off these three popular patterns in my Ravelry shop. Just order before Friday, August 20, 2021 and enter the coupon code PLANTFIBER at checkout.
LARKSHEAD
This attractive throw is the perfect plant based project for the home. Worked in a cotton/linen blend, Larkshead boasts gorgeous stitch definition and a crisp hand. It also washes like an old towel, growing softer with each laundering.
For the bohemian chic dwelling, a plant based blanket fills a niche all its own. Combining the casually exotic qualities of simple plant fibers with more complicated and formal cable motifs, this timeless throw is sure to become your favorite couch companion, with a soft and comforting drape and the rustic boho look of macrame.
The Larkshead Throw is rectangular in shape and generously sized. Short ends are edged with knotted fringe, while the long sides are finished with an i-cord edging.
FIAS DO-DO
Back in the early 2000’s, I was a volunteer at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. In the sizzling Southern sun, I served up Mango Freeze at the Cajun Fais Do-Do Stage where my most stylish and practical accessory was a big ol’ South Louisiana straw hat. Though the original is long gone, I’ve done my best to serve up a brand new version, this time using a soft and resilient palm fiber known as Yashi.
Inspired by the Cajun parties of the Deep South, the Fais Do-Do Hat is intended to be a shape shifting safeguard against the strong Southern sun. Plant based fiber keeps the Fais Do-Do light and cool to wear and its wired brim can be sculpted any way you like. A funky crumpled cowboy hat, a neat-as-a-pin wide brimmed straw or a demure garden chapeau, the Fais Do-Do adapts to all occasions and invites creative decor of all kinds. Add flowers (real or faux), shells, ribbons or jewels. It squishes flat for traveling too!
The Fais Do-Do is worked in the round from the top down beginning with a circular cast on. Spiral crown shaping makes for a pretty top. An eyelet round at the base of the crown allows for a braided cord to adjust the hat’s fit. A double knit tubular bind off creates a casing where thick soft floral wire is inserted. The edge is closed with the Kitchener stitch.
FUSED MARKET TOTE
Off to the pool or the farmer’s market? Take along a plant based tote! Horizontal open work lends a “deconstructed” air to this functional market bag that combines a boho vibe with city chic. It’s big enough to hold all your essentials but works up in heartbeat using DK weight yarn.
The Fused Market Tote has a fun-to-knit construction that begins at the bottom with a bellybutton cast on, then works its way outward to form a circle. It is worked entirely in the round and finishes with an I-cord upper edge. This little bag is such fun! Make Fused in a ton of colors, then give as gifts!
I hope you’ll have fun knitting these plant based projects in easy care plant fibers. They’re cool enough to knit in the summer and pretty enough to enjoy all year long.
