A New Home Collection: North Carolina-Inspired Knitting Patterns

Part 2 of the Home Series is now available! The A New Home Collection, designed by Snickerdoodle Knits (that's me!), is a collection of four fingering weight knitting patterns inspired by my new home, North Carolina. Each of the patterns specifically references an important aspect of North Carolina, or at least an important aspect to me! It includes a sock, fingerless mitts, hat, and cowl pattern. The yarns used for the pattern samples all came from North Carolina-based indie yarn dyers. The collection was released on November 21, North Carolina’s “birthday!”

One of the things that I have loved the most about North Carolina is all of the trees. I love the green and having nature feel so close. I especially enjoy driving around Charlotte on the interstate and being surrounded by trees on either side, with no sight of the buildings. It almost feels like being in the country.

This is in stark contrast to where I came from when I moved to North Carolina, which was southeastern Wyoming. In general, Wyoming is quite dry and barren. In one location along the interstate, there's a tree growing out of a rock that's been fenced in and has plaques talking about its significance. I would often joke that the most exciting thing they had to show off was this lone tree. (No offense to Wyoming, of course… I absolutely love the Tetons!)

Anyway, so the point is that we moved from a brown, barren land with nothing but cows and sagebrush to a lush, green landscape filled with trees, and we gladly welcomed this new scenery. I love it so much that I knew it needed to be included in the A New Home Collection.

The Endless Woods Cowl is a cozy cabled cowl that was inspired by the woods of North Carolina. The bottom half is comprised of a simplistic, easy-to-memorize, and repeated cable motif that represents the roots that support the endless woods. The upper half uses a slipped cross texture (which is another type of cable) that represents the trees that make up the woods. The pattern is written with one tree motif (for a uniform species of trees in your woods), but it also includes four alternate tree motifs (for the option of a diverse forest)! The test knitters for the pattern absolutely loved the option to make their woods unique!

The Endless Woods Cowl is a fun knit that makes for a cable lover's dream. It includes three length options and three width options. You may choose to knit it with DK weight yarn or fingering weight held double with lace weight mohair/silk.

But that’s not the only pattern within the collection that is inspired by the trees of North Carolina. The Autumnal Socks pattern was also inspired by the woods, but specifically in the autumn. I absolutely love fall, but that hasn’t always been the case. It’s only been with our move to North Carolina that I’ve really appreciated the season, and that’s because it’s not cold and snowy here in the fall! I love the crisp feeling in the air, the crunch of the leaves as you step on them, and the leaves falling to the ground.

The Autumnal Socks feature a faux cable motif that looks like leaves running from the toe to the cuff of the sock and a slipped cross stitch texture of trees lining the inside bit of the leg. These socks are fun and engaging to knit without being especially difficult, and the pattern includes a variety of customization options.

Another aspect about North Carolina that is very different from Montana and Wyoming is the oceanfront view. I'm a beach girl, and I love to lay in the sun, listening to the waves crashing and feeling the breeze from the water. North Carolina has a lot of beautiful country, including mountains, woods, and agricultural fields, but I'd still have to say the beaches are my favorite.

The Along the Shores Fingerless Mitts were inspired by the Carolina coast. The mitts begin with a herringbone cuff (or the option to work a ribbed cuff), which transitions into the sandy beaches of stockinette before reaching a wave texture that is finished with a beautiful I-cord barrier. The pattern includes a variety of adult sizes and instructions for adjusting the mitt length if desired.

The third part of life in North Carolina that's been a bit new has been living in the city. Growing up in Montana, I knew many people that were terrified of cities, and in Wyoming many of the natives were terrified of getting anywhere near Denver. So I got to thinking about what makes certain people hate the city. And it seems to me that it's because of the hustle and bustle: large numbers of people going here and there, and it begins to feel like chaos.

However, the city isn't really chaos.. well, maybe it's organized chaos... but it's not so random and unpredictable as it might feel. Instead, the city is filled with millions of people that each have a very specific purpose and destination. It is as those paths are viewed as a whole that it appears random and chaotic.

And that is exactly what the Hustle and Bustle Hat represents. The design is comprised of short diagonal lines (in multiple directions) that each have a purpose and a direction, but the overall look of the design appears random. (In reality, it is not random; there is a repeat throughout the pattern.) This random affect makes the texture perfect for working with "busy" yarns: it's a fun, engaging, and simplistic knit, and the yarn is able to be the star of the show without taking away from any clear pattern in the design! The pattern includes five sizes: child, teen, and three adult sizes.

And those are the four patterns of the collection: Endless Woods Cowl, Autumnal Socks, Along the Shores Fingerless Mitts, and Hustle and Bustle Hat.

Which pattern(s) are you most excited about? Learn more about the collection, and get the links to purchase, here. Then be sure to hop in the North Carolina Knit-a-long, running through January 31, 2021!