How To
How to Log Cabin: Start Small
The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
The creation of a thousand log cabin blankets is in one dishrag. —Kay Gardiner
I’m pretty sure that if Emerson were alive today, and a knitter, he would agree with me.
In our latest little book, MDK Field Guide No. 4: Log Cabin, we were inspired not so much by Emerson as by another New Englander, Julia Child. My favorite quotation from our matron saint is this one: “Find something you’re passionate about, and keep tremendously interested in it.”
Here at MDK, we are tremendously interested in log cabin knitting. Like Julia Child’s recipe for boeuf bourgignon in her book Mastering the Art of French Cooking, log cabin knitting is in our own ancient tome of a first book.
Also like Julia’s fancy beef stew, the first version was longer than it needed to be. We’ve learned some handy things since then that we’re eager to share with today’s log cabin knitters.
The first project in Field Guide No. 4 is one of the simplest knitting patterns you will ever see: six garter stitch cloths. Each cloth teaches a basic log cabin technique or a tool for constructing or finishing a log cabin project.
Each cloth also is a useful Finished Object in its own right. (Is anyone else impatient with swatches that can’t be used for anything?) Just as some knitters start a sweater with a sleeve that serves as a gauge swatch, we recommend that first-time log cabin knitters start with a washcloth or two to get the hang of how log cabin works, and be ready to jump in with both feet on a bigger project.
Looking around my house, I took a census of log cabin blankets. I’ve made a lot of log cabin blankets in my day. Being a process knitter, I give most of them away, eventually, but the ones that have stayed home are my pride and joy.
I was delighted to see that three of the blankets sitting on the furniture in my apartment are perfect illustrations of the acorn-to-oak theory behind our log cabin cloths.
Cloth 1: Classic Log Cabin
Here’s the cloth:
Pretty classic. You start in the center (white patch), bind off, turn it on its side, and pick up stitches to knit a patch onto that edge (small beige patch), bind off, turn that piece on its side, and on and on. If you kept going with this cloth, adding strip after strip in a spiral, you’d get a mesmerizing one-patch log cabin. If you make a whole stack of classic log cabin blocks, and join them together, you get this:
Pattern: Fussy Cuts. (Coming soon as an individual PDF pattern download.)
Gah! This one was not in my apartment; it’s Ann’s Fussy Cuts, chilling on her porch. That beautiful blanket is just a stack of classic log cabin cloths, a heap of fun, easy color play, framed and joined.
Cloth 2: Courthouse Steps
Here’s the cloth:
At first glance, you might not see much of a difference between Cloth 1 and Cloth 2, but it’s there. Instead of knitting on strips in a spiral, turning and knitting a new strips onto the next adjacent side, after completing a strip on one side of the center, you go to the opposite side and add a matching strip there, and only after doing these mirrored strips do you knit a strip onto the adjacent side (and then its own opposite side).
It’s much easier to see the difference when the process is repeated:
Pattern: Courthouse Steps. (Coming soon as an individual PDF pattern download.)
Here’s another, more colorful version I made for a baby boy in 2010.
This was the first pattern I ever wrote, inspired by an important fabric quilt. At the time, my log cabin skills and my knitting logic were in their infancy. I didn’t yet realize that picking up the correct number of stitches on an edge was important to the squareness of the piece as it grew: if you pick up too few, you are decreasing, and if you pick up too many, you are increasing. On this first blanket, I must have picked up too many, because the lines in my Courthouse Steps gently bow outwards.
It’s a teachable moment, in blanket form.
This blanket is one of my most precious possessions. The Rowan Denim, once crisp, is silky soft now, its black edging washed to whisper gray. It has fade lines from lying folded at the foot of a bunk bed in front of a window. It has been a steadfast companion to a boy’s after-school progression from Spongebob Squarepants to Arrested Development. Just go ahead and wrap me up in it when I die.
Cloth 3: L-shape
Here’s the cloth:
The principle here is that the strips of a log cabin do not need to be uniform in size, or arranged symmetrically. So what?
So what is that when the strips can be in any width or arrangement, a lot of possibilities open up. Log cabin is not just a graphic pattern, it’s a seamless construction method.
Pattern: Moderne Log Cabin.
There is no sewing in the Moderne, and only one instance of two-colors-in-one-row (technically, intarsia, but the very simplest intarsia). Today, I’d avoid even that bit of intarsia, but back then, I had yet to figure out parquet squares, or how to knit a miter into a corner. Live and learn.
Or as Julia Child would say, keep tremendously interested.
There are three more cloths—so much excitement!— but we will visit them later.
Please keep posting Fussy Cuts photos on a regular basis to remind me of my squares that are marinating, waiting to be gartered together into a blanket.
As I am in “stage 2” of my second Fussy Cuts blanket I relish this vitamin shot.
FYI the stages are:
Knit 20 squares
Sew in the ends
Border 20 squares
Knit together the rows
Knit together the columns
Sew in the ends (trying to have as few as possible)
Apply the binding
All but the last 3 steps are very portable. Another reason I love this pattern.
The none portable part works great for binge tv. I’m thinking “Secrets of the Six Wives” on PBS.
I’ve been doing Stage 4 of a Secret Fussy Cuts while watching Secrets of the Six Wives. It’s fantastic. I want Lucy W to explain all of English history to me.
Mark Rylance’s Cromwell in Wolf Hall reawakened in me an interest in all things Tudor. I watched it the second time just as eagerly as the first. Anyway, I just finished The Private Lives of the Tudors: Uncovering the Secrets of Britain’s Greatest Dynasty. (By Tracy Borman.) I’ve read a lot of fiction and nonfiction about this era, and I did learn some new things from it!
I ordered (and received on Sunday! Thanks, USPS!) the Log Cabin Cloths Kit and immediately cast-on. This is my first time knitting log cabin and I’m loving it so far! Thank you!
Sarah! Welcome to Team Log Cabin! It’s real fun here!
One of my all time favorite knits was the Moderne baby blanket, and I won a ribbon at the Minnesota State Fair with Mitered Crosses.
We need to get a badge to give to State Fair ribbon winners!
Please tell us the yarn you used for your Fussy Cuts. It was so beautiful, it took my breath away.
Noro Silk Garden is the yarn used for the log cabins. The frames can be more Silk Garden or a solid color worsted weight yarn of your choice. We used Brown Sheep Co. Lamb’s Pride Worsted for the photo sample for the book.
Now all I can think is what is a parquet square? Not great for a monday morning like this with so much work ahead. But I love learning and will try to focus for now. … It’s that tremendously interested that shows us we are on the right path!
I learned Parquet Squares from Barbara Walker’s books. It’s a way of knitting a square into a corner by picking up on one edge, and then knitting straight garter stitch, but attaching it to the other side of the corner as you go. Ann Weaver uses a very similar technique to make a ninepatch square in the Sommerfeld Shawl design in Field Guide No. 4.
The goddess Julia Child – how right she was. Upon my first glance of log cabin, I thought, “not my thing, I like curvy lines and tend toward flowery or more intricate knit/crochet patterns and avoid modern looks”. You swayed me – again! – on taking another look after my initial dismissal: I now see something satisfying in the way this is constructed, so many variabilities, and the convenience of turning any wonky experiments into a dishcloth, at least. Fussy Cuts and Courthouse Steps just got to me. I’m now thinking about my stash and lovely log cabin patterns to be made with them!
I’m your polar opposite in that I love straight lines and have to be persuaded into lacy curves, but Ann Weaver’s Sommerfeld Shawl opened my eyes to the beautiful possibilities of mixing a little feather and fan into a log cabin framework.
Just now had the chance to check the Sommerfield shawl… I’m going to be planning a lacy sommerfield log cabin shawl in my head for weeks, I can tell!
I’m positively thrilled with the subject matter of your current field guide! In devouring your first book, I was immediately drawn to the log cabin knitting. It was the first time I really understood that I was the boss of my knitting (reconfirmed later by our dearest EZ when I was a more confident knitter). Later I fell in love with quilting, and my taste in quilt designs veers sharply toward those that could also be knitted. I quickly found the quilts of Gee’s Bend and Denyse Schmidt. These founts of inspiration led to my knitted tribute:
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/chavahsdaughter/ode-to-denyse-baby-quilt
Thank you for posting your past designs and projects along with the field guide designs! I’m inspired all over again!!
Tara, this is brilliant! I’ve haven’t made a quilt (yet) but I’ve had Denise S’s first book for ages and I pull it out for inspiration regularly. Someday… and now you’ve got me thinking about knitted versions. Tremendously interested over here.
I love Denyse Schmidt’s first book SO MUCH! So many of her quilt patterns would work so well in knitting.
You might be interested in the book “No-Pattern Knits” by Pat Ashforth and Steve Plummer. It demonstrates how to make some very quilty-looking shapes that can be assembled together. It’s one of my favorites when I want to intersect the two crafts.
If you ever want to talk knitted quilts, feel free to contact me on Ravelry!
What a beautiful piece of work! So immaculately precise and delightfully tilted at the same time!
That is such a sweet compliment! Thank you! It was a very addictive knit.
That is just gorgeous!
Thank you, Helen!
Your blanket is beautiful – thanks for your instructions for short-rowing a wonky block! I’ve followed the orginal log cabin guidelines from my “old” Modern Daily book to make many variations, but never did I make a wonky block (on purpose). I am looking forward to it – very inspirational and fun.
I’m happy to provide more guidance if my abbreviated description on my project page needs clarification. At the time, it seemed there were intentionally wonky quilts on every quilting blog on the internet. I loved the Tilt-a-Whirl feel they gave to traditional designs, like log cabins and Chinese coins.
I’d love to see what you create!
Tara, that project is stunning. I’m so intrigued by the short rows. I always want to do that and then despair of how I am going to keep the piece straight on the sides. You did it perfectly!
Thank you so much! My eye loves asymmetry, but my type A, Virgo brain thinks in straight line symmetry. Balancing the short rows meant keeping track of them and thus a little more mindfulness than traditional log cabining, but it was worth it. I think it would be fun to play with intentional wonkiness on a larger scale. I was bit limited by the smaller landscape of a baby blanket size. I’m so glad you like it!
Will the Sommerfeld wrap block more evenly? The edges look pretty wonky.
Hi Sally! Not sure what edge you’re seeing, but maybe it’s the block that has feather and fan in it along the bottom? That edge definitely has waves in it, because that’s what feather and fan does. But if you’re wanting a straight edge all around, you could just work that block in plain garter stitch and it wouldn’t block out to be wavy.
Can’t wait to be able to download Fussy Cuts pattern. I have the Noro ready and waiting.
OK, I’m motivated! I don’t want to keep you waiting too long, Donna!
The magic of garter and log cabin, so many paths…. <3
I see an outbreak of Cabin Fever among your readers! So thrilled with how this one came out: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/lightdove/paintbox-log-cabin-blanket. Much deserved credit given to MDK!
Scheming to add another color border around the squares of my languishing Mitered Crosses, and, on Kay’s advice, hunker down with it and a podcast or three. (Don’t you love it when people listen to you?)
Thanks for all the inspiration!
Yay! You figured out the linking to rav thing 🙂
Your Paintbox is a stunner!
The other thing you could do with your Mitered Crosses is just say, “It’s done!” Everything doesn’t need a border. The longer a project sits in the WIP pile just needing a border, the less I think it needs one, and eventually I pronounce it “done.”
And- you’ve motivated me to finally learn how to link to a Ravelry project: thanks!
So glorious, Helen. It really is a paintbox of color!
And the idea of just adding more to a blanket? Keep going . . .
Thanks to MDK, I learned to log cabin and made two Moderne Baby Blankets as well as a Mitered Crosses throw (the last two inches of I cord have proved difficult on it) and Ann Weaver’s Albers Cowl. I bought this guide without thinking twice. There is something very satisfying about log cabining. Ann Weaver’s shawl looks amazing. But the Eddy wrap has to come first. Right?
Oh, and I bought Craft Activism just for the Fussy Cuts pattern. I may have a problem. 🙁
Kay, I love your collection of much-loved log cabins, and I believe I have pictures of that very courthouse steps from several years ago, in Concord…2010, maybe? I remember it hanging down over the front of a table covered in knits, including at least one WIP. And I do not recall any bowing out of the steps 🙂
Several years ago I made a Moderne Baby Blanket as a “warm up” to a larger Moderne blanket and enjoyed the process for both. I’ve ordered your newest guide and look forward to revisiting the whole log cabin technique.
Love them all!
I love log cabins, and learning about the technique from your book, back when I was a new knitter, was just about the greatest thing ever! (Right up there with knitting in the round and making decreases for a hat.) I also somehow let this summer slip by without knitting anything in cotton, which is very sad. But it’s not yet September, and I am so ready for a dish towel project. I think a log cabin one may be just the thing! Thank you!
I’ve been a log cabin fan for years after I first saw them on the Modern Daily blog. I have knitted a variety of blankets – most gifted away. I just finished a stack of Ball Band dishcloths for a wedding gift and just started a stack of log cabin dishcloths for another bride-to-be.
Here is a log cabin blanket I knitted recently for a cousin’s wedding: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Francieos/how-to-log-cabin-2
That is a very pretty log cabin blanket – I’ll bet the recipient was thrilled. Love the colors!
Thank you ever so much for directing me to resources. I find that one of my best delights while reading you, Ann and your friends.
This technique is a skill I know I’ve bungled, and now I have not only a name but direction to guide me. I’m also waiting for the knitted on edge of Romi Hill’s pattern to “click”. Thank you all for expanding our techniques and knitting vocabulary.
Hi Kay…..I’m looking for a pattern for your log cabin blanket with the off-white border. A friend and I want to make one to donate to a silent auction for disaster relief for the victims of Hurricane Harvey. What kind and how much yarn does it take of each color? The one you made is gorgeous. We had a blast making several Mitered Crosses to donate to similar causes and want to repeat the joy!
I have had a Moderne Log Cabin blanket OTN for a couple years, intended for Younger Son. He will get it… eventually. He saw the one in your first? second? book long ago and commented that it was a nice pattern, so when I decided to knit him an afghan that pattern was the obvious choice.
Having found MD knitting book in a charity shop have finished log cabin blanket for my grand son and about to start Moderne pattern for my granddaughter. So inspired, ecan’t wait to start experimenting with my own handspun.Thank you for making me realise there are still new and exciting things to try at 69!
Hookers do not despair – there are many log cabin patterns out there for crocheters – put that is your space bar and log a long
I don’t bind off the stitches at the end of a strip. I pick up the stitches on the end of the just completed strip and knit across the live stitches. I hate picking up stitches.
Thank you! I have 9 Noro squares ready to go but I need hand holding to join them together. Will reread Fussy Cuts again and again.
I have been wanting to knit traditional quilt patterns for about 10 years, but thought it was just my own weirdness! Thank you so much! !
I love these designs, maybe because I am a quilter too? Please do get these into single pattern production soon! I’m sure they will be snapped up.
Is there a pattern for a log cabin pillow cover?
How do you started to make the squares for log cabin
I LOVE log cabining. Love. Love. Love.
Baby blankets, bath mats, area rugs, placemats. Basically anything flat can be log cabined.
And I learned it from your book.
I have just started log cabining after years and years of knitting. I don’t know what took me so long but here I am. Thank you for this ode to the log cabin pattern(s). It has been very helpful.
sony music would be the biggest company in entertainment from what i see in the future. they have a good business plan-