A New Crop of Christmas Ornament Knitting Patterns

It feels like every year I do a roundup of Christmas ornament knitting patterns (here’s the one from last year, and one from 2022 if you need more ideas) and why not? These cute little projects are fun to knit, generally pretty fast, you can use your scrap yarn from other projects and they make great little gifts for secret Santa or to decorate a gift bag. I’m sticking to newer patterns in Ravelry (and a few from Etsy, too) in the hope that these won’t be repeats, so let’s see what’s new!

Rebecca Roberts (Ravelry link) has a set of cute robins in different holiday costumes that you can knit for your tree. They include a Santa and Mrs. Claus/Mother Christmas, an elf and a snowman. Each bird is about 9 cm/3.5 inches tall, and the pattern description doesn’t say what kind of yarn is used but I think it’s super fine/fingering from the look of things.

Use your scraps of worsted weight yarn to make these little stockings designed by Nancy Ekvall for Blue Sky Fibers. They come out to 3 by 3.5 inches (or about 7.5 by 9 cm) and would be super cute as individual ornaments or a garland using up all your odd balls. The pattern is a free download on Ravelry.

Huggable Bears on Etsy has a cute pattern set that’s meant to be keychain buddies but you could make them ornaments as well. The set includes a snowman, Santa, reindeer, penguin and gingerbread man, all of which are worked flat and sewn together. Each character is about 4.5 inches or 11 cm tall, and they use DK weight yarn.

If you’re new to cable knitting or just like the look of cables (I think cables are a perfect winter technique; they just look cozy!) try this little ball ornament form Juliette Pecaut Design. It uses super bulky yarn, and the same simple cable pattern is also used in a coordinating stocking and tree skirt if you want your whole room to match.

There’s no place like home for the holidays, so why not stitch up an ornament that looks like a house? These tiny house ornaments from Gray Bear Akswokrat use two colors and are worked flat. They come out to 5 by 3 cm, or about 2 by 1 inch.

If you want a bitter house option, try the House Green Christmas design from Twins Design. This one is also worked flat but has the addition of lots of glowing windows to make it more festive. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

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Many times when I write these posts I will say something like “you can use any yarn you want” or “this would be a great stash-busting project.” That’s just how my mind works. And my stash, too, since I probably have sweater quantity of two or three yarns at most, but tons of singles and odd balls and leftovers.

Blankets are generally a really good way to use up those bits, but in this case, I think you’re going to want to plan it out a bit better.

Looking at photos of the Color Study Blanket from Purl Soho, it looks like it’s made with two yarns held together, and that block in the center is worked with one of each color from the adjoining sides to make a mixed up color.

But that’s not actually how it’s done. This is three separate colors (four, really, with the neutrals in the corners) chosen form a yarn with an expansive palette so they play off each other. The project calls for a worsted weight superwash wool, which is a great choice for a blanket that’s both warm and washable.

This pattern was originally designed by Laura Ferguson and was updated by Hiromi Glover. It is worked in one piece in garter stitch intarsia, which is a great way to learn the intarsia technique if you don’t already know it. It comes in crib or throw sizes.

Despite the introduction to this post, I am going to go ahead and say that, yes, of course you could do this blanket with scraps or odd balls or even just choose five colors that don’t blend together so easily. But I really do love the look of the color play, and I think it would be worth your time to find colors that play well together to get a similar effect.

This pattern is available for free from Purl Soho.

[Photo: Purl Soho]

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