Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

A New Crop of Christmas Ornament Knitting Patterns

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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.

Have you read?

Patchwork Blanket Knitting Patterns

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns. 

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn. 

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options. 

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners. 

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set. 

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn. 

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers. 

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.