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.

Getting ready for back to school makes me think about pencil crafts, so let’s take a look at some pencil themed knitting patterns!

I recently made a pencil on a circular knitting machine, and it was a fun, quick, easy project that uses little bits of leftover yarn (and if you don’t have yellow you can make it a colored pencil using whatever color’s your favorite). And if you want to make a bigger version check out this pattern from Orange Olive Road on Etsy.

If you want to knit a pencil pillow by hand, check out Sketchy, available on Ravelry from Shana S. Cohen. This one uses worsted weight yarn and has two size options and the choice to make a pencil with an eraser or a colored pencil.

Pencil scarves seem to be the most popular kind of pencil knitting pattern, and there are lot of cute ones. This one from Cosy Craft UK mostly uses garter stitch, with some welts to add texture and what looks like an I-cord edging. It calls for DK weight yarn.

If you want to go all garter stitch try this version from Emsley Co Creations, which uses five colors of DK weight yarn and just a little shaping to make the point of the pencil.

There’s also this fun, mostly stockinette so it looks like it curls a bit, pencil pattern that looks like it’s worked in chunky yarn from Little Knits Studio. This one uses just a little garter stitch and easy shaping for the point.

If you don’t want a pencil scarf, how about some pencil socks? The No. 2 Pencil Socks from The Yarn Enabler are available from Ravelry and use five colors of sock yarn. They feature wide ribs to mimic the texture of a pencil and have options to be worked from the top down or the toe up.

Needs Sharpening by Alexander Walker is a free pattern on Ravelry that uses five colors of sock yarn to make a sort of shortie sock. The little bit of black at the tips of the toes inspired the name. These, too, can be worked in either direction and are available in three sizes.

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