A Shawl to Knit for (or at) the Beach

What people like in a vacation knitting project can vary (I recently wrote about about what I like in travel knitting projects) but I think it’s common to like projects that are small enough to throw in a bag, not too difficult but still provide some kind of interest for when you’re knitting in the car or on the beach.

Beach Days by Tracie Millar looks like a fun project to knit at the beach or for the beach. It uses three colors (though of course you could use more, or fewer) and combines stripes of color with different stitch patterns, but it’s a rectangle so you don’t have to worry about remembering to increase or decrease when you’re immersed in the pattern.

It’s also worked in fingering weight yarn so it will keep you knitting through the longest road trip.

The pattern is $5 on Ravelry.

[Photo: Tracie Millar.]

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Looking for more amazing shawl patterns? Check out these Knitting patterns we found on Etsy.

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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.

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