Add Adorable Animals to Your Sweaters and Hats

With the vast collection of handknits I have, I don’t have a lot of colorwork sweaters (and no colorwork hats that I regularly wear). And when you look at the colorwork, there’s not a lot that I’d consider fun.

That’s really sad, because there are a lot of great whimsical colorwork knitting patterns out there. Today I’d like to introduce you to two of them. Or really four of them.

Vicky Chan has two sets of really cute colorwork designs that include a matching hat and sweater: Averie and Fiona (all links ahead point to Ravelry, FYI).

Averie is a sweater and hat pattern that feature fern fronds, flowers and a little bird. Fiona is a similar design, except here the bird has been replaced by a cat

All of the designs use worsted weight yarn. The hats come in one size and start with a provisional cat on so that the colorwork can be knit from the top down and the rest of the hat from the bottom up. The colorwork portion of all the patterns is charted. Because there are some long floats, instructions are given both for trapping floats and using ladder back jaquard if you prefer.

The sweaters have seven size options, but the largest size is on 56 inches/142 cm, and the design is intended to be worn with 2-8 inches (5-20 cm) of positive ease, which lowers that sizing even more.

But if you do happen to fall into that range of sizes (the smallest one is 32 inches or 81 cm) these sweaters are super cute. It might be fun to work the cats or birds in a different color from the rest of the colorwork (though that would involve even more long floats) or to use a multicolored yarn for the colorwork. There’s one in the Fiona sweater patterns that added color to the cat so check that out if it’s something you want to try!

[Photos: Vicky Chan]

This is a project that kind of stopped me in my tracks when I saw it while scrolling Ravelry. It’s such a fun contrast of a semisolid color worked in stockinette stitch and a more tonal yarn worked in a feather and fan variation.

(See more about feather and fan in this post on my blog; I also have a feather and fan scarf if you want to practice.)

The Nitty Wrap from Renate Dziedataja is worked in fingering weight yarn from a Finnish mill, and the name is the Finnish word for meadow. You of course can use whatever yarn you have handy.

It’s even more interesting because the project is worked from one short end across to make a long rectangle, and the two different sections are joined using intarsia. Generally we think of intarsia as being used for colorwork, so this is a fun different use of it. The lace section is charted in the pattern but it’s pretty easy to follow.

And of course it’s totally optional but to add a little more interest and tie the two colors of yarn together the designer also added some embroidery along the short edges on the stockinette side. A drawing of what she did is included but you can also add different designs if you’d rather.

The shawl has I-cord edgings to give it a nice finished look that doesn’t take away from the organic simplicity of the design.

As shown, the shawl measures about 22.5 inches/57 cm wide and 59 inches/150 cm long. You can of course adjust this according to your preference, the amount of yarn you have and the gauge you are getting. Try a thicker yarn to make a wider shawl if you like.

This pattern is available in English and Latvian for free on Ravelry.

Photo: Renate Dziedataja

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