Animal-Inspired Sock Knitting Patterns

Admittedly this roundup of patterns is a little niche, but I was looking at colorwork sock knitting patterns and happened to find a lot that include animals or are inspired by animals, so why not take a walk on the wild side and knit some animal inspired socks?

It all started, as most things do, with cats. In particular the Hubble Bubble socks by Abi Marshall-Smith, From Devin with Love. These sweet stripey socks have little black cats on the backs of the heels, so you’ll definitely want to wear them when you aren’t wearing shoes. The pattern comes in three sizes and is available on Ravelry.

And if there are cats, there have to be dogs, right? How about the Pixel Slouch Socks from Winter’s Weather Knits, which have colorwork inspired by a dog in the designer’s life? If you have a dog (or cat, for that matter) with multicolored fur you could make these with different colors to represent their paws, too. Available in three sizes, you can grab the pattern on Ravelry.

Leopard print is a fun choice for socks, and I’ll bet these knit up in a flash because the colorwork is son entertaining. The version shown, from Beyond the Loops, uses classic orange and black, but pick any two high-contrast colors you like. The pattern come s in three sizes and is on Ravelry in English and Finnish.

Jazz up some simple knit socks with a bit of color to make Very Hungry Caterpillar Socks with this free chart from Sian Maloney. This is not a sock pattern, just the chart for making the eyes. You can download it from Ravelry. Change up the colors on the socks to make different insects if you want; kids are sure to love them!

Or how about making some socks covered in rubber duckies? This pattern from Renate Dalmo is also free on Ravelry, and includes colorwork bands of ducks along the leg and foot.

Stone Knits on Etsy has a fun “pair” of sock patterns you can buy together and knit a pair of both or make a mismatched pair. The pattern is called Why Are Flamingos Pink? and one sock has flamingos and the other shrimp. They’re surprisingly cute!

And if you want to take “animal sock knitting patterns” literally, check out this crazy collection from Emma Barmudez Designs. Here you’ll find patterns for a crocodile (shown above), fish, dragon, chameleon and platypus, all with mouths open to receive your feet. Each pattern comes in three sizes, starting with a child’s large/woman’s small, so you can make them for your bigger kids if they have a silly sock day at school (or to wear any other time).

Free Knitting Pattern – Slouchy Socks

Elevation Yoga Socks Knitting Pattern

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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