Barbie-Inspired Knitting Patterns

It feels like we’re living in a pink world right now, so it’s high time to knit some pink projects, correct? Of course any knitting project can be worked in pink if you want, but I thought it would be fun to find some projects that are already pretty in pink or specifically designed to be inspired by our favorite plastic icon. (Knits for Barbie herself coming soon!)

For example, the Barbie Crop Top by Maral Mokri. This DK weight, top down, circular yoke sweater is covered with Barbie-inspired colorwork, including flowers, high-heeled shoes and handbags. It comes in nine sizes with a chest measurement up to 67 inches, and you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

Fiona Stevenson’s C’mon Barbie hat (a free download on Ravelry) uses worsted weight and fingering yarn held together for a bulky weight look. It has a stitch pattern made of ribbing and slip stitches and its easy to adjust the size to fit any Barbie or Ken.

This pink and white gingham top from Muki Crafts on Etsy is super cute and easy to stitch up. It has a buffalo plaid pattern worked in two colors and a cropped style, though of course you can make yours longer. It has five sizes for kids and four for adults.

Yarnspirations did a Life in Plastic pattern roundup (if you click the link and it’s showing both knitting and crochet patterns, you can filter for knitting on the left hand side of the page). The knitting patterns include a pink bias knit scarf, scrunchies, a striped sweater and a pair of legwarmers.

The Pink Shell from DROPS is another one I think Barbie would approve of, with its simple textured pattern and fun halter top shape. It comes in six sizes and is worked from the bottom up in cotton yarn.

And then there’s this cardigan called The Pink One. Designed by Lily Kate France and available on Ravelry, it features poufy, textured sleeves on a simple body. It calls for a DK weight and a mohair yarn to amp up the texture. Instructions are given for cropped and standard length, and it comes in nine sizes up to a 62 inch chest measurement (it’s meant to be worn with 8-10 inches of positive ease).

For the past few years I’ve taken part in a Christmas in July blog hop that encourages people to get a jump on their making for holiday gifts.

I love to use yarn I already have for these projects in the hope that people will consider what they already have that they can use to make projects for themselves or to give as gifts.

This year it was a couple of knit baskets made using partial balls of yarn left in my stash from other projects.

They use the same basic pattern but the first one is made with two colors of bulky yarn, and the second used two strands of worsted weight yarn held together, which made the gauge about the same, but I cast on fewer stitches to make a smaller version.

The bottom of the basket is square, though you can make them rectangular if you’d rather. Then I just knit up the sides in rounds until I was about to run out of yarn. This gave both baskets rather short sides — maybe more like a tray than a basket — but you can keep knitting as long as you like to make the sides of your basket as tall as you want.

They’re worked in seed stitch, which keeps the edges from curling and adds a nice texture to the baskets.

Of course this also allows you to use even more odd balls from your stash. I’d love to make a big one someday combining lots of different yarn. I mean, I’d probably use it to store more yarn, but that’s a fine thing to do.

As it is, these little trays are great for sitting on your desk or bedside table to hold little things that always seem to appear there. I like to use one to hold the supplies for whatever project I’m working on, things like little scissors, my tape measure, a crochet hook, etc.

And they would make good gifts on their own or as a container to hold some other goodies if you like.

You can find the free pattern for these stash busting baskets over at Our Daily Craft.

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