Christmas Chocolate Orange Cover Knitting Patterns

A Terry’s Chocolate Orange is a classic Christmas gift in the UK that has become more popular in America as well. And if you know knitters, you know they’re going to cover something in knitting if they can, so there are lots of different Christmas themed chocolate orange knitting patterns out there (which you could use for an actual orange as well if that’s in your traditions).

Chocolate orange covers seem to be one of those projects where a designer makes a lot of variations on the theme, so we’ll just touch on a few here but you can further explore the designer’s works if you like what you see.

Wild Welsh Knitting has a cute little set of orange covers that look like little drawstring bags. There’s a snowman, a Christmas tree and a robing, and they are all worked in DK weight yarn. This designer has lots of cute little Christmas projects, not just for oranges.

Wendy Morgan has a bunch of chocolate orange cover knitting patterns, not just for Christmas, but for our purposes I wanted to point out the set that includes a Santa, reindeer and Christmas pudding. It’s available on Ravelry, and the pieces are worked flat using DK weight yarn.

Rebecca Roberts is another designer on Ravelry who does a bunch of Christmas chocolate orange cover knitting patterns, but I wanted to share this post box one because I think it’s really cute and not a design I’ve seen from others. It has a little bird on top and you could change up the colors to make it a TARDIS (yes I know that’s a phone box, not a mail box, but still) if you wanted.

Made by Marianna has a great set of her Christmas orange cover knitting patterns available on Etsy if you want to make a bunch of different designs. This collection includes six patterns: a Christmas pudding, Santa hat, snowman, Christmas trees, elf hat and Santa’s belt. The Christmas tree is shown above. All of the patterns use DK yarn.

Secret Garden England has a bunch of cute holiday patterns, too, but if you’re stitching for someone who doesn’t have a lot of Christmas cheer, you’ll want to make this Grinch one. The details are so cute, and while you’ll need more supplies to add all those things, it’s well worth the effort!

There are two schools of thought when it comes to instructional books about knitting. Either focus in one particular technique or kind of knitting (stranded knitting, say, or brioche) or try to cover a little bit of everything in a reference book that knitters will use throughout their careers.

The Knitting Book by Frederica Patmore and Dr. Vikki Haffenden aims to be the second kind. The subtitle is: a step-by-step guide to creating imaginative projects for the home and to wear. I’m not sure it does that, exactly, but it does include a quick look at a lot of different techniques and stitch patterns you might use in your projects.

A “guide to creating imaginative projects” sounds to me like it’s about design, but this book is not. There’s 1/3 of a page about altering patterns that only talks about how to add length to a sleeve and adjust where the increases go.

There’s nothing about measuring your body (the section on choosing a size in a pattern only suggests measuring a garment you already own), general garment construction, ease or stitch pattern multiples. The section on gauge (which is the last third of the page with choosing a garment size and altering patterns, discussed above) just says to knit a swatch, block and measure it to compare to a pattern, with no discussion on how you might use your swatch to design your own project or alter a pattern to meet your gauge.

If you ignore the subtitle, what you will find is a lot of information about different kinds of knitting and various techniques you might want to try on your projects. There are 20 cast ons and 15 bind off options, for instance, all discussed before you learn how to knit or purl. (Another quibble I have with this book is the order in which things are presented, but that’s relatively minor.)

You’ll find quick hits on increases and decreases, twists and cables, lace, colorwork, textured effects like fisherman’s rib and brioche, loops, mosaic knitting, double knitting, decorative stitches, shadow knitting, bias knitting, mitered squares, entrelac and more. There are tips for selvedge stitches, knitting with beads, adding buttonholes, picking up stitches and more.

A few patterns at the back give knitters a taste of some of the techniques included, but they’re not rated by skill level and the first one is a bias knit gradient scarf worked in six different colors of mohair, which isn’t a thing I’d wish on any beginner.

And I guess that’s maybe what my issue with the book is. I don’t know if it’s meant for beginners and it doesn’t seem to, either. I feel like this book would be overwhelming to new knitters and doesn’t really give you a place to start or all the information you might need to do projects well.

The variety of techniques included is fun, and there are also stitch patterns in the back you can use on your own projects, but again it doesn’t really provide any guidance for how to design your own projects so I don’t know how helpful all of that is.

I want to like books like this because having one reference that helps you with a lot of different things is great, I’m just not sure this is the one. If you can find it at your library or local book store and flip through it before buying, I think that would be a great idea to see if it’s a book that would be helpful for you.

And if you have this book and love it please let me know! I’m sure it’s good for someone I’m just not sure who.

About the book: 336 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by DK. Suggested retail price $40.

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