Happy Year of the Horse!

It’s officially the Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac, so I thought it might be fun to take a look at some knitting patterns that incorporate horses.

How about a knit hobby horse? Of course! Here’s one from Destany Fenton that has lots of great pictures. Or knit a hobby horse washcloth with this pattern form Smariek Knits.

You can knit an actual horse with help from the post How to Knit a Horse by womantalk, the Dream Toys horse pattern from Claire Garland and the Self-Supporting Knit Horse from Tricoty (translation).

If you’re looking for kid’s hats that look like horses, check out Horsing Around by NimCraft and the horse among Barbara Bazzocchi’s hats for kids patterns.

Kimberly Kwan’s Horse Illusion Knit would make a fun scarf or washcloth.

Knit a big felted bag with a horse on the side via the Berroco pattern Hippodrome, designed by Lina De Montigny.

DROPS Design has a cute kid’s sweater with a horse head on the front, while Susan Springett has the Wild Horses Vest on Ravelry and Crochet Knit Wits has an awesome double-knit scarf with horses running along the length.

Happy New Year to all my fellow Horses and everyone else out there!

Next Pattern:

Using your yarn stash is important to me throughout the year, but as I start to feel the end of the year coming on I get more excited about using things I already have in the house. Maybe that’s because I don’t want to go to a store in the thick of holiday shopping times, or I like the idea of having a little space in my stash when the new year rolls around.

It’s super satisfying to use up all the little odd balls you’ve made over the year (or years), and I have several stash busting blankets I work on when it’s cold and will maybe finish someday.

If you’d like to start a stash busting project that’s perfect for using up odd balls, check out the Soukish pattern from Neisha Abdulla. This pattern is made for fingering weight/sock yarn, and it’s worked in a tube with allover color work.

This is great for a couple of reasons. You don’t really have to weave in your ends when you can hide them in a tube (this is one time you might even get by just tying a knot when you change colors!) and you can change colors whenever you run out of yarn and it will look good.

Of course the pattern is made with blocks where the designer changed colors, but you can change yours more or less often as you need to make it work for your stash. You can use blank charts to design your own color combinations, or even your own stitch patterns if you like. You can also adjust the length of the scarf as needed or turn it into a cowl based on the amount of yarn you have.

This project looks like a lot of fun and would be a great thing to have on hand to stitch up and then to wear during the cold, gloomy months.

You can get a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Neisha Abdulla]

Another Way to Use Up All Your Sock Yarn Scraps

Gather Your Scraps for a Fun Wrap

A Scrappy Shawl Knitting Pattern to Use All Your Odd Balls

Use All Your Yarn Scraps on This Great Cardigan Knitting Pattern

Next Pattern:

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