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:

Sometimes I feel like knitters get intimidated to try new things because they think they need to start with a big project. Your first time working in the round doesn’t need to be a sock, and your first colorwork doesn’t need to be a sweater, for example. You can find little projects that use the skills you want to learn to build your confidence before you move on to something that requires more time commitment.

This adorable knit bunny, for example.

The colorwork bunny from Knit Picks was designed by Amy Munson and is a kind of bowling pin shaped bunny complete with a knit hat, contrasting inner ears and a little stranded colorwork on its body. Note that the ears are attached the the hat not the bunny, but you could stitch them to the bunny if you’d rather.

It’s worked from the bottom up and also has a tiny pompom tail you can’t see in the picture but it’s a really cute touch. There are a variety of little fair isle patterns to choose from to make the best bunny for you.

The bunny comes out about 8 inches tall (or just over 20 cm) and use several colors to complete the colorwork, depending on the design you choose.

You can purchase the pattern by itself from Knit Picks, or make a kit that includes sport weight yarn in all the colors you need for your creation. There are gray and brown options for the main body of the bunny, but of course if you’re using your own yarn you can make it whatever color you like.

Once you’ve tried colorwork (maybe also working in the round and shaping if those are skills you haven’t used before) in a little project like this you’ll be ready to take on something bigger in no time.

Check out the pattern on Knit Picks.

[Photo: Knit Picks]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?