Houndstooth Knitting Patterns

One of my favorite basic colorwork patterns is houndstooth, and I’m honestly a little shocked I’ve never done a houndstooth knitting pattern roundup before. Now’s the time, thanks to my coming across the Rakish Shawl from The Lamb & Kid Designs recently.

This pattern is free on Ravelry and it looks so cozy. It’s worked in worsted weight yarn and uses mosaic/slip stitch to make the design.

Speaking of cozy, the Hennessey Houndstooth Cardigan from Knit One Purl One Design looks like the kind of sweater I would want to wear all fall long. This one uses DK weight yarn and stranded knitting to make the design (which is the more common approach to houndstooth). It comes in nine sizes and you do need to be able to read and follow a chart to make this one work.

If you’re new to houndstooth, a good place to start might be this super bulky hat knitting pattern from Knotty Gang. It uses two colors and three sizes of needles so you don’t have to mess with increasing or decreasing in the colorwork.

A houndstooth hunting cap is a classic, and this option is from Orochi Knit. This is a free Japanese knitting pattern, meaning it’s in chart form (there are some written instructions but they are in Japanese and I didn’t try to translate it). But it’s very cool looking if you want to give it a try!

Add in a third color for the edges on the Houndstooth Bandana from Jocelyn Tunney and it makes the whole project pop that much more. This one uses DK weight yarn and you can buy it on Ravelry.

This multicolored houndstooth cowl from Yarnspirations was worked with their Pantone yarn, which included small balls of coordinating colors. That yarn has been discontinued but you could do the same thing with mini skeins, or just use one multicolored yarn.

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You probably know by now if you’re a regular reader (and if you’re not, welcome!) that I love a knitting pattern that’s a little silly or a little different from the usual. Classic patterns are great, too, but sometimes you just want to make something with a bit of whimsy. And when it’s super functional, too, that’s even better.

That’s the case with the Bananen-Socken pattern from Susanne Shahin. These banana socks are one of those patterns no one seems to be totally sure where it came from, and this free pattern on Ravelry explains how she makes them based on how she learned it.

It’s a sock that’s curved and when not on a foot it looks rather like a banana. There’s no heel, and you can use whatever number of stitches you need to make it fit your foot. If you’ve knit enough socks to know how many stitches you like you can just use that number, or the pattern notes include sizing charts to help. (It needs to be multiples of 2 for the ribbing.)

After working a traditional cuff, the body is made with ribbing on the back and welts (or what the pattern calls horizontal ribbing) on the front, which is what gives it the curved shape. There’s no heel, but there is toe shaping, but for the leg and the foot you just keep working the same pattern as long as you like.

I’m a little skeptical about how these socks will feel with ribbing on the bottom of the foot, but I’m definitely intrigued and will probably give them a try.

The pattern notes are available on Ravelry in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. If you head to the pattern page you can see a photo of what it looks like on a foot, and it just looks like a normal sock.

Have you ever knit banana socks or do you want to now? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo: Susanne Shahin]

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