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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This swirly square stitch knitting pattern from Studio Knit is a lot of fun, and it looks kind of complicated without being difficult at all.

The swirly nature of the block comes from regularly placed increases, as the pattern is worked in rounds from the center out. Switching between sections of all knit stitches and all purl stitches (which gives you stockinette and reverse stockinette respectively when worked in the round) adds to the off-kilter flair but makes it really easy to knit.

You can work it in a single color or change colors regularly. This isn’t really a change colors randomly kind of pattern just because it looks better if you work a full repeat in a single color, but you know there are no rules so you can do whatever you want.

You can also make it any size you like, and indeed use any yarn you want. This one is blanket sized and used five colors of worsted weight yarn, but you can use any yarn and corresponding needles (you’ll need double pointed needles and circulars of various lengths, depending on how big you want to make your square).

For a start, why not grab some cotton yarn and stitch up a swirly washcloth? You could still use a couple of colors if you want, jsut for fun.

Once you try that, you’ll probably want to make a bigger version, and you could definitely use more colors than Kristen did (or just one color if you prefer), you just need to make sure you change colors at the beginning of the pattern repeat to keep everything looking good.

If you’re ready to start (and I know I am!) you can grab the free pattern and check out a video to help you get started at Studio Knit.

[Photo: Studio Knit]

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