Knit a Flock of Flamingos Hat

Winter is coming for us in the Northern Hemisphere. That’s just a fact. But we don’t have to give up on bright colors and fun, whimsical, even summery feeling knitting projects while we’re waiting for it to warm up again.

We can keep cozy in knit hats festooned with a flock of flamingos if we want.

Stephanie Lotven is here to help us out with that project, thanks to her Flock of Flamingos hat knitting pattern.

This one uses four colors to make the flamingos themselves as well as a watery background at the bottom of the hat, a lighter sky and a colorwork pattern at the top that evokes sunshine. There’s an optional chart for adding duplicate stitch beaks and eyes to the flamingos (and a video tutorial is included in case you’ve never done that before) but they’re really cute either way.

The pattern uses fingering weight yarn, and you might just have some leftover sock yarn in your stash that would work for some of these colors. If you want to use the exact colors used in the sample, you can grab a kit from Emma’s Yarn. There are actually a few different color combos there if you want to change it up a bit. You could also change up the background colors so that the birds are standing in sand with a blue sky background. You could probably even work with the same background color throughout if you like, but the change is fun, too.

You should look through the projects on Ravelry to see different color options that people have used to get more ideas, especially if you want to use your stash.

I’m not saying knitting this hat will totally chase away your winter blues, but it’s sure to bring a smile to your face as you knit it and when you wear it.

You can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Stephanie Lotven]

Animal-Inspired Sock Knitting Patterns

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I guess the trend of little scarves and bandanas isn’t going away, and there’s a good reason for that. These little projects are fast, and they’re good for beginners because of the low commitment and they make something that doesn’t necessarily look like a beginner made it.

And when you can combine a simple pattern with some super luxurious yarn, it’s a little treat that even more experienced knitters can get behind.

The Little Dot Bandana from Purl Soho (designed by Gianna Mueller) is a project like that. It’s a simple eyelet triangle, worked from the long side down to the point, so there’s a lot of decreasing happening but it’s a really easy project.

It calls for a hank of silk yarn and one that’s silk mohair, which gives the project a fuzziness and a little bit of a silky glow.

Of course you can use different yarn to get a different look. A linen yarn would be fun for a summer kerchief, or combine wool and mohair for a warm and cozy kerchief for cold mornings.

The pattern comes in two sizes, so you can stitch up a kerchief or a simple triangle shawl. The stitch multiple is 8 plus 23 stitches, so you can use that to make a triangle of any size you like, or you can use a heavier weight of yarn to make a different size if you prefer. The two strands held together as called for in the pattern makes a sport weight gauge, so you could try DK or worsted for a bigger and warmer project if you want.

This pattern is available for free from Purl Soho, or check out the pattern notes on Ravelry to find how other people made this project.

And if you need more options for kerchiefs to knit, check out this collection of kerchief knitting patterns.

[Photo: Purl Soho]

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