Knit a Snake for the Year of the Snake

Lunar new year is here and it’s the year of the wood snake. If you want to celebrate with knitting, here are some fun snake knitting patterns for you to try.

Stitch up a snake dishcloth or add it as an afghan square to a blanket you knit up this year. This free pattern from Daisy and Storm uses a single color and purl stitches to make the snake design. The pattern is charted but there are also line by line instructions if you need them. It calls for DK or light worsted yarn but you can make it with regular kitchen cotton and you’ll get a slightly bigger cloth.

Make a snake with stripes to bust your stash or make a single colored snake if you’d rather with this pattern from Sarah Ann Thompson. It calls for worsted weight yarn and you can make it as long as you like, or go until you run out of oddballs. Does that ever happen? You can grab this pattern for free on Ravelry.

Or try the snake knitting pattern from Natty Knits on Etsy, which uses bulky yarn and it made to coil, so you work it in different sections to make it stack up on itself. So cute!

There’s also Stanley Snake from Fluff and Fuzz, which is made to be striped with all your DK weight odd balls, but you could make it a solid color if you’d rather. It’s a pretty simple knit that’s worked flat with a little shaping for the head.

Louise Walker’s snake scarf (on Ravelry) would be another fun one to do in lots of colors to use up your stash of bulky odd balls, or work in two colors as shown. It’s worked in two pieces that are seamed together for extra coziness, which also means you could lightly stuff it or add a layer of fleece for even more warmth if you want.

The adorable snake charmer sweater from Marit Krogstad (buy it on Ravelry) has a sweet spotted snake running across the body and down one sleeve. It’s sized for kids (ages 3/4 to 9/10) and calls for DK weight yarn. The pattern is available in English and Norwegian.

Stash Busting with Knitted Toys

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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