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

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork.

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn.

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look.

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me.

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round.

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.

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