Knit a Snowman by Hand or with a Circular Knitting Machine

A little while back I got a 40 peg Sentro circular knitting machine, and while I haven’t used it that much, I am trying to use it more often and learn a bit more about what it can do.

One thing that seems to be really popular to make with it this time of year is a knitted snowman, so I decided to give it a try.

The snowman’s body is a tube, which you close at the bottom, stuff, then cinch in for the “neck” and stuff the head and close it up at the top. It takes just a few minutes to make and is really cute.

I couldn’t resist accessorizing mine, so I hand knit a little garter stitch scarf and a beanie.

You could, of course, knit the snowman itself by hand, too, if you don’t happen to have a circular knitting machine (they are really fun, though, and it seems like they’re on sale a lot, or you could ask for one for Christmas). I have vague instructions for that in the post as well, but it’s just knitting a tube of whatever size you like and then finishing it in the same way.

For accessories, you can add buttons to the stomach area, knit a scarf and a hat like I did, use the knitting machine to make a hat, make a scarf out of felt or fleece…there are really a lot of options and it’s hard to resist making your snowman a whole wardrobe. Maybe that just means I need to knit more snowmen to accessorize!

If you’re looking for an even easier (in terms of finishing, anyway) knitting project to try for a circular knitting machine, you’ll want to check out my loop knit scarf, too. This is a project you can make in a few hours, and either one of them would be great for gifting!

Knitting Pattern Snowman Hat

Knit Little Snowman Holiday Ornaments

Super Sweet Christmas Ornaments to Knit

Pom Pom Snowman – How To

There’s a lot to like about the Eloise Bandana from Katryn Seeburger. This cute little colorwork triangle can be worked as a bandana or kerchief size or a bigger shawlette.

It’s worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn so you can use whatever yarn you have in your stash and just make it as big as you can (since it is worked from the bottom up).

You can see the two sizes from the photo, and also two colorwork options: strawberries and lily of the valley.

But that’s not all the choices you have. In fact, there are 34 different charts you can choose from to knit onto your project. Some of the options include happy faces, a lobster, a pumpkin, a snail and a butterfly. There are cherries, peaches, tomatoes and radishes.

There’s even a blank square you can use to draw your own little design if you want to use something else. Or keep it blank and make it a plain checkerboard design.

And while both of these shawls use the same icons throughout, you could also use different designs throughout if you want. Say a fall version with a bat, pumpkin, leaf and acorn, or a summer beach theme with sailboat, fish, lobster and a bird? I keep suggesting four different icons because the larger size has four rows of squares, but the smaller has three, so you could do stripes of the same icon or alternate a couple of different ones, whatever you like.

Look through the finished projects on the Ravelry project page to see lots of different options, from rows to individual icons. There are also some projects that are smaller than the suggested size to make a smaller bandana. You could also keep going a make a bigger shawl working increases in the same way as you have been going.

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Katryn Seeburger]

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