Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Knit Birds from Berroco

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Free bird knitting patterns from Berroco.Fans of Berroco Yarns got a great surprise in their email boxes recently when the company sent a cute little pattern collection of knit birds.

I don’t want to share the direct links here but you can see the newsletter here; while you’re over there, you should subscribe, because it’s a great newsletter full of fun free patterns, technique videos and more.

The patterns include Francisco the cardinal, Chilly Cheeks the penguin (my favorite), Partridge Phil and Chickadee-dee-dee.

So cute, and the perfect little projects to get you through the holidays.

Do you have any knitting planned for your time off this week or next (assuming you get some)? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via Berroco.]

Comments

  1. I’ve got this Cardinal pattern printed and in a little bag with yarn & needles… Ready to knit! My daughter is a Louisville Cardinal and this will be a great birthday gift.

  2. Oooooh – Love Cardinals! I’m going to see if I can finally finish a big afghan I started about 5 years ago!

Have you read?

Learn a Flower Bobble Technique to Knit a Fun Shawl

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier. 

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project. 

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible. 

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge. 

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects. 

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy. 

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project. 

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Xandy Peters]