Knit Holiday Socks for Any Time of Year

While these socks from Mirella Moments are officially called holiday socks, I don’t see any reason why you can’t knit them any time of year.

Sure, with the red and white colors the designer chose, they do have a bit of a candy cane, winter holiday feel. The varying width of the stripes up the leg and a little bit of a chevron thrown in too will keep it interesting to knit (and give you a tiny bit of practice with both reading a chart and working stranded knitting, if those are skills you want to learn).

The toe is simply shaped with decreases to make a round toe, and you finish it off with grafting.

The pattern uses a heel flap and gusset, so it’s pretty easy even if this is your first pair of socks. They are worked from the top down and the designer used a set of five double-pointed knitting needles for their project, but if you have knit a few and know that you like a different configuration of needles you can use whatever you like.

If you haven’t knit socks — or not many socks — before this is a great pattern because it also has a lot of photos to help you along. And you’ll get all the basic skills you need to take on any other sock knitting pattern you might like to try.

These are sized for women, and they would make great gifts, for the holidays or any other time. Mix it up with any two colors you like, or make two pairs with reversed colors for even more fun.

You can find this free pattern on the Mirella Moments website.

And if you’re looking for more easy sock knitting patterns, I have a roundup of easy socks here. Or if you want to knit socks for a guy, check out these men’s sock knitting patterns.

[Photo: Mirella Moments]

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Blankets are a great blank slate project that you can change up in a million different ways. From color to stitch pattern to size, the possibilities are almost endless.

Jared Flood, the designer behind Brooklyn Tweed, was inspired by a log cabin quilt his mother made in 1995 to re-create that design in knitting, which led to more blankets and ultimate Brooklyn Tweed’s Knit and Crochet Blankets, which includes 25 patterns from an array of designers using different skills and techniques to make cozy, pretty blankets.

The patterns are divided into three aesthetic themes: traditions, minimalism and colorplay. The patterns are rated on a scale of one to five, with one being the easiest, and there aren’t any pieces rated five. Two blankets are rated one, 14 are two, eight are three and one is four.

In addition, three of the 25 patterns are crocheted, but they either use single crochet or granny stitch, so they are pretty easy even if you don’t do a lot of crochet. You can see all the patterns on Ravelry.

Some of my favorites include Rattan by Rastus Hsu, a chunky blanket worked in knits and purls with simple crossing stitches to make a raised woven look; Homewood by Seth Richardson, covers in dramatic, loopy cables; Ainur Berkimbayeva’s Tessellate, one of the beginner projects that doesn’t really look beginner but is totally worked in knit and purl stitches; Warp + Weft by Aist? Butkevi?ien?, which is mostly knits and purls but makes a fun woven look fabric that blew my mind a little bit; and the same designer’s Canyonland, a multicolored blanket with wavy stripes.

The patterns tell you how to resize them for different dimensions and include information on pattern repeats where it is possible to make a totally custom size.

Many different techniques are included here such as cables, lace, shadow knitting, intarsia and other colorwork techniques, as well as modular knitting and lots of sewing pieces together. The patterns are all presented with charts, but there are line by line written instructions available on the Brooklyn Tweed website if you need them.

The book ends with a deep dive into log cabin knitting, telling the story of the quilt Jared’s mom made and how he made it in knitting, as well as the multitude of variations you can make if you want your own log cabin style design.

The back of the book includes a little written information about some of the special techniques needed, but there are no photos.

This is a lovely book full of inspiration for knitting and crochet blankets for any skill level. If you like to make blankets as gifts or aspire to have a handmade blanket in every room of the house, these designs would be a great place to start.

About the book: 192 pages, paperback, 25 patterns. Published 2024 by Abrams Books, suggested retail price $24.99.

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