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]

Waves Socks– Free Knitting Pattern
These cozy Waves Socks are a lovely choice if you want a handknit sock pattern with a little texture but nothing too fussy. The gentle scallop stitch creates a soft wave effect, making them pretty enough for gifting but still practical for everyday wearing. They’re worked in light worsted weight yarn, so they knit up a little faster than fine sock yarn socks too.

Ladies Lace Top Socks – Free Knitting Pattern
These Ladies Lace Top Socks are a sweet step up from a basic handknit sock, with a delicate lace cuff that adds just the right amount of pretty. The rest of the sock is worked mainly in stocking stitch, so it’s a nice project for knitters who are ready to try sock shaping without making the whole thing overly complicated. A lovely handmade gift idea, especially if you use a soft 4-ply sock yarn.

Any time of year is a good time for stash busting, but if you can combine it with knitting a blanket that will keep you warm when it (finally!) gets cooler that’s even better. Let’s take a look at some fun patchwork blanket knitting patterns.

If you want to keep it super simple, you can just make blocks of garter stitch and sew them together, like the beginner’s patchwork baby blanket from Mini Baa Baa or the color block blanket from Make and Do Crew. Both projects are worked in strips and sew together, with the baby version calling for two strands of DK or light worsted weight yarn held together and the larger one using bulky yarn.

Add a little more texture with the mixed blocks of the cottage quilt throw from Mama in a Stitch. This one combines garter stitch and seed stitch and uses worsted weight yarn. She used a crochet join to make the chains on top of the blocks, but you can join them however you like. It calls for eight colors but you can use what you have, and there are three size options.

Get a real sampler style patchwork blanket with this design from Knit Sew Make. It calls for worsted weight yarn and has four size options. All of the patterns just use knit and purl stitches so this one is still pretty easy for beginners.

If you want a more complex colorwork project that will keep you entertained all season, try the Peace by Piece blanket pattern from Needle and Feather. This one is made up of two color colorwork blocks and calls for worsted weight yarn. You can choose to use just a few of the blocks and repeat them more often, or make multiples of the whole set.

The knitted patchwork recipe from Martine Ellis (free on Ravelry) uses mitered squares in fingering weight yarn, so it’s perfect for using up all your leftover sock yarn and mini skeins. This one is a tutorial more than a pattern so you can make your blanket as big as you like or keep going until you run out of yarn.

Susan B. Anderson’s 100 Squares blanket (find it on Ravelry) has a lot of mitered squares, too, but they’re arranged in fun ways and includes some quilt inspired designs as well. This one also is a bit of method more than pattern but it sure looks like a lot of fun for using all the leftovers.

Of course you can totally improvise a patchwork blanket using the yarn and stitches you like, but I hope these patterns inspire you to look at your leftover yarn in a new way.

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