Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Knit Some Projects in Red, White and Blue

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I always feel a little weird sharing patriotic (American) knitting patterns on this site, run by Australians and with a worldwide audience. I know a lot of our readers are American (like me!), and I also know that red, white and blue projects can become patriotic for lots of other countries, or the colors can be changed to whatever your nation’s flag is.

So while these patterns are big on red, white, blue, stars, stripes and even an eagle, you might be able to alter them to celebrate a different country, or even a sports team if you wanted. For more America-specific patriotic knitting patterns, check out these Fourth of July knitting patterns, and these patriotic American patterns.

This stars and stripes tote bag from Knitting Knicely on Etsy is a great example of what I’m talking about. It’s super cute with stripes in red and white, and the blue section even has 50 stars, just like the American flag. But if your flag has two or three sections of color, just divide up the length and make solid bands of color instead. Either way you’ve got a great, sturdy bag made with worsted weight yarn and a little national pride.

These tiny patriotic doll sweaters from Elena Alexeeva (Ravelry) would also be cute with a solid heart or stripes of the national flag of your choice. They’re worked in fingering weight yarn and are made to suit dolls or animals about 11-12 inches/28-31 cm tall.

Stars and stripes socks would be fun to knit and wear any time of year, even if you aren’t American. This design from Nadia Perepelitsa is available on Ravelry.

The Betsy Ross Beanie from Etsy seller Not Enough for Soup in mostly a solid color with a flag motif on one side. It uses fingering weight yarn and the flag is worked in intarsia. Add the stars as you go or stitch them in later with duplicate stitch.

And OK, this patriotic eagle pot holder isn’t red, white and blue, but it totally could be. I just couldn’t resist sharing this double knit masterpiece, which I would absolutely use all year long. This one is worked in fingering weight yarn and it’s also from Knitting Knicely, but I can’t find it on her Etsy shop so you’ll have to grab this one on Ravelry.

Have you read?

Patchwork Blanket Knitting Patterns

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.