Knit Some Projects in Red, White and Blue

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.

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

Have you read?