Knit Toys Made Out of Squares

Many years ago, when my now-ninth grader was in kindergarten, I did a couple of summer camps at her school dealing with fiber arts for kids. One of the projects I made in one of those weeks was a little cat made out of a square, which you folded up and sewed down at the top to make ears. (I can’t find a similar pattern online but this and lots of other simple toys knit from squares and rectangles can be found in A First Book of Knitting for Children.)

One of those early Easters my mom made my daughter a bunny out of a square, and remembering that as I’m thinking about Easter projects this week got me thinking about animals that you can knit from squares.

The bunny there are a lot of different versions of, but I think the one she used was from StudioKnit. It’s such a cute and easy little project, and if you happen to have a square swatch lying around, you’re almost done with this project. This would be a great one for teaching little kids to knit because they can use their practice piece to make a sweet little toy.

Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer has another version of the knit square bunny, where the body and head of the bunny are made from a square and you add on ears and a tail after. This one is shown worked in stockinette stitch, but you could do it with garter stitch too of course!

How about a knit sheep from a square? This one from Jo So and Sew adds a bit of felt for the head and ears and uses a square of garter stitch for the body. So cute for kids and knitting friends!

Resurrection Fern made a cute little rooster (it could also be a hen or a chick with different embellishments) out of a square of knitting. This one is fun because it also allows you to use some colorful fabric scraps for the tail feathers.

The square bear from Gina Michele has more than one square involved, but all the pieces are flat garter stitch with no shaping involved to make this cute little bear.

This one is a little more complex in that it’s a rectangle and you need to change colors throughout to make the different parts of the doll, but I love the ready teddy pattern from Aussie Knitting Threads. With one piece of knitting you can make a whole fully dressed bear (or cat, or make it a person and add some hair) that would be great as a little gift or to donate to charity.

If you’re looking for more easy and fun knit animal toys made with squares, check out Nicky Epstein’s Knit a Square, Create a Cuddly Creature or Knit a Square and Make a Toy.

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Many times when I write these posts I will say something like “you can use any yarn you want” or “this would be a great stash-busting project.” That’s just how my mind works. And my stash, too, since I probably have sweater quantity of two or three yarns at most, but tons of singles and odd balls and leftovers.

Blankets are generally a really good way to use up those bits, but in this case, I think you’re going to want to plan it out a bit better.

Looking at photos of the Color Study Blanket from Purl Soho, it looks like it’s made with two yarns held together, and that block in the center is worked with one of each color from the adjoining sides to make a mixed up color.

But that’s not actually how it’s done. This is three separate colors (four, really, with the neutrals in the corners) chosen form a yarn with an expansive palette so they play off each other. The project calls for a worsted weight superwash wool, which is a great choice for a blanket that’s both warm and washable.

This pattern was originally designed by Laura Ferguson and was updated by Hiromi Glover. It is worked in one piece in garter stitch intarsia, which is a great way to learn the intarsia technique if you don’t already know it. It comes in crib or throw sizes.

Despite the introduction to this post, I am going to go ahead and say that, yes, of course you could do this blanket with scraps or odd balls or even just choose five colors that don’t blend together so easily. But I really do love the look of the color play, and I think it would be worth your time to find colors that play well together to get a similar effect.

This pattern is available for free from Purl Soho.

[Photo: Purl Soho]

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