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.

Book Review: Finger Knitting for Kids

One of the fun things about knitters is that we will use a holiday theme on any kind of project. From Easter bunny socks to Christmas sweaters, there’s no combination of holiday motif and knitwear genre we won’t combine.

Case in point: Halloween cowls.

This fun cowl from Sweet Vireo Designs features large carved pumpkins and little cats and skulls. It uses two colors of DK weight yarn and I love the multicolored yarn for the background color on this one. And the braids! So cute.

Spooky Season by Jocelyn Tunney (also on Ravelry) uses fingering weight yarn in two colors to make a design with crescent moons and eyes. There are two circumferences and two heights available so you can make it a neck hugger or a slightly bigger project if you like.

Make more moons with the Broom Riding Cowl from Vanessa Ewing Knits. This two color pattern looks extra fun with a multicolored yarn for the colorwork, but you can use a solid as well. It calls for DK weight yarn but there is also a fingering weight version if you have some yarn in your stash you want to use.

Jinx Made has another fun Halloween cowl, this time covered in skulls. South Philly Skulls uses DK weight yarn and comes in two lengths, and there’s also a matching hat pattern, both of which can be found on Ravelry.

The Ghost Stories cowl from Melissa Knit Wear is a two-color cowl with ghosts of different sizes on the body. It uses DK weight yarn, and average sized skeins will allow you to get two cowls out of two skeins. It also calls for stitch markers to help you keep your place in the chart.

Or stitch up a cowl with a giant bat on it. The Nightling Cowl from Jen Immer uses DK weight yarn in two colors and has moons and a large bat on it. This pattern can be found on Ravelry.

How about spooky trees? The Weirwood Cowl from Andrea Krüß-Anders is inspired by the weirwood trees in the Game of Thrones books, and is worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn. You can find this free pattern on Ravelry.

If a bandana cowl is more your thing, try Cowloween from Tellybean Knits (on Ravelry). This colorful design is worked from the top down and features pumpkins, ghosts and candy colored stripes, and is worked in a light fingering weight yarn. There are kid and adult sizes available.

Have you read?