Lunar New Year Decorations to Knit

If you celebrate the Lunar New Year or want to appreciate and learn more about the holiday as someone who doesn’t have that tradition, these knit Lunar New Year decorations from Tina Tse Knits are a fun option.

There is a rectangle and a diamond-shaped option, both with the Chinese character ? worked on them in stranded colorwork knit flat. The character, “fuk” in Cantonese or “fu” in Mandarin, means good fortune, luck and prosperity.

One design was worked with aran weight yarn, while the other is DK held double, so you can use whatever yarn you have in red and gold to make these decorations.

As Tina reminds those of us who do not celebrate Lunar New Year, it’s fine to appreciate as long as we don’t appropriate.

You can find the free pattern for both designs on her website.

[Photo: Tina Tse Knits.]

Looking for more Lunar New Year Knits? Check these patterns we found on Etsy.

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Last year I shared with you Maxie’s Tank Top by Ainur Berkimbayeva, mostly because I really wanted to knit one (and I still do, maybe this year I’ll finally get to it!). I also am really attracted to patterns that seem to look good on everyone, which this tank top does.

Now Ainur has released a sweater version of the top, known as Maxie’s V-neck, and it seems to have that same wonderful property of looking amazing on everyone, at least as far as I can tell from the pattern’s project page on Ravelry.

This is a top down, V-neck, ribbed top that can be knit with short or long sleeves. Bust darts help with the fit. There are also 13 size options available so you can find just the right fit for you.

The sizes are designed to fit actual bust measurements ranging from 29-32 inches (74-81.5 cm) up to 62-64 inches (158-162.5 cm) and the pattern has instructions for A-C cups, with modification notes in the pattern to help folks with D+ cups make their sweater fit them.

It calls for sport weight yarn, which is probably the only thing that kept me from casting on this sweater immediately when I first saw it because that’s not a yarn weight I typically have in my stash (certainly not in sweater quantity).

Which just gives me an excuse to go shopping! Ainur used Purl Soho Wigeon yarn, which is 100 percent wool from the Falkland Islands. You can check the pattern page for other options that people have used, though wool seems to be a near universal choice as of this writing.

Ainur also does pay what you can on her patterns so if the cost is too much for your current financial situation you can use a code on the page to get a discount. (That said, if you can afford it, please support designers to the extent they ask to be compensated!)

Check out the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Ainur Berkimbayeva]

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