Pretty Leaf Knitting Patterns for Fall

It’s been a while (since 2023, it turns out) since I’ve done a post on leaf knitting patterns, so I wanted to share a few more. Leaves are fun to knit, take a small amount of yarn, and they’re great to use in your decor year after year.

I’ve been wanting to knit a scarf made out of knit leaves for years; maybe this will actually be the year I do it! In the meantime, I hope these leaf knitting patterns inspire you to knit up some fall decor.

These sweet little autumn leaves from Everything Shapes Us are similar in design to my dreamed of scarf leaf (though mine would be worked in super bulky yarn). This is a great basic shape to start with if you’ve never knit leaves before. It calls for sock yarn but you can use two strands held together to make bigger leaves if you like.

The little leaves from JaNae Knits are also great beginner projects because they’re worked in garter stitch. These use worsted weight yarn and are so pretty when you work a bunch of them in a multicolored yarn because it looks like your leaves are turning right on the needles! The designer says these are inspired by elm leaves.

If you’d like an array of leaves to knit in a single pattern, this collection from Tiny Knitting includes five different leaves and an acorn pattern for extra cuteness. The pattern notes don’t indicate the weight of yarn used but it looks like DK to worsted (and of course you can use different weights to make different sizes of leaves).

Or if you want your leaves more on the chunky side, check out this pattern for a coaster-sized leaf from 3 Monkeys Inc. This one mostly uses garter stitch as well, and while the pattern shows them being used as coasters, I think this size would be great for knitting a fall leaf garland.

Svetlana Gordo’s Knitted Maple Leaf gives you a ton of options for your leaf knitting. The pattern includes three sizes of leaf and also encourages you to play with the yarn weight. Make a tiny leaf with lace weight yarn you can wear as a brooch, or use super bulky and the larger pattern to make a rug. Either way you’re sure to enjoy this pretty pattern, which you can find on Ravelry.

Vicki Monthe’s ginko leaf knitting pattern isn’t strictly fall, but I found it and couldn’t resist sharing because ginko leaves are such a fun shape. This design calls for fingering weight yarn and comes out to about 3.75 inches wide by 2.5 inches long (that’s 9.4 by 6.4 cm). The designer says each leaf takes about two hours to make. The pattern is free on Ravelry.

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]

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