Knitting

Patterns, projects and techniques

Snowflake Crafts to Knit

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snowflake knitting patternsIt’s probably all the snow around here lately (on day 6 of being snowed in — hoping to get out tomorrow!) but I’ve been thinking about knitting projects involving snowflakes. I’ll share some non-Christmas patterns here soon, but here are some great ornaments and doily-type snowflakes you still have time to knit to decorate for Christmas.

Norah Gaughan has a pretty snowflake pattern that would be great to decorate a large gift box or even (worked in cotton instead of wool) as a washcloth or dishcloth.

Sharon Winsauer has a stunner of a a snowflake that’s available as a free Ravelry download.

Judy Gibson’s Snowflake Star has the airy quality of a crocheted doily and would be great as an ornament or hanging from a gift bag.

Snowflaked is a pretty pattern from Follow the Star Studio that looks pretty in multiple gauges.

Katie Himmelberg’s snowflake ornament (available as a free download from Knitting Daily) is a pretty little hexagon with crocheted edging, perfect if you want to learn either of those techniques.

Kristin Nicholas has some cute little colorful ornaments with snowflakes stitched on them. These would be great as gift tags, too.

Lion Brand has a cute ball ornament with a snowflake motif, and Frankie Brown has a cute little button-adorned snowflake as part of a knit advent calendar on Ravelry.

Looking for more Christmas themed Knitting patterns? Check out some of our favorite Knitting patterns on Etsy and

These Christmas Knitting Pattern Books on Amazon

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Make Your Knitting Machine Scarves Better

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

  • the simple cinching method mentioned above
  • sewing the stitches together
  • three needle bind off
  • grafting
  • crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!