Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

Sweet Animal Knitting Patterns

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Knitting animals as toys or for display is a lot of fun, and they make great gifts for people of all ages. Last summer I made two sets of bears for my daughter’s teacher who was having her second set of twins — two boys and two girls!

Even if you don’t have a bunch of little ones to knit for, these fun little projects are great stash busters and fun to donate.

This little elephant from Clare Garland (Ravelry) is so cute, and his little onesie makes him look even more like a sweet little baby.

A knitted lion from Lion Brand Yarn (of course!) would be sweet to knit for a baby’s nursery or to give to an animal-loving kiddo.

DotPebblesKnits has a really realistic looking cat pattern (Etsy) that would be fun to give to someone who loves cats but can’t have a live one, or just for a little one to snuggle.

The bears I made were from a pattern by Little Cotton Rabbits, who has a ton of adorable little animals with clothing ensembles to knit. I love her little dog in a dress pattern too (Etsy).

It’s hard to tell from the picture but this knit octopus from Yarnspirations is not really a small project. It’s worked in Bernat Blanket using size 10.5 knitting needles, and the head is about 12 inches tall and 15 inches in diameter, with 18-inch-long tentacles. So fun!

And maybe my favorite (though they are all my favorite when I’m looking at them!) is this sweet little duck from Knit Picks. Designed by Barbara McIntyre, it’s 7 inches tall and only uses about 80 yards of yarn, so it’s a great little last minute project when a little one is coming to visit.

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Have you read?

Choose Your Own Brioche Knitting Adventure with this Shawl Knitting Pattern

If you’re looking for a fun project to play with brioche knitting, check out the My Buddy knitting pattern/recipe from Casuarinagirl on Ravelry. 

This project doesn’t include a brioche tutorial, so it’s good to know the basics, including how to increase and decrease, but you can always practice on a swatch before you start the project if you want. 

The design is meant to be flexible for the yarn you have and what size and shape of project you want to make, from a skinny neck scarf to a asymmetrical triangle or a more classic triangular shape. 

The shape you end up with will depend on how often you increase (and then decrease on the other side). The pattern mentions increasing every fourth, fifth or six row (and the one shown increases and decreases every sixth row) but you can do it even more or less often depending on the shape you’re looking for an how much yarn you want to use. 

You can work to whatever depth you would like, or use almost half of the yarn you have set aside for the project and begin decreasing. 

When it comes to yarn, she used three strands of yarn held together to make a super fluffy shawl, but you can work it with whatever yarn and needles you like to make a wrap that’s all your own. 

If you are new to brioche (or to increasing and decreasing in brioche) it might be a good idea to make a little scarf or head wrap first before diving in to the bigger pattern, just so you’re more comfortable with the technique. Or just give it a go; nothing about brioche knitting is that difficult. (But you might want to use a lifeline because I find brioche hard to rip out or fix mistakes in properly.)

You can grab the free pattern for the Buddy Wrap on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Casuarinagirl]