Why Not Knit Yourself a Pigeon?

When it comes to adding whimsy to your knitting, nothing quite does it like knit amigurumi or otherwise knitting animals. And I haven’t seen anything (well, knitting patterns anyway) that made me smile recently like Bill the Pigeon did.

This pattern from Knit for Victory has a few stripes like a rock pigeon, but don’t be intimidated by his fancy looks. This pattern is actually really easy as it’s knot flat in pieces and sewn together when the knitting is done.

It calls for DK weight yarn, which makes a pigeon that’s about 12 cm/4.7 inches tall, perfect for perching in your hand. Of course you can also make it with worsted weight yarn to get a bigger bird if you want. And don’t feel the need to stick to nature’s color choices on this one. Use whatever little bits of yarn you have in your stash to make the stripes, or just leave them off if you’d rather.

The eyes are made with a bit of felt and black beads, but you can also embroider eyes on if you’re making this for a little kid.

The pattern is available on Etsy, or you can purchase a full kit to make your own knit pigeon direct from Knit for Victory. The kit includes the yarn, stuffing, felt, beads, thread and a Pigeon Club button. You’ll need to supply your own knitting needles and sewing needle but otherwise you’ll be all set to make your own cute knit pigeon. The kit comes in a cute box if you want to buy it to gift to someone else for them to make as well.

I hope you’ve been enjoying the funnier patterns I’ve been sharing this month. If you’re a designer who has some whimsical patterns, or there’s an off-the-wall design you’ve made and loved, you can share it in the comments or click on “suggest a DIY” at the top of the page and tell me all about it!

[Photo: Knit for Victory]

There’s a lot to like about the Eloise Bandana from Katryn Seeburger. This cute little colorwork triangle can be worked as a bandana or kerchief size or a bigger shawlette.

It’s worked in two colors of fingering weight yarn so you can use whatever yarn you have in your stash and just make it as big as you can (since it is worked from the bottom up).

You can see the two sizes from the photo, and also two colorwork options: strawberries and lily of the valley.

But that’s not all the choices you have. In fact, there are 34 different charts you can choose from to knit onto your project. Some of the options include happy faces, a lobster, a pumpkin, a snail and a butterfly. There are cherries, peaches, tomatoes and radishes.

There’s even a blank square you can use to draw your own little design if you want to use something else. Or keep it blank and make it a plain checkerboard design.

And while both of these shawls use the same icons throughout, you could also use different designs throughout if you want. Say a fall version with a bat, pumpkin, leaf and acorn, or a summer beach theme with sailboat, fish, lobster and a bird? I keep suggesting four different icons because the larger size has four rows of squares, but the smaller has three, so you could do stripes of the same icon or alternate a couple of different ones, whatever you like.

Look through the finished projects on the Ravelry project page to see lots of different options, from rows to individual icons. There are also some projects that are smaller than the suggested size to make a smaller bandana. You could also keep going a make a bigger shawl working increases in the same way as you have been going.

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Katryn Seeburger]

Have you read?