In my family, we make small Christmas gifts to give to extended family and friends. A couple of these patterns are on my website, and some are patterns that I have found online, mostly on Pinterest. Sometimes we have done woodworking patterns, or woven pot holders.
Ornament Covers
With fingering weight yarn and size 4 us double pointed needles, cast on 32 stitches and knit in the round for about 2.5 inches. Cinch up the cast on edge and insert the 2.36 in plastic ornament. Cinch up the top and secure the yarn. This is really the easiest hand knitted ornament that you can make. You can do simple stockinette, or you can do a lace or eyelet pattern if you want to get fancy. Color work would also be nice. You can do this one quickly, even if you need to make a bunch!
If you have a com, you can just crank out long tube and cut them. You could also crank a couple of rounds of waste yarn between the sections.
Skill Level
Easy
Finished Size
Each mitten is 2.5 in/6 cm high and 1.5 in/4 cm wide not including the thumb
Gauge
4.5 sts & 5 rows = 1 in or 2.5 cm in stockinette st.
Materials
10 grams of heavy worsted weight yarn like Caron One Pound Century Collection, 100% Acrylic
Size 8 US/5 mm double point needles or size needed to obtain gauge.
Size H/8/5 mm crochet hook
Tapestry needle
Recycled sweater Christmas Trees
These trees are made with felted wool. I went to thrift stores and purchased old wool sweaters. Many of the sweaters are felted enough to work straight from the store. You just cut a series of smaller and smaller circles and thread them on a wire up the center. Get yourself a compass, or borrow one from your kids. Make cardboard templates for the different sizes. Place the template on the wool, use a sharpie to draw the line, then cut out the circle. Cut 2-3 of each size. I used a piece of plastic canvas to secure the wire on the bottom. The tree can be wiggly or you can use a firmer wire if you want a more rigid tree. You can use the wire to hold to star on the top, or you can use glue. This gift is great for families to do together because there are lots of different jobs, cutting the circles, cutting the wire, stacking the circles and adding the topper.
Snowman
The Snowman is made out of a tube of knitting, 32 stitches, and about 6 inches long. I made my tubes on my CSM, but you can also easily knit the tube. I used Fingering-weight yarn. You will stuff with fiberfill and cinch up the top and bottom. Just weave a piece of yarn through the cast on stitches, put a few weighted beads and stuff with the fiberfill, then cinch up the top. The weighted beads will keep your snowman standing upright. Tie a piece of yarn around the snowman to separate the head and the body. Do that in about the middle, but make the head just slightly smaller than the body. You can adjust that yarn after it is tied, so don't worry too much about exactly where you tie it. The hat, scarf and carrot nose all came from Amazon, and the buttons on the body were from my stash, but I did order some small buttons for the eyes. I used a hot glue gun to attach all of these, but you could sew on the buttons.
The pattern calls for DK weight yarn, but you can use any size yarn that you prefer. You will just get a different size depending on the yarn that you use. You will knit 2 of the stars and then sew them together. You can optionally add some fiber fill to give the star some dimension. I used the yarn with sequins for a more sparkly star. Use the needle size that is appropriate for the yarn than you use.
You will just need a small amount of worsted weight yarn, some wooden or plastic beads and some string to put it all together. This is what I am going to make this year. Since I need to make about 40 of these, I bought an electric I cord machine. I am trying this machine for the first time today, so I will let you know how that goes.
The Christmas Stockings are all knit in worsted weight yarn with size 7 US/ 4.5 mm needles. Some of the stockings have afterthought heels and some have short row heels. You can really interchange the 2 heels
The Colorwork Sampler patterns has different options for the motifs, including some dog motifs, like a Labrador, an Australian Shepherd, and paw prints. There is also graph paper included for you to plan your own motif including a name for the top.
Sale at Wise Owl Knits
There is a Thank You Sale going on right now at Wise Owl Knits. 25% off on sales of $25 or more and 30% off on sales of $50 or more. Not only are there lots of pattern, I also have bags and notions, so now is a great time to stock up on Project Bags, Note Books, Note card, tape measures and needle gauges. The sale goes through November 30, 2025.