Duckling Baby Socks

Fast and fun to make, these adorable baby socks make an ideal gift for any new baby.

New parents will enjoy using them as a prop for really cute baby photos.

If you make them out of a machine washable yarn then it will make life easier.

Why not try them in different colours? Orange, blue, green or purple would all be fun choices.

The pattern will soon be available in preemie size, ideal for donating to your local premature baby unit.

Free Pattern for Duckling Baby Booties

Easy, Reversible, Lace Scarf Knitting Pattern

This free pattern is ideal for showing off luxury yarns.

Designed to use up 2 balls of a delicious, rich plum coloured yarn I couldn't resist buying from the Knitting & Stitching Show.

It only uses about 100g of 4-ply.

You could easily adapt this pattern for different weights of yarn.

Free Pattern for Reversible Lace Scarf.

 Simple Stranded Hat Pattern

Brighten up your winter wardrobe and bring some colour into your knitting with our new, free 'Greek Tea Beanie' knitting pattern.

This stranded colourwork beanie hat is an ideal project for learning how to do stranded knitting.

Striped Beanie Hat Knitting Pattern

This free pattern is for a simple knitted beanie hat with stripes.

The pattern shows how to do stripes in ribbing without getting purl bumps of colour showing through.

You'll also learn a simple technique for doing stripes in the round that avoids there being 'steps' or 'jogs' where the stripes join up.

Easy, free knitting pattern for a ribbed Beanie hat with stripes.

Basic Ribbed Hat Knitting Pattern

A ribbed hat is a good way to practice continental style knitting with the yarn held in the left hand. Many find it is faster than English style knitting, especially for patterns that require swapping between knit and purl, such as ribbing.

It's also a good way to try out knitting in the round, either with 2 circular knitting needles or a set of double pointed needles or a combination of both.

Materials

2 x 4mm circular knitting needles and/or set of 4mm double pointed knitting needles.
Approx 200 meters of double knit yarn – 100% wool or a yarn with a high wool content to ensure the hat has plenty of stretch.

Free simple ribbed hat knitting pattern. Click here.

Ideas for Novice Knitters

Knitwear for toddlers is another ideal beginners project. It will let you learn basic techniques such as increasing and decreasing and will be a small enough project for you to see progress.

If you aim for a few sizes larger than the child currently needs you should be OK even if it turns out a little bigger or smaller than it should be.

Designs with raglan sleeves are quite forgiving of uneven tension.

Simple felted bags are ideal projects for new knitters. They are very forgiving of uneven tension and it doesn't matter too much if it's a bit bigger or smaller than you'd intended.

There are lots of free patterns available online.

Knitting Yarn Stash Busters

The Sirdar Loopa is a fast way to use up left over balls of yarn, especially novelty yarn. You can produce a sumptuous boa style scarf in just a few hours.

Its a good way to introduce children to the wonders of yarn without requiring any knitting skills.

Team a bulky yarn with a glamorous novelty yarn or just look through your stash and let your imagination run riot.

The Loopa comes in 2 sizes, is really cheap to buy and all the instructions are printed on the back.

Knitted Snail Hat

The pattern for these hats can be found in Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Without Tears. See our knitting book reviews for more details.

Knitting at the gauge given in the book produces an adult's hat, using a lighter weight yarn and knitting at 11 sts/ 10cm will give a child's hat and 12.5 sts/ 10cm will give a toddler's hat.

The toddler's hat shown in the picture was made with 1.5 balls (approx. 90m) of Rowan Little Big Wool on an 8mm, 40cm circular needle, changing to 2 circular needles as the hat decreases.

Be sure to choose a yarn with a good percentage of wool so you can steam the hat into shape, see our knitting tips & techniques section for more details.