11 Fantastic Holiday Knitting Patterns To Start Knitting

I’m sharing 11 holiday knitting patterns from Etsy designers that you’ll want to start knitting for the holidays, as well as sharing my review of the biggest knitting project I’ve ever done.

Roundup of Holiday Knitting Patterns

Recently, I shared a roundup of my favourite holiday crochet patterns. But if you’re partial to knitting, don’t worry! Knitting was my go-to for years, and I won’t leave out knitters looking for a great holiday project.

As with the crochet pattern roundup, I’m sharing 11 of my favourite holiday knitting patterns from talented Etsy designers. Etsy is a great place to shop for patterns to support small, independent businesses, many of which are run by women.

But there are so many options when you start searching on Etsy that it can be overwhelming. That’s why I’m sharing some of the best patterns I’ve found to make it easier for you. But they’re all so wonderful that it’s going to be difficult to choose just one!

11 Favourite Etsy Holiday Knitting Patterns

All of the following patterns belong to their incredible designers. Photos for 1 through 10 are not my own and were used with permission from the designers.

Let’s get started!

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1. Little Red Window – Cozy Christmas Trees

Our first holiday knitting pattern is a wonderful trio of knitted Cozy Christmas Trees, designed by Cassie and sold in her shop called Little Red Window. Each knitted tree is a different size and different knitted design.

I love the varying visual textures of these trees. As items look best displayed in odd numbers, luckily these are a ready-made trio that would look fantastic on a shelf. But I do think they would look wonderful in a larger group across a mantel, maybe in a mix of colours. Cassie also sells a pattern with plaid knitted trees that I love, and they would be great mixed together with these solid trees too.

In the Little Red Window shop, you’ll also find many knitted patterns, including a lot of holiday hats for children – all super cute! Check out Cassie’s Etsy shop or her beautiful website. You can even subscribe for a discount on your first purchase!

2. Annie’s Woolens – Christmas Stocking – Evergreen

The next holiday knitting pattern is a wonderful knitted stocking by Anne of Annie’s Woolens. This version is called Evergreen. I love the traditional style and colours of these stockings and I would be thrilled to add them to my red and white Christmas decor.

Anne has many similar stocking patterns (including adorable ones for the family dog or cat!). They’re all so lovely that it might be hard to choose, so why not get an e-book of 15 stocking patterns to choose from? Then each family member can select their favourite and you’ll have a whole set of coordinating stockings!

In Annie’s Woolens, you can even purchase sewn stockings, or stocking knitting kits. For all that and more, visit Anne’s Etsy shop or her website!

3. Prinku – Traditional Knitted Stocking Pattern

The next holiday knitting pattern is another stocking pattern by Olga, found in her shop, Prinku. But this stocking pattern is a more simple design for a traditional, yet modern look.

I really like the bright, happy colours with the stripes. It would be wonderful if every family member had a different coloured stocking, perhaps of their choosing. The chunky yarn would help you knit these up quite quickly. And since they’re knit in the round, there are no pesky side seams to sew up (always my least favourite part!).

Olga has a few different knitted and crocheted stocking patterns for sale, including some oversized stockings. Visit her shop!

4. Warm and Knitted – Miniature Sweater Ornaments

Marina of Warm and Knitted has my next favourite holiday knitting pattern, miniature sweater ornaments. I LOVE anything miniature, and I also love soft ornaments that can’t be broken.

I had quite a hard time choosing my favourite as Marina has several other miniature knitted ornaments too. You can find tiny mittens, hats with pom-poms (I’d call them a toque!), and little stockings – all adorable!

These mini patterns would all make great ornaments on a tree, added to a gift as a package decoration, or turned into a garland. Check out Marina’s shop to see which adorable miniature is your favourite!

5. Knitting Lab Shop – Knit Ornament Balls

In the same vein with soft ornaments that cannot be broken, Tatyana has another great holiday knitting pattern for knitted ornament balls in her shop, Knitting Lab Shop.

Since red and white are my favourite classic colours for Christmas decorating, these would look perfect on my tree. However, they would be great in other colour combinations as well. I think blue and white would be beautiful.

Since they’re soft knitted ornaments, they’d be perfect for small children to place on the tree or be placed within easy reach of small children. And I love that Tatyana points out that they can be washed if you stuff them with stuffing.

As well, these ornaments are a great small project to practice Fair Isle knitting in a manageable way. Tatyana has other holiday patterns in her shop, but for crochet rather than knitting. Go take a look!

6. Calle del Limon – Scandinavian Santa Ornament

Lisa of Calle del Limon, has another adorable holiday knitting pattern, a Scandinavian Santa ornament. I think they look great in classic red and white, but I’d love to try making some in aqua, red, and white.

I think these little Santas would be wonderful hanging on the tree, or attached to presents as a decoration and extra gift. But I would also absolutely leave off the loop at the top and put little groupings of them nestled with some greenery, retro deer, or little houses. I can imagine how charming that would be!

These Santa ornaments would be quick to make, and also another simple project to practice Fair Isle knitting. Lisa has another ornament pattern in her shop as well as some beautiful wrist warmers. Stop by her shop to check them out.

7. Knitterain – Mini Hat Holiday Garland

This next holiday knitting pattern is so adorable! Emily of Knitterain has a Miniature Hat Garland that I absolutely love.

These mini hats are all so cute and I’ve knitted life-size versions of several of those hats before. Besides using them as a garland, the hats would also make great individual ornaments or add them onto Christmas gifts. Or, perhaps they’d make wonderful doll hats?

I often get bored knitting the same thing over and over again, so knitting each new hat design would definitely keep me entertained. Plus, they would be great for using up small bits of yarn.

Emily also has a lot of beautiful lace shawl patterns in her shop. Head on over!

8. By Ladyship Designs – Holly Garland

Here’s another festive holiday knitting pattern that I love! Jen of By Ladyship Designs has a great knitted Holly Garland.

This garland, or bunting is great and I like that the leaves are also attached to a knitted cord. I would put this garland across the mantel, around doorways, or across the tops of pieces of furniture. You could also put it down a stair railing.

I think you could also make separate groupings of leaves and berries and tie them with bows on doorknobs or handles, attach to gifts, or nestle with other holiday decor. There are so many options with this versatile pattern.

Jen has lots of other patterns in her shop, including some great knitted Christmas pillow patterns. Visit her shop!

9. Elvesworld – Christmas Elf Toy

Next up are delightful knitted Christmas Elf Toys by Irina of Elvesworld. I love the colours Irina has chosen for her elves, but I can imagine them in all sorts of other wonderful colour combinations as well.

Their striped legs, curled shoes, and little scarves are enchanting, and if I made one, I’d need to make a lot of them in lots of colours.

These elves would make great toys, stocking stuffers, decorations on shelves, or look great nestled into gaps in the Christmas tree.

Irina has lots of other toy patterns in her shop, as well as great knitted leaves and other holiday ornaments. I even spied a little dog pattern that looks like my dog Oliver! Which is your favourite??

10. Knit Zoo – Knitted Santa Mouse Pattern

For the next pattern, words can almost not properly describe how cute this little knitted Santa Mouse is by Katrin of Knit Zoo. He has so much personality in a very tiny size.

I love so many things about this little mouse, from the spot around his eye, to his eyes, nose, and hooded jacket. He would make a great ornament, or look adorable in little Christmas vignettes on shelves, such as my gingerbread vignette.

Katrin has many other charming toy patterns in her shop, including several wearing sweaters. It is nearly impossible to pick a favourite and I want to knit many tiny friends for this mouse. You absolutely have to visit her shop!

11. Squibblybups – Christmas Tree Cushions

The last of the holiday knitting patterns is one that I decided to try out for myself. They are a pair of triangular Christmas Tree Cushions by Squibblybups.

This was the biggest knitting project that I’ve ever done (except for a really bad sweater that we don’t speak of!) It took nearly 8 skeins of super bulky yarn to make the two cushions, and I watched a lot of TV and movies while knitting these.

The two cushions are different. One is knitted in a solid colour with a textured pattern. For this solid tree, the pattern provides a knitting chart, as well as written instructions. I chose to follow the written instructions as I don’t have much experience with charts.

This tree was easy to knit, except when I got distracted from the TV, which is my own fault. And I like the textural pattern of the finished cushion.

Stranded Knitting

The second cushion is knitted with four different colours with stranded knitting. A knitting chart is the only option for this pattern. After using this knitting chart, I found it very easy to understand, and it was easy to visually follow the pattern of colours while knitting.

Stranded knitting was new to me, but a quick Youtube tutorial got me started. The only challenges I had were maintaining the correct tension at the back, and dealing with tangled working yarns between the colours. Perhaps there are tricks to deal with tangling that I haven’t discovered yet. But overall, I liked stranded knitting and found it an easy method to learn.

Blocking

I don’t recall doing a lot of blocking before because I tend to knit small toys, or knit a lot of things in the round. But blocking these tree sides was very important to achieving a good finished result. They really flattened out properly and it stopped all the edges from rolling under.

Adapting the Christmas Tree Cushion Pattern

The pattern suggests that you could also use these trees as decor on shelves, but I want to use them as pillows. Our dog, Oliver, is often on the couch, and we regularly wash any quilts, blankets, and cushion covers used on the couch. I decided that I wanted to adapt these cushions to be a little more washable.

I know that they could be thrown in the wash with the stuffing sewn into them. But I decided that I wanted to turn these into envelope-style covers and then sew triangular pillow forms to go inside.

To do so, I started the second side with a section of k2p2 ribbing at the base before carrying on with the normal pattern. Then I did a separate 14 row section (with the last 7 rows being k2p2 ribbing again) as the overlap.

When I sewed up the pillow, I sewed the overlap to the bottom edge and sides of the first, regular side. Then I stacked the second side with the ribbing at the bottom and sewed up the sides, leaving the bottom open.

Making a Pillow Insert

To make the triangular pillow insert, I traced the finished cover on tissue paper. Then I added 3/4″ around the outside on all edges. First I basted around all sides (except for a gap in the middle at the bottom) at 1″ seam allowance. Then I turned it inside out, stuffed it and tried out the fit.

It was too small, so I ripped out the stitching and sewed it again with 1/4″ seam allowance. Then I turned it right side out again, stuffed it, and hand stitched the opening closed. Finally it could go inside the pillow.

However, I soon realized that my overlapping section wasn’t tall enough and everything just gaped open. So I decided to sew the bottom closed along half the width. This will still allow me to get the pillow insert out, but will also hold it in.

Below you can see the opening in the multi-coloured cushion, half the width of the bottom. The little overlap section I sewed in first helps to hide the pillow insert I made.

Then the ribbed side just sits flat when closed, and when it’s standing up you can’t tell the difference.

The green pillow has a darker insert so it’s less visible through the knit stitches and because I was working with whatever large pieces of fabric that I had.

This one sits closed much more nicely.

If I had to do it over again, I might just stuff them and sew them closed as the pattern had recommended, and wash as needed. But I’m happy enough with this solution and how they turned out.

Yarn I Used for This Holiday Knitting Pattern

To make these tree cushions, I used the following yarns:

• Loops and Threads – Cozy Wool (super bulky, 50/50 wool and acrylic) – 4+ skeins of Pine (for the solid tree and in the patterned tree) and 1 skein Thunder (the teal colour in the patterned tree)
• Wool Ease – Thick and Quick (super bulky, 80/20 acrylic and wool) – 1 skein of Succulent – (the grey-blue colour in the patterned tree)
• Loops and Threads – Lush Alpaca (super bulky, 80/20 acrylic and alpaca) – 1 skein of White (in the patterned tree)

I wish the Succulent colour had been just a little more aqua and less grey. And if I had to do it over again, I would have paired the colours differently. Pine and the Thunder are too similar, making the triangles not very visible in those sections. But overall I like how they look and the contrast between them.

Finished Christmas Tree Cushions

I really enjoyed making these cushions. The pattern was easy to follow, despite that I was initially uncertain about stranded knitting and following a knitting chart. They also did take quite a while to knit, but I really like the fun shape.

There are a few mistakes that I made. The two pillows should have been the same height and they’re not. The multi-coloured tree is several inches taller. I think this might be because the stockinette stitches in the patterned tree are taller than a combination of knit and purl stitches in the green tree. But I rather like the height difference and think it was a happy accident that adds visual interest on the couch.

As well, my side seams are a bit lumpy in some spots. Sewing up seams is not my strong suit and one of the parts that I enjoy least with any knitting project.

But in the end, I think they’re cute and I’m excited to add them to my other Christmas pillows on the couch.

You can read about all of my DIY Christmas cushions HERE.

Squibblybups has lots of other holiday knitting patterns as well as crochet patterns in their shop to choose from. You should check out their shop too!

Best Holiday Knitting Patterns

I want to hear from you! Which of these holiday knitting patterns is your favourite? What else are you planning to knit or craft for Christmas? Let me know in the comments below.

All the best,

Danielle