I’ve been hunting down free patterns for quick knit softie toys as I work up gifts for kids. Each of these patterns has taken me a night or two to work up and have made me smile as they came to life.
Owl Puffs
The quickest of the softies, these little owls can be made even quicker with the use of safety eyes but I opted for stitching on felt pieces. Each of their faces turned out a little bit different but I think it adds to their character.
Pattern: Owl Puffs by Jenna Krupar on Ravelry
Hedgehog
The first section (the face and belly) required concentration but the hedgehog’s back worked up very fast as it was mostly repetitive.
Pattern: Hedgehogs by Purl Soho
Knit Fish
I modified this pattern to make a small fish using an aran weight yarn. I reduced the number of stitches and rows. e.g. I cast on 38 stitches to start the tail and did a few calculations about where to skip rows.
The pattern suggests that the tail is stuffed but I decided to sew the join between the tail and the body to leave the tail open – I thought it would be fun for the kids to play with this way.
One day I’ll make a full-sized version!
Pattern: Knit Fish by Kat Lewinski on Ravelry
Baby Gators
These little guys were the most time-consuming because there was a fair amount of fiddling around and joining of limbs and careful stuffing but they were still fun to make. I’m impressed that with a bit of yarn and some needles you can make such a good representation of an alligator!
Pattern: Baby Gators by Anna Hrachovec on Ravelry
I love your knitted fish – I’d like to make a smaller version too, would you mind sharing the calculations / alterations you made to the pattern? Thanks! :)
Hi Hannah,
I don’t have exact notes for my fish modifications but I remember that the changes were intuitive – I knit until it seemed a suitable size, picking up bits from various parts of the pattern. I think the following is what I did… but it should be obvious as you knit if the shape takes a wrong turn.
My fish was knit with an Aran weight yarn and I cast on 38 st. I started the tail pattern from Row 7, added a purl row between the pattern’s Rows 8 and 9, and added an extra purl row before the pattern’s Row 14.
For the body I knit the pattern until row 21. I then did two rounds of knit, then an increase round, then another two rounds of knit, then an increase round to have a total of 46 stitches.
For the middle of the body I did 10 rows of knit, then did a decrease round, knit two rounds, decrease round, knit two rounds, and then followed the pattern from row Row 75.
For the top fin I picked up 12 stitches and experimented a bit but I think I bound of 2 st, 3 st, 3 st, and finally 4 st.
For the side fin I followed the pattern up to Row 6, then did two knit rows and bound off.
I’d love to know if you follow these mods to make a fish :)