Little Snowman

I like knitted Christmas ornaments. This year I wanted to knit a snowman. I first tried it with a sideways garter stitch construction that I had used before (e.g. Xmas trees or little Xmas Gnomes), but I didn't get the shaping right (see this photo on Instagram). So I decided  to do a stockinette, bottom-up construction. After finishing, the snowmen also got little hats and scarfs.

Please note, this is fiddly work - esprecially the cast on and the first few rounds, but the resulting snowmen are really cute.

This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.





Materials

• white yarn - I used approximately 15 grams of (probably) worsted weight yarn
• leftover orange yarn - I used old (probably) sports weight yarn
• leftover black yarn - I used old (probably) worsted weight yarn
• leftover yarn of a different color for hat and scarf (less than 5 grams of fingering weight yarn)
• 2.25 dpns and 2.5 dpns - I used needles that were too small for the given yarn weight
• a stitch marker to mark the end of the round
• stuffing - to give them some stability I even put a couple of pebbles right into the bottom of the lower half of their body
• a tapestry needle

Size and Variations
The snowmen wearing stocking caps are knitted exactly to the instructions (with 2.5mm needles) and are about 10 cm high.
The one wearing a top hat is knitted with thicker yarn and with 3.25mm needles. Here I left out rows 24 - 28 (k all rows in the middle of the body) - so he's a bit rounder and shorter in proportion.

Instructions

Carrot

With orange yarn CO4 sts and join in round
Knit 4 rounds - increasing by 1 st every round - now you have 8 sts on your needles
Knit 4 rounds - increasing by 1 st every other round - now you have 10 sts on your needles
Bind off.

Leave the tail of your bind off - it will be used for stitching the carrot on later.
Stuff the tail from your CO into the carrot.


Snowman

You can stitch face and the (coal) buttons after you've finished, but I've done it while knitting - and that is how it is described in the pattern

With white yarn CO8 and join in round
Round 1: * kfb repeat from * to end
Round 2: k all
Round 3: * k1, kfb repeat from * to end
Round 4: k all
Round 5: * kfb, k2 repeat from * to end
Rounds 6 and 7: k all
Round 8: * k2, kfb, k1 repeat from * to end
Rounds 9 - 11: k all
Round 12: * k4, kfb repeat from * to end - you now have 48 sts on your needles
Rounds 13 - 28: k all
Round 29: * k2, ssk, k2 repeat from * to end
Rounds 30 and 31: k all

With black yarn and tapestry needle stitch on 3 coal buttons. Start to stuff the body.
Continue knitting with white yarn.

Round 32: * ssk, k3 repeat from * to end
Round 33: k all
Round 34: * k1, ssk, k1 repeat from * to end
Round 35: * ssk, k1 repeat from * to end
Round 36: k all

Round 37: * k1, kfb repeat from * to end
Round 38: k all
Round 39: * kfb, k2 repeat from * to end
Rounds 40 - 44: k all
Round 45: * ssk, k2 repeat from * to end
Round 46 - 48: k all

With the tail of the carrot, stitch on the carrot. Make sure to align it on top of the coal buttons.
With black yarn stitch on two coals for the eyes and 5 coals as a mouth.
Fill in stuffing. You can use the blunt end of a pencil to make sure that the stuffing gets everywhere.

Round 49: * k1, ssk repeat from * to end
Round 50: k all
Round 51: * ssk repeat from * to end

Fill in a bit more stuffing.
Cut white yarn and thread the tail into a tapestry needle. Catch the remaining 8 stitches with the needle and pull tight. Fasten off and weave in ends.


Hat: Stocking Cap
CO4 and join in round.
Knit in rounds increasing by 1 st per round - until the hat fits over the head of your snowman.
(I knitted until I had 32 sts on my needles).
Finish with 4 rounds of ribbing (either k1p1 or k2p2).
BO in ribbing pattern.

Attach a small pompom to the top of the hat. (I used this method and a dessert fork to make a pompom - but it still was a big too big.)
Weave in ends


Scarf
CO8 sts
Knit the same ribbing you did for the hat - either k1p1 or k2p2 - until your scarf measures about 25 cm (or until it is long enough to fit around the snowman's neck).
BO and weave in ends.


Alternative: Top Hat
CO8 and join in round
Round 1: * kfb repeat from * to end
Round 2: k all
Round 3: * k1, kfb repeat from * to end
Round 4: k all
Round 5: * kfb, k2 repeat from * to end
Round 6: p all
Round 7: * k1, ssk, k5 repeat from * to end
Rounds 8 to 16: k all
Round 17: * k4, ssk, k1 repeat from * to end
Round 18: k all
Round 19: * k1, kfb, k1 repeat from * to end
Round 20: k all
Round 21: * k3, kfb repeat from * to end
Round 22: k all
Round 24: * kfb, k4 repeat from * to end
BO and weave in ends.