Knitting is a great project to try together. It encourages motor skills, math and counting abilities, concentration and many other skills and talents. And the best part? At the end you have something fun and handmade to enjoy!

This is a simple pattern used by my daughter in school to create a frog. It can be adapted to create a lion, tiger, cat or whatever animal your imagination can conjure up!

Once the basic shape is knitted, you can use felt and googly eyes or buttons and beads to finish off your new pet.

Knitting pattern for frog:

• Cast on 30 stitches and knit until you have 20cm.
• Cast off and sew the cast off and on edges together. Turn inside out so the stitches don’t show.
• Using a darning needle and your wool, gather the top, by darning along the top edges and pulling the wool together so it forms a tight circle.
• Stuff your frog and add a clean jar lid or circle of plastic at the bottom and gather and darn your bottom edge in the same way as the top, pulling it around the lid. This will ensure your frog will sit down!
• Tie a piece of wool tightly about a third of the way from the top to create a head and decorate with felt or beads and buttons.

As my daughter became more confident, she used different wool to create new textures – see our red owl below!

The cowl scarf has been a big hit over the past few years, and this pattern from Allfreeknitting is simple to follow as it only uses the straightforward garter stitch.

Add your favourite chunky yarn in a range of colours, or just use a single colour, to produce a lovely gift or cozy cowl to wear yourself. The combination of a chunky knit and the squishy garter stitch makes for a very cosy scarf!

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I love these knitted birds!

They can be created as a room decoration or to hang on a Christmas tree or wreath. Or you could use them to decorate a hat, scarf or jumper.

You can download the bird knitting pattern free from Ravelry and use single coloured yarn or lots of different yarn to create pretty multi-coloured birds.

Another simple pattern from school used to create an owl or snowman. It can be adapted to create different knitted toys, and uses simple plain and purl stitches.

Knitting pattern for owl or snowman:

• Cast on 25 stitches in whatever wool you wish to use. Knit one row and purl the next continuing with knit, purl, until your owl / snowman is 20cm long.
• Cast off and sew the cast off and on edges together. Turn inside out so the stitches don’t show.
• Using a darning needle and your wool, gather the top, by darning along the top edges and pulling the wool together so it forms a tight circle.
• Stuff your snowman and add a clean jar lid or circle of plastic at the bottom and gather and darn your bottom edge. This will ensure your owl / snowman will stand up!
• Tie a piece of wool tightly about a third of the way from the top to create a head and decorate with felt or beads and buttons.

This was the first pattern my children knitted in school. The pattern may look long, but it is really easy to follow and knit.

Knitting pattern for Teddy Bear:

• For legs cast on 10 stitches and knit until the leg is 8cm long. Put stitches onto spare needle/ safety pin or hair grip and repeat for the 2nd leg, but once the 2nd leg reaches 8cm, keep the knitting on the needle.
• Put both legs (all 20 stitches) back on to your needle. Knit across both legs until your body is 35cm long.
• To create the back of the legs, divide the stitches again and put 10 stitches onto a spare needle/safety pin/hair clip. Knit the remaining 10 stitches until the leg is 8cm and cast those stitches off.
• Add the other stitches back on and knit until the 2nd leg is also 8cm. Cast off.
• Fold the knitting in half. Sew the row ends together.
• Leave an opening at the bottom of one leg for stuffing.
• Stuff firmly.
• For the arms cast on 14 stitches and knit until they are 6cm long. Cast off. Do two of these.
• Fold the arm in two lengthways and sew up. Leave one end open for stuffing.
• Stuff firmly and sew in place.
• Tie a piece of wool tightly around the body to form the head.
• Form the ears by pulling up the corners of the head and sewing.
• Decorate as you wish.

I found this free pattern for a baby bib on Ravelry and was attracted by the colours.

It makes a beautiful baby bib, but I think it would also look great if you knitted 2 ‘bibs’ and stitched them together to make a small pouch bag.

Are you up for the challenge?