Felted Pitcher Decoration Knitting Pattern

Felted Pitcher Decoration Knitting Pattern by Plymouth Yarn

Project Overview

This downloadable knitting pattern from Plymouth Yarn creates a charming felted pitcher decoration, perfect for adding handmade texture and color to home décor. The finished piece stands approximately 7 inches tall and features a two-color design combining rust and yellow tones. The pitcher and handle are constructed as separate components and sewn together after the felting process, allowing for dimensional shaping and authentic felted texture.

What Is Being Made

The pattern produces a decorative felted pitcher with a handle. The pitcher body is worked in the round from the bottom upward, creating a vessel shape with a defined spout. Two small buttons serve as functional or decorative accents on the finished piece. This is an ideal project for crafters seeking to explore felting techniques while creating a functional decoration.

Techniques Used

This pattern employs several key knitting techniques to achieve its distinctive shape and texture:

• Felting: The entire completed piece is felted after knitting, which transforms the fabric and creates the characteristic dense, textured surface associated with felted wool items.
• Circular knitting: The pitcher body is worked in the round using both double-pointed needles and a circular needle, creating seamless construction.
• Garter stitch foundation: The base of the pitcher is worked flat in garter stitch before stitches are picked up along the edges to begin circular knitting.
• Increases and decreases: Strategic shaping is achieved through increases and decreases that form the pitcher's body contours and distinctive spout.
• Color work: The pattern incorporates color changes by dropping and adding yarn strands, creating horizontal color blocks in rust and yellow.

Stitches Used

The pattern utilizes fundamental knitting stitches appropriate for felting projects:

• Garter stitch: Created by knitting every row, used for the initial flat base section that provides structure.
• Stockinette stitch: Formed by alternating knit and purl rows (or knitting all rounds when working circularly), used for the main pitcher body.
• Knit stitches (K): The primary stitch throughout most of the pattern.
• Knit two together (k2tog): A right-leaning decrease used to shape the pitcher body and reduce stitch counts at specific intervals.
• Make one (M1): An increase worked by knitting into the front and back of the same stitch, creating two stitches from one and used for shaping the pitcher's wider sections and spout.

Materials and Tools

The pattern calls for Plymouth Yarn's Galway Worsted, a worsted-weight yarn that felts beautifully. One skein each of rust (#742) and yellow (#137) provides sufficient yardage for the complete project. The yarn is used doubled throughout the entire pattern, creating a thicker fabric that felts effectively.

Needles required include a set of size US 15 double-pointed needles and a 16-inch circular needle in the same size. Two small buttons complete the decoration. The pattern specifies a gauge of 8 stitches over 4 inches when worked in pattern using size US 15 needles, though crafters should adjust needle size as necessary to achieve the correct gauge before beginning.

Pattern Structure and Construction

The pitcher begins with a cast-on of 10 stitches on a single double-pointed needle, worked flat in garter stitch for 21 rows to create the base. Stitches are then picked up along all four edges of this base section, distributing 10 stitches per needle across four double-pointed needles for a total of 40 stitches. The body is worked in stockinette stitch in the round, with strategic color changes creating the rust-to-yellow transition. Decreases and increases are worked at specific intervals to shape the pitcher's form, while additional increases are strategically placed to create the spout. The handle is constructed separately and attached after felting, completing the three-dimensional pitcher decoration.