Festive wind spinner free knitting pattern

The festive wind spinner free knitting pattern makes a perfect Christmas decoration, hand made with love. Or adapt the colours used, and create them for any other seasonal decor. Try one for Easter, Valentines day or Halloween.
Dont forget to check out the Crochet Spiderweb pattern too!

Why make your own Wind Spinners?

A hand knit decoration can be reused year after year, becoming a treasured family heirloom over time. This saves money in the long run, and helps save the planet from excess plastic rubbish bought to celebrate the season and then thrown out. If you use a natural yarn, even better.

Materials Needed to knit a festive wind spinner

You can use any yarn to create this decoration. You may find your decoration comes out a very different size, or that the quantities of yarn you need won’t match what I have listed below if using a very different yarn weight. Lighter yarns will give better results. Using a fingering weight yarn is therefore recomended but not essential. Using a wool yarn will also add flightless. Using a pure cotton may make the wind spinner a bit heavier, and pull out of shape. Using a cotton and bamboo mix as in the sample shown adds lightness, and works well.

To make the sample shown

Performance Cotton Dazzle 60% Cotton, 40% Viscose, 50g, 120m per ball.

One wind spinner uses 60 meters/65 yards.

4 mm knitting needles. I used circular needles with an 80cm cable, you could also use straight needles, long enough to hold 200 stitches.

Darning needle to weave in ends

Optional: small bell or other decorative item to sew onto end.

Tension (gauge)

Tension is not critical for this project. Different yarn and knitting needles will create different size decorations. It is always wise to check your stitches before starting the project, and experiment with different needle sizes for your yarn to select the one you are happiest with. To swatch, you can cast on 10, and follow the row instructions. Its more important for this that you like the look of the fabric, and how the lace opens up, rather than the exa t dimensions.
The decoration as shown is based on casting on 50 stitches using fingering weight yarn, and measures 48 cm/ 19 inches

Measurements

The festive wind spinner shown measures 19 inches/48cm before a tassel is added. Different stitch counts or yarns will give different sizes.

Accessibility, abbreviations and terminology

This pattern is presented with accessibility in mind.
Standard knitting abbreviations are avoided, and full words used throughout for screen reader accessability, and to create a more reader-friendly experience for some neurodiverse people who struggle with abbreviations. As far as possible, the standards of the British Dyslexia Association are followed.
Images are used throughout, all information in the images is repeated in the text. 

Knit stitches used:

Knit

Yarn over

Knit 2 together

[ ] when square brackets of this type are used, you will be instructed to repeat to the end. In these cases, always repeat the full step inside the brackets.

Pattern Starts

Using white/colour 1

Row 1: Cast on 50 stitches using a long tail cast on, or your preferred method.

Row 2: Knit to end

Row 3: [Knit 1, yarn over], repeat this step to the final stitch, knit 1 into both front and back of final stitch. Stitch count: 100 stitches.

Row 4: Knit to end

Row 5: Knit 1, [yarn over, knit 2 together] to last stitch, yarn over and knit final stitch.

Repeat Rows 2 – 5. Stitch count 200 stitches.

Row 11: Knit to end

Row 12: Repeat row 3. Stitch count 400 stitches.

change to red/colour 2

Row 13: Knit to end

Cast off using a stretchy cast off such as Jenys magic bind-off.

Weave in ends. Sew a tiny bell on the end if using. Create a hanging loop on the top by threading a length of yarn through the top and securing the ends.

Did you enjoy this wind spinner free knitting pattern? Why not create a project page on Ravelry to show off your work, and be in with a chance to win a free pattern from one of my paid for patterns? I give out 1 free pattern a month to people who create project pages.

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