Knitted Easter Egg Ornaments - Embellishing

Simple Eggs

 

The Koigu Semi-Solid colors allude to home-dyed eggs with subtle shifts in color. They're simple and pretty. You can also try Koigu's multi-colored Painter's Palette for ready-made decoration!

Striped Eggs

 

Knit beautiful stripes for a traditional Easter egg. If you're inexperienced at knitting stripes in the round, you may find this tutorial helpful. 

Duplicate Stitched Eggs

You can really go to town decorating your eggs with some simple duplicate stitching. It's really fun after the work of knitting the eggs to just relax and have fun jazzing them up.

To do the duplicate stitch on a stuffed object, just bring the needle out the bottom of a stitch (leaving a tail) and sew like you normally would.

When you're done with a section, just stick the needle through the egg to the next place you want to sew.

For a full how-to on the duplicate stitch, check out this tutorial. 

Comments

[Leslie]

those are the cutest things ever. I love Easter and plan on making a bunch!

[Bonnie]

another delicious project - what kid wouldn't love those knitted eggs. merci !

[disco]

These eggs are cute beyond words. Now I can spend all year making adorable eggs for next Easter :-)
Thanks so much for a great pattern.

[Jenny O.]

Too freaking cute!!!!! Whit, you are a genius, and a fabulous writer as well. I want an invite to your house for Easter! Love, J

[Kirsten W]

Whoa! I barely know how to knit, but these are so fantastic - I must go teach myself right now! Thank you for the tutorial!

[Denise]

These are the cutest things ever!!! My mother-in-law collects egg cups and they are all empty...but not for long. Thanks so much for this awesome pattern and tutorial!!! I'm off the knit...

[sheila]

Hi,
could anyone suggest a pattern for doing the eggs as one piece? I am having great difficulty picking up the stitches in the middle to do the second half.
Thanks in advance,as I have two children that would love these eggs.

[Christine]

These are great! I made about 5 of them. But ... I made the bottoms a little differently. I stopped decreasing when I had 18 stitches. Then I knit about 5 rows (not rounds) and then bound off. I folded over those rows with a ribbon in the fold and sewed it to the inside of the bottom of the egg. Otherwise, I made it the same as the pattern. I was able to fill the eggs with small jellybeans and tie it shut at the bottom, so it had a nice little bow on the bottom. Then they could fill it with candy or with cotton. It made a really nice container for the Easter basket. THANKS FOR THE PATTERN!

[shawna]

i was wondering if you could do a provisional cast on for the middle, instead of having to pick up stitches?

[purl bee]

Hi Shawna,
Yes you can do provisional cast on, it'll be very nice.

[rebecca]

very fun, thank you! i'm making two as ornaments for my sister and me - we were pregnant in 2009 together.

i knitted a practice egg, and have several questions/requests:

1, the middle of the egg, where i picked up the stitches, is very obvious - it makes a line of diagonal stitches the opposite way! does this even make sense? what am i doing wrong/should i be doing differently?

2, i picked your egg pattern b/c the finished pictures show a slightly asymetrical egg (heavier on the bottom). but when i knit it, i of course saw it was the same on both top and bottom. no matter how i finagle the stuffing, i can't get mine to look as nicely bottom-heavy as yours. any tips would be great.

3, if i knit with wool, stuff the egg w/ wool and felt the whole thing, would i need to restuff? would you recommend felting the egg before stuffing?

4. i'm going to try to use duplicate stitching to add the year, in a subtle color. any advice?

thank you thank you - hope you get this :)

[karen]

For Sheila, who wanted a one-piece Easter egg pattern: go to www.littlecottonrabbits.com. Julie, the owner of this website, has a free pattern for a one piece Easter egg, knit in 4-ply cotton yarn. I am working on one now. I am finding the cotton yarn hard to work with so you might look for cotton blended with another fiber that is more stretchy (i.e., bamboo, rayon, silk). Good luck!

[Megan]

These are fantastic--can't wait to try them. I have another pattern that I have used for years and I felt mine. I use either scraps of wool yarn or natural fisherman's wool yarn that I buy at JoAnn or other big box stores for 40% off with coupons for the stuffing in lieu of polyester fiber fill. The whole piece shrinks up, the colors mute together, and you don't see the V's. They are fantastic in super jumbo yarn sizes with just three eggs in a row as a centerpiece on a table, or smaller ones in a knitted, felted bowl made to look like a bird's nest. Try them some time for a different look. Cheers, Megan

[Madame Lee]

Thanks a lot for this really good idea and for explanation too.
I am looking forward to get home tonight to knit my first egg !!
Would you enjoy a picture?

[purl bee]

Hi Madame Lee-

We always love seeing pictures of our readers projects! Happy knitting!- Molly

[Amber]

Could you use a set of round needles instead of the three? I have a tough time with the three needles for knitting in the round

[purl bee]

Hi Amber,

You can use the Magic Loop method, using a circular needle, for this if you prefer. Here is a video tutorial:

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-do-magic-loop-knitting-with-large-cable-needle-4601/

Thanks for your question-

Molly

[Monica]

If you're doing duplicate stitching on something like this Easter Egg, where/how do you weave in the ends of the duplicate-stitching-color?

[purl bee]

Hi Monica,

I just pull the tail through the stuffing, out the other side of the egg and snip! Since they're not the kind of thing that gets a lot of wear and tear, I don't worry too much about super-securing the ends!

Thanks for your question and happy Easter!

Whitney