Earlier this year, while contemplating (1) my still rather bare office and (2) a growing pile of yarn minis in my closet, I realized something. Knit triangle bunting makes a wonderfully festive decoration, and yarn minis are just the right size for knitting some.
So in today’s post, I’m sharing a loose tutorial for how to make your own pennant bunting. This is very much going to be an “adjust as you please” sort of thing, so give yourself wiggle room to play around. If you’ve also been holding onto a bunch of minis from a yarn advent and aren’t quite sure what to do with them, give this a try!
Preparatory Step: Gather Your Materials
You can knit these pennants with any yarn using any needles. It’s really up to you. Feel free to swatch a bit in garter stitch using the needles and yarn you think you’d like to use for the pennants. If the fabric is too stiff, go up a needle size. If the fabric is too loose and floppy, go down a needle size.
I used fingering-weight yarn from the 2024 Bad Sheep Yarn Advent Calendar (that’s an affiliate link, which means if you choose to buy something through those links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you) and US size 3 (3.25 mm) needles for my pennants.
Step One: Knit a Triangle
I experimented with a lot of different rates of increases, placement of increases, and types of increases for these triangles. Here’s the recipe I eventually settled on.
Note: these pennants are knit flat, so make sure to turn your work over at the end of each row.
- Cast on three stitches using your preferred cast-on method.
- Knit one row.
- KFB, knit one, KFB.
- Knit three rows.
- K1, KFB, knit one, KFB, k1.
- Knit three rows.
- K1, KFB, knit until 2 stitches remain, KFB, k1.
- Knit three rows.
- Repeat steps 7 and 8 until your pennant reaches the size you’d like. I knit until my pennant had 49 stitches across the top.
- Bind off and weave in ends.
Step Two (Optional): Calculate Your Yarn Needs
Once you’ve finished knitting your first pennant, you may want to figure out how much yarn the pennant took. This is really only necessary if you’re aiming for a specific length of bunting or if you have a limited amount of yarn. I’ll be honest, I just spitballed mine!
To figure out how much yarn the triangle used, weigh it on a kitchen scale with the grams setting. Then compare that to the total weight of your original skein. For example, if you’re using a 20g mini skein and your triangle weighs 6 grams, you know you can get 3 triangles out of that mini skein but no more (3*6=18). If you need 30 triangles, you’ll need ten mini skeins.
Step Three: Knit More Triangles
If you’re happy with your initial pennant, keep on knitting more pennants with the same yarn weight and needles. This part can get kind of tedious. I recommend turning on some good knitflixing for additional entertainment.
Step Four: String the Triangles Together
I knit a length of i-cord to string my triangles together, but you can use a length of crocheted yarn, braided yarn, ribbon, rope, or whatever else fits the aesthetic you’re aiming for. I threaded the i-cord from front to back at the right corner of each pennant and then from back to front at the left corner.
If you find your triangles are sliding around, you can anchor them in place with a little sewn stitch or thread the cord through the top of each triangle a few more times.
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The mention of the triangles slipping on the I-cord gave me an idea:
Make the I-cord first, then pick up stitches from that to knit the triangles from the top down.
The project might not be quite as portable this way, but I think it might be fun to try. 😺
That’s definitely an option, but you’d have to know how big you want your triangles to be and how many you’ll need before you start! A little less flexible that way.