Reindeer band knitting chart

About this design

No Christmas jumper is complete without reindeer. Each one here faces left, with a small pair of branching antlers, a short neck, a long body and four straight legs, worked in Y26 Burgundy on a Y02 Cream ground. They are spaced well apart, so the band reads as individual animals rather than a crowded frieze, and the shape is simple enough to recognise from across a room. The band is ten patterned rows tall with a plain row above and below.

Knitting the chart

The motif repeats every 16 stitches, and the chart shows 3 repeats across 48 stitches. Every patterned row uses two colours. The longest float is 15 stitches, so catch long floats behind the work every three to five stitches. The antler rows have the longest floats, so catch the burgundy behind the cream every three or four stitches there.

Sizing and uses

At 20 stitches and 28 rows per 10 cm, the 48-stitch chart is 24 cm wide and the 12 rows are about 4.3 cm tall. Any stitch count that is a multiple of 16 works, so 48 or 64 stitches suit a cushion panel, 96 to 112 an adult hat, and 192 or more a jumper yoke or body.

Colour plan

Cream does the most work, 76% of the 576 stitches, followed by Burgundy at 24%. Every colour is used at least 138 times, so there are no tiny one-off details to hunt for. Every square of the grid is filled.

Working notes

The longest float is 15 stitches, and 10 rows have a float longer than 5 that should be caught on the wrong side. Every row uses at most two colours, so it can all be worked as stranded colourwork.