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How To: Knit a Cactus 🌵

Updated: Jun 3, 2023


Learn how to knit a cactus as a complete beginner! This post will go over the two basic stitches (knit and purl) which will get you on your way to more advanced patterns and stitches.


For one of my first arts and crafts meetup events, we learned how to knit a cactus. Myself and a few others had never knitted before, so I will share the helpful info and links we used to get started.


What we used:


I ordered these kits from Etsy which had everything we needed to knit 3 cacti. The kit is not technically for beginners, but here are step by step instructions as well as some videos that helped us work through it.


The kit includes:

  • Worsted weight yarn (30 yards per cactus) and some extra for the flowers

  • A set of US 3 double pointed needles

  • 3.5 mm crochet hook

  • Darning needle

  • 2" terracotta pots

  • Fiberfill


Step 1: Cast on 24 stitches. Here's a really helpful video that teaches you how to do that for complete beginners


Step 2: Start knitting until you get about 3 - 5 inches in length. The more length you have, the more rounded the cactus will look. I recommend starting with the basic knit stitch


Step 3: Once you get to around 3-5 inches in length, you'll want to stitch your cactus closed and fill it up. Check out the video here to learn how to close it (starting at 1:30)


That's it! This will get you started with basic knitting



If you want to try more advanced patterns and stitches:


After you finish one cactus using the knit stitch, you can try the slightly more advanced seed stitch: First, learn how to purl stitch. Then learn the seed stitch which combines both the knit & purl stitches you've already learned.


There are more advanced patterns you can try such as the Suguaro, Mexican Fence Post and Golden Barrel, but start the basic stitches above and work your way up to these.


I hope you have fun! If you tried this craft, please send pictures of your completed projects...I love to see what you all have created 💫


NOTE: I would consider this a long term project. It took me a couple hours to make the basic knit stitch cactus as a complete beginner, but the one pictured above took weeks to work up to. The fun part about knitting is you can pick it up and put it down whenever you'd like, so there's no rush to finish!


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