Gingerbread man knitting pattern for Christmas

A free little knitted Christmas decoration pattern for a gingerbread man and woman without any seaming

I’m not joking when I say that Christmas is my favorite time of the year. All the lights, the cookies, and quality time with my family give me the energy to get through our cold winters. This year, I decided to add a knitted Christmas decoration pattern to my portfolio: A cute little gingerbread man and their wife.

There are already enough patterns for Christmas baubles. This is probably the main reason I felt like knitting something a little bit more different. And what could be more iconic than gingerbread, eh? I plan to have them hanging from my Christmas tree (follow me on Instagram if you want to see the results)

You can use these knitted gingerbreads to decorate your home (windowsill, fireplace, etc) just as well. I’m sure they will work in a lot of contexts.

They are knit in the round on either double-pointed needles or magic loop and don’t require any seaming. You will, however, have to embroider the “glazing”. As this process reminded me of baking real Christmas cookies, I had a lot of fun doing so.

The pattern is for a “man” and a “woman”. But just like with real gingerbreads it’s totally up to you to embroider their identity and costumes according to your own personal preferences. While you are free to copy my embroidery, I won’t provide any too detailed instructions for it. It’s just simple chain stitches and french knots.

I would like to mention, however, that there are quite some unusual techniques involved to get the flat shape of gingerbread. That’s the bad news. The good news: There are video tutorials available here on my blog (linked in the pattern for your convenience) for almost all of them. So, I’m sure you will have no problem following my exact steps.

Materials you will need:

• 20 grams of the Wollmeise Twin (in the colors bärenstark) or any other fingering sock yarn scraps for needles size 2.5 – 3.00 mm; scraps in white & red for the embroidery.
• Double-Pointed Knitting needles 2.0 mm. Frequent readers probably already know that I am a huge fan of the Knitter’s Pride Karbonz because they are the only ones that don’t end up crooked after 5 minutes.
• A stitch holder or some spare needles (you’ll need them for the feet)
• A tapestry needle and scissors.
• Stitch markers (optional)
• Toy stuffing

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Knitting Techniques

This knitted gingerbread Christmas decor is mainly shaped through a combination of increases and decreases. Because of the stacked increases and some other unusual techniques I feel it’s suitable for intermediate knitters, even though you might have to look up one or two stitches (I linked you to easy-to-follow tutorials in each case).

• K = knit
• KRL= Knit right loop
• KLL = Knit left loop
• Kfb = knit front and back
• SSK = slip, slip knit
• k2tog = knit two together
• Stacked increase
• Three-needles bind off
• ….And a standard longtail cast on.

The gingerbread is knit in the round on a set of 5 double-pointed needles. If you still need to do some catching up, here’s my tutorial on knitting in the round. You might also check out my blog post with 10 tips for better results with dpns. I think you could also knit them using magic loop. It will be a bit fiddly, though.

All in all, I really hope this knitting pattern will bring a bit of joy to your homes. 2020 was not the easiest year, right? But I’m quite positive that 2021 will surprise us in all the good ways and we may end up with “golden twenties” after all.

Please respect the fact that this is a free pattern and only available to my loyal newsletter subscribers. If, for whatever reason, you do not want to subscribe or cannot make it work (because your email provider is blocking my emails) there is not a lot I can do.

That’s my gingerbread knitting pattern. Feel free to comment below in case you have any questions.