If you want to keep your kids and teens away from screens during the half-term holidays, why not get them interested in crafting? Even though knitting seems like a complicated skill to learn, it’s really only two stitches and there’s no reason why children can’t create something impressive.
I’ve been learning to knit with the help of my friend Alice, who offers beginner’s knitting lessons online that can be streamed at any time. So, why not sit down with your kids, pop on a tutorial video at LearnToKnitOnline and start learning a new skill together?
Then, when you’ve got the basics covered, you can easily take on this project to knit a cute frog friend. This step-by-step guide is taken from an incredible book called Kids Knit, which includes countless easy projects that little ones can knit themselves. It’s full of easy-to-follow projects and I’m even keen to make a few of them myself without any kids here haha!
The book will definitely keep them occupied during the school holidays and might even spark a life-long love of knitting. If you’ve read my article on the wellbeing benefits of crafting, you’ll know how valuable this will be for them.
If you want to treat your youngsters to the book, you can buy 52 Assignments: Kids Knit from Gifts to Me for only £10.40 (+P&P)! Usual RRP £12.99. Visit giftstome.co.uk and use the offer code R5806 until the offer ends on 19th May 2025.
Step-by-step frog friend project
Ribbit, Ribbit, Ribbit! This smiley frog looks ready to hop off and play with their friends, splashing through the pond and catching flies…
What you will need
- Yarn – 25g/1oz Rowan Big Wool in your favourite froggie hue. We used Reseda 069
- Needles 10mm (no 000) (US 15)
- 10g/1/2oz of toy stuffing
- 2 buttons for eyes
- White craft felt
- Oddment of black wool for the mouth
- Sewing needle and thread
- Tapestry needle
- Download the template for the hands, feet and eyes here: Kids Knit Frog Template
What to do
1. Cast on 10 stitches and knit 30 rows, or until your work measures 20cm/7 3/4in. Cast off, leaving a long tail of wool for sewing up.
2. Fold your knitting in half so that the cast-on and cast-off edges are lined up together. Thread the tail of wool onto a tapestry needle and sew the edges together on two sides. You should have a shape that is as close to a square as you can get. Add the stuffing and sew up the final seam.
3. To make the shape of the bulging frog eyes, pinch together the corners of the square and tie them up with a bit of spare wool.
4. Cut some white craft felt into two circles using the template on page 118 and sew them onto the eyes. Then sew a black button in the middle of each of the white circles. Sew on a smile with some black wool or embroidery thread.
5. To make the arms, cut two 10cm/4in lengths of wool and tie them on either side of the body. To make the legs, cut two 15cm/6in lengths of wool and tie them onto the bottom of the body.
6. Cut some white craft felt into two frog hands and two frog feet using the templates on page 118 as guides. Cut a little hole in the back of the feet and hands. Thread the wool from one of the arms onto a tapestry needle and then through the hole in one of the hands. Adjust the length of the arm and then tie two tight knots in the wool to keep the hand in place. Trim the excess wool. Do the same for the other hand and then both the feet.
Did you know?
Knitters often talk about ‘frogging’ their knitting when they have made a mistake and are ripping out their stitches. It gets its name from ‘rip it, rip it’, which sounds a bit like ‘ribbit, ribbit’!
I’ve also shared a fun sewing project for kids that’ll help them to learn more craft skills so be sure to check out the easy step-by-step Mermaid Tail Blanket sewing tutorial too.
I hope you have fun knitting this frog friend and please do check out the book Kids Knit at giftstome.co.uk and use the offer code R5806 to get a discount on the RRP. Let me know what other crafts your youngsters are doing during the school holidays, I’d love to hear what creative things you get up to.
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Some items in this blog post have been gifted to me and the pink links indicate a gifted product, affiliate link or information source. All thoughts and opinions in this post are based on my own experience and I am not responsible for your experience 🙂
