There’s something magical about letters. I don’t know why. I’m not in charge of these things. There just is. The idea taking a tiny handful of the thoughts swirling around in your head, turning them on to words, putting those words on paper, and sending them off on an adventure to land on someone else’s doorstep and brighten their day is just kind of special.

My hope is to capture a tiny sliver of that magic with this knitted envelope!

Discretion dictates you not actually try and send it through the mail (though goodness knows I understand the temptation). But you can absolutely tuck a note (or a gift card, or some candy, or some other tiny treasure) inside and slip it under your sweetheart’s pillow or into a friend’s coat pocket or into your kid’s lunch box. Or perhaps you want to help the tooth fairy on her appointed rounds or make a post office play set (how cute would it be to make a little snap on stamp?) or knit a whole bunch and have the coolest advent calendar ever. I suspect that, as with most magical things, something delightful will occur to you if you just think about it for a little while!

General information

This 18-page pattern is tremendously detailed and holds your hand every step of the way. There are pages and pages of step-by-step photos to show you exactly what to expect as you work. The pattern is full of helpful tips on everything from casting on, blocking, adding a button, and even adding some adorable embroidery.

The pattern is almost absurdly detailed, but it really does mean you can totally make these, even if you’ve never knit a project like this before!

Skills & scope

Each envelope fits in the palm of your hand and takes only a few hours to knit. The knitting is mostly stockinette (worked both in the round and flat) with just a little bit of fancy business to help it all take shape. When you’re done knitting, you’ll add a button and (if you’d like) duplicate stitch a little heart.

The pattern uses charts, so you will need to know how to follow a knitting chart.

Yarn, gauge & sizing

The envelopes comes in three sizes. You can make them in any weight of yarn, and the finished size will change depending on what yarn you use. You don’t need to match any particular gauge, but you do need to knit tightly enough to make a solid fabric.

I’ve knit this in everything from fingering-weight up through worsted-weight yarns.

You can absolutely use scrap yarn for this.

The envelopes in the pictures took less than 50 yards each. They are worked between 9 stitches per inch (for the fingering-weight yarn) and 6 stitches per inch (for the worsted-weight yarn). They are between 2 and 5 inches across, between 1.5 and 3 inches top to bottom when closed, and between 3 and 5 inches top to bottom when open.

Tools & supplies

You’ll need needles that let you work in the round (circulars or DPNs) in whatever size lets you get a solid fabric with your chosen yarn plus the general knitting tools you need for most projects (scissors to cut your yarn, a darning needle to weave in ends, the occasional stitch marker or bit of scrap yarn to hold stitches). You’ll also want a button (and thread to sew that button on with if your yarn is too thick for that, which it often is), and a yard or two of thread or yarn if you want to embroider on your envelope.