A Rustic Wreath You Can Make in Under 30 minutes

Nope, seriously, you can make this rustic wreath, in all it’s beautifully knitted glory in under 30 minutes. With no tools.

When I say no tools, I mean no glue, glue guns, sewing, or anything. You don’t need anything for this simple project except your two skeins of jumbo yarn and a form. Oh and maybe a cute burlap bow.

Only 30 minutes to make a knitted rustic wreath?

The trick here is to use chunky yarn. It will save you ALL kinds of time and give you that rustic wreath look with minimum effort.

Chunky yarn and I are like best buddies. I love to knit, but I seriously do not have the patience to knit anything that takes longer than a day – ok maybe two days, because I did knit a chunky knit blanket that took two days, but that’s about my max.

I’ve seen a similar knitted rustic wreath made with thinner yarn and knitted around the form.

Nope, no time for that fanciness around this place.

But I did want a rustic wreath that looked a bit like a chunky knit blanket and let’s get real for a second; I didn’t want to spend a week on it.

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The jumbo yarn to use for your rustic wreath

For this project, I chose Red Heart Irresistible Yarn, Aran because it was the thickest, and had the best roving look. It was a bit whispy and looked more like wool than yarn.

The only challenge I had with this yarn was it was pink. I ordered “Aran” because it looked cream on the site I ordered it from, but in actuality, it’s a very faint blush.

Ignore the knitting needles in the photo, you won’t need them at all.

In some photos, you will see it, and in others, it will look cream. Depends on what kind of mood my camera was in when I snapped the photos.

But don’t be fooled, if you order Aran you will get blush pink yarn!

I knitted up a skein to see how it was going to look. Don’t worry, no actual knitting for this rustic wreath!

But isn’t that yarn dreamy?

If this yarn isn’t available, you can check out this post comparing some of the more popular jumbo yarns.

The Wreath Form

I live 4 hours round trip from the nearest city, so when we do go, we make a grand trip out of it. I ALWAYS forget something, despite my best efforts with my lists.

Sometimes I forget the stupid lists… that’s always fun. Once I even forgot my purse – which meant an empty-handed round trip. That was even more fun.

This time I forgot to buy the form for the rustic wreath. BOOOO!

So you know what I did, I used a pool noodle.

Shh – Don’t tell anyone.

The pool noodle was the perfect thickness, and I was able to make it any size I wanted by slicing it to size with a sharp blade.

My pool noodle was 3 inches thick in diameter and 20 inches wide after I cut and put it together.

I didn’t even do anything fancy to it except tape it with white duct tape and give the whole thing a quick spritz with white spray paint.

The spray paint wasn’t even necessary. I could have just wrapped the entire thing in white duct tape and called it a day.

Pool noodles are the things everyone seems to have their garage but never seem to use, so it was easy to get my hands on a few, I just put the call out, and sure enough, a friend had two kicking around her barn.

Bonus.

Pool noodle for the win!

But you can buy a simple form as well, the thicker the better, because the thick yarn shows best on a wreath form that is thick vs. thin.

How to work your yarn to create a knitted rustic wreath

Ok, so this is the only time-consuming part; and by time-consuming, I mean it’s the piece that takes up the bulk of the 30 minutes.

I was able to loop both my yarn balls very quickly – your mileage may vary, but it is super simple to create the braid look we want.

If you have ever crocheted, you will know how to do this right away. You will be chaining your entire ball of yarn to make one long chain (x2). No crochet hook required, only your fingers for this project.

It really is this easy.

Step 1

Leave at least an 8-inch tail – and make a loop.

Step 2

Pull your yarn through the first loop creating a new loop, and tighten the yarn a little bit. You don’t want to tighten down your loops too much, but you don’t want to leave them big and loose either.

Step 3

Keep going looping yarn through each new loop. When you get to the end leave about 8 inches on the end after your last loop. Your yarn will look like a long braid.

a ball and tail of braided pink jumbo yard against a white background

Attaching your yarn to the form

No glue, glue guns, sewing needles, or anything!

If you left your 8-inch tail, all you need to do is split your yarn tail in half by spreading the fibers and tying the end of your yarn onto your form.

If you need to whip out the glue gun, go ahead, but entirely not required.

Wrapping your yarn braid around your wreath form

Now you’re going to cover the entire form with your chained yarn. When you do this, make sure your yarn lies nice and flat against the form from the front to the back.

Keep wrapping the yarn around the form until you get to the end of your first ball of yarn.

Split your tail again, and tie on the end.

Pink chunky yarn being wrapped around a round wreath form

Finishing up your knitted rustic wreath

You can trim any ends that are too long or weave them in.

Once you finish your first ball of yarn, move on to the second.

Two skeins of yarn worked perfectly (no underage, no overage) for my 20 x 3-inch wreath frame. If you go bigger or smaller, consider that when you purchase your yarn.

Add a bow and call it a day!

About the easiest wreath I’ve ever made, and it’s pretty. That’s the thing, just because something was made quickly, doesn’t mean it can’t be pretty – and let’s give this project one more star just because I hid a pool noodle inside.

Add a pretty bow (update)

I’ve been asked how I made the burlap bow. I no longer have that burlap, but I use the same method with all the bows I make.

I am not adding in measurements because each type of ribbon is different. I find working with wire-edged ribbons easier (what I used in this post) because you can shape it the way you want, but heavy fabric ribbons like the one I used in this example work very well too.

Layout your ribbon creating two loops on both sides. Make sure your tails are the length you want before you snip the ribbon.
Once you confirm the length, and you like the width of the bow, wrap a 3-inch piece of floral wire through the center and tighten down to pinch it together.
Make another double loop, without tails (or with you want), give about 2 inches of overlap before snipping the ribbon. I usually try to make my second ribbon layer about 1-2 inches smaller than the first bow you created.
Add the second layer to the first ribbon layer and use the wire to loop around the second layer and twist to tighten.
Take a smaller piece of ribbon, fold it half lengthwise, and create a loop.
Add the loop to the top of the bow, and use the same wire you used prior to connecting the loop to the top of the bow.

Straighten and fluff the bow into shape.

You can add multiple layers with a thin ribbon to create even fuller bows.

See More Holiday Wreath Projects and Craft Ideas:

Simple knit projects for the home

I picked up different “jumbo” yarns to test and try out over the next few weeks. ( you can check that jumbo yarn comparison post out here )

I plan on adding a few single-skein projects to the site. Simple knitting projects that you can knock out in a single afternoon and say, “There, I made it!” No scarves or cowls on my list, only home decor projects.

So with that said, if you have a favorite jumbo yarn, let me know in the comments so I can add it to my list of “tests.” Right now, I have eight different ones to test and try out to see which performs better.

For all you knitters out there, have you noticed that “jumbo” means very different things to different suppliers?

Check out that picture above; each is considered a “jumbo” yarn! Red Heart Irresistible Yarn, Aran that we used in this project, was almost twice as thick as any of the yarns in that photo!