Free Addi Express Knit Rainbow Wall Hanging Tutorial
I am going to show you how to make a 7 color rainbow wall hanging using knit tubes. This rainbow wall hanging uses foam dowels inside the knit tubes to help shape the arches of the rainbow.
Knit Rainbow Wall Hanging
This tutorial is written for use with a circular knitting machine, though you can certainly knit these tubes by hand. Use the appropriate size needle for your yarn and measure as you go for row counts.
I have a PDF of this pattern available in my Etsy Shop if you would prefer a printable version Knit Rainbow Wall Hanging Pattern on Etsy
The PDF version is a 2 for 1 pattern it comes with a bonus pattern, scroll all the way to the end to find out what that bonus pattern is 🙂
Materials for Completion:Â
Worsted Weight Yarn – you will need 7 colors plus a large skein of white for the pom poms
*Suggested Yarns:
- Hand Made Modern available at Target
- Red Heart Super Saver available on Amazon
- Mainstays Basic Yarn available at Walmart
- Premier Just Worsted I found mine at the Dollar Tree
5 EVA Foam Dowels 15 mm x 24 inches I found mine at Michaels
Darning Needle
Pom Pom Maker (I have the Clover one) I used the Blue 85 mm.
*Other yarns can be used, however tension and rows may vary depending on the type of yarn you choose.
Finding yarn in the colors of the rainbow in one brand was a bit tricky. I ended up using yarn from all of the ones listed above to find the right shades that I wanted.
Cutting Your Dowels to Size
In order to make the least amount of cuts and have the least amount of leftover pieces I cut my dowels using the above chart. I saved my little dowel pieces and have a suggested project at the end of this post for use of your leftover pieces. The pattern for the left over pieces is a bonus pattern with the PDF version of this tutorial.
After I cut each of my dowels I colored in the tip to match the yarn color that would be wrapped around it. This made it a bit easier for finding the proper size dowel for the yarn tube. This would be especially handy if you are cutting the dowels for more than one rainbow.
The sizes that you need for each piece of the rainbow are:
Red – 24 inches
Orange – 21 inches
Yellow – 18.5 inches
Green 15.5 inches
Blue – 12.5 inches
Indigo – 9.5 inches
Violet – 6 inches
Knitting The Tubes
When knitting your tubes, cast on as you normally would with each color but leave a long yarn tail for each, at least 40″ for the tail that you cast on with, that way you will have plenty of yarn to use when sewing the tubes together. The smaller tubes you can leave less than 40″ for the tail. When casting off, I leave just enough to cast off, that way I don’t have to pull so much yarn through each of the stitches when taking the yarn off the knitting machine.
Crank out the number of rows for each color listed below for a 7 color rainbow
Red – 100
Orange – 90
Yellow – 80
Green 70
Blue – 60
Indigo – 50
Violet – 40
If you want to make less arches in your rainbow, start with 40 rows then add 10 rows for each color. Be sure to cut the right size dowel, if you use 40 rounds to start, and end with your last tube with 80 rows for a 5 color rainbow, cut the size tube for each color on the chart, you can choose whatever color you want for your actual tubes.
Putting the Rainbow Together
Fold your tube in half like a hot dog bun and place foam dowel inside. Starting with the long yarn tail with your darning needle stitch the end closed then sew along the edge to the other end and stitch closed. Tie the yarn tails and cut one tail off so that you just have one yarn tail (the longest one) remaining. Repeat for all colors.
Once you have all of your tubes sewn around the foam dowel and the extra yarn tail trimmed off lay your tubes out in the order of the rainbow with the smallest size on the bottom. Alternate the yarn tail ends so that not all of the yarn tails are on the same side.Â
Starting with the violet yarn tail, thread the yarn through the ends of each tube up to the top. Then grab the red tail and thread through each tube bringing it down to the bottom. Repeat with the other color tails so that half are at the top and half are at the bottom.Â
Repeat for the opposite side. Be sure to bring the indigo yarn tail down through the violet tube first before going back up to the top of the red tube. Do the same with the Orange tail bringing it up through the red tube end before bringing it down to the bottom.
Once you have all of the yarn tails sewn through the tubes tie 2 of the tails tight on the bottom. This will create the arch of the rainbow. I like to tie the bottom closed with the top to color yarn, so I have the red and the orange tails.
Flip the rainbow to the back side. Take all of the remaining yarn tails and sew the arches together by bringing the yarn up under the yarn on the tubes. I sort of zig zag as shown in the image below.
Add a loop by threading yarn up along each of the tubes. Start at the bottom center of the rainbow and come up through the top. Loop the yarn and tie a knot around one of the stitches on the top. Then bring the yarn back down to the bottom and tie together with the other yarn tail. Cut yarn and weave in ends.
Now make your pom poms. I use the Clover brand pom pom makers, I used the blue 85 mm maker for this project. You will need at least 6 pom poms for a 7 color rainbow.Â
After you have all 6 of your pom poms made you can tie them on. I use my darning needle and tie the pom pom around one of the tubes of the arch. For this 7 color rainbow I tie the pom poms onto the red tube, the green tube and the violet tube. By tying the pom pom onto the tube towards the bottom instead of the tip I found the rainbow to be more stable than if I just tied them onto the tips of certain tubes. 
Weave the yarn tail up a bit on the back of the tube, tie off and cut yarn. This is why using the same color yarn as the tube the pom pom is tied to looks better, but for these images I used different colors so you could see the yarn tails better.
And now you are finished and have a super cute rainbow wall hanging, all you need now is a cute tag to put on it 🙂
Printable Tag Set available in my Etsy Shop
I made up a few different versions of this wall hanging and will be working on patterns for the other mini rainbow wall hangings. I have a PDF pattern with instructions on making this 7 Color Rainbow available in my Etsy Shop if you would prefer the instructions in a PDF.
I mentioned at the beginning of the pattern to set aside and save the small leftover foam dowels. I used my leftover pieces to make a Knit Ruby Ball Cactus.
The full instructions on how I made this knit cactus is included in the Knit Rainbow Pattern PDF in my Etsy Shop. But I thought I would include a chart for rows on how I did the Ruby Ball Knit Cacti. I used the leftover foam pieces, after cutting your foam dowels you will have 4 small pieces remaining. I made 2 cacti but you should be able to make either 4 or 5, the smallest piece will need slight row adjustments, probably 12 rows for the smallest piece. The row counts are for the ones that I made using a 3″ dowel and a 2.5″ dowel.
Thank you so much for making it this far on my post. I have had such a fun time making this pattern. I really loved working with these bright colors, the pictures make me so happy and I now have way too many rainbow wall hangings 🙂
If you have the time I would appreciate it if you would visit my Etsy Shop, sales on tags and other printables help me out a lot so that I can keep adding free patterns and printables onto my blog. I love not having ads all over my site, I don’t want to add ads other than a few affiliate links here and there to my posts as I think they really ruin the viewing experience. I am hoping if I can continue to make sales in my Etsy Shop to help me with my finances I can continue to add freebies to my site.
Thank you so much, and happy knitting 🙂
This pattern and the pictures are property of Savlabot and may not be shared or sold. You are welcome to sell finished products that are made using this pattern, but please link pattern/blog post to Savlabot as the author or the pattern link in your description and use pictures you have taken yourself if posting in an online marketplace such as Etsy. If you share on social media please tag me with @savlabot and use #Savlabot. Thank you.
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