Mar
okay so the basic candy cane shape
So you’re gonna start with red and white yarn obviously. I used Red Heart Super Saver in Cherry Red and White back in November 2023 when I was making like twelve of these for my sister’s classroom because apparently I don’t know how to say no to people. The annoying thing about this whole project was how the color changes never looked as clean as I wanted them to, like there’s always that little bit where the colors bleed into each other visually and it bugged me every single time.
Start with a chain. I usually do about 30 chains for a regular sized candy cane, maybe 40 if you want it bigger. Use a 5mm hook, or honestly whatever you have that works with your yarn weight. The gauge doesn’t really matter here unless you’re trying to make them all exactly the same size which, good luck with that.
the stripe situation
Here’s where people overcomplicate it. You don’t need to carry yarn or do anything fancy. Just crochet in rows, single crochet all the way across, chain one, turn. Do like 3 rows in red, then 3 rows in white, then 3 rows in red. Keep alternating. I wasn’t counting perfectly when I made mine and some stripes ended up being 4 rows and honestly nobody noticed except me.
When you switch colors, just cut the old color leaving like a 6 inch tail, then start the new color. You’re gonna have a million ends to weave in later and yes it’s tedious but that’s just how it is. I was watching The Bear while weaving in ends and still wanted to throw the whole project across the room.
making it actually look like a candy cane
So once you have your striped rectangle thing – and that’s what it is at this point, just a striped rectangle – you gotta roll it. This is where it gets weird because you’re basically making a tube but not really crocheting a tube, you’re forcing a flat thing to become a tube.
Take your rectangle and roll it lengthwise so the stripes spiral around. The tighter you roll it, the skinnier your candy cane. Pin it if you have pins. I used like regular sewing pins because I couldn’t find my actual craft pins and one of them fell out and my cat Pepper batted it under the couch so that was fun.
Then you’re gonna whip stitch the edge down. Just use a yarn needle and whatever color is closest to where you’re stitching, or use white for everything, doesn’t really matter. Stitch through both layers to hold that rolled shape. This part takes forever and my hand cramped up doing multiples of these.
the hook part that makes it actually a candy cane
Before you finish stitching the whole thing closed, you need to decide if you want it stuffed or not. I did some stuffed with polyfil and some just left flat and rolled. The stuffed ones look more 3D and actual candy-like but they’re also more annoying to make because– wait I should probably mention you need to stuff it BEFORE you close it up completely, otherwise you’re gonna have a bad time.
For the curve at the top, you literally just bend it. That’s it. Bend the top third into a hook shape. If you stuffed it, the stuffing helps it hold the curve. If you didn’t stuff it, you might need to put a few stitches in strategic places to make it stay curved, like tack down the curved part to itself a little bit.
Some people use wire inside to hold the shape but I never did that because it seemed like too much work and also what if a kid got ahold of it and the wire poked through? Not worth it.
the color change thing that drove me nuts
Okay so going back to the color changes because this really did annoy me. When you finish a row in red and you’re about to start white, you’re supposed to do the last yarn over of the red row with the white yarn. This makes it transition cleaner. But even doing it this way, there’s still a visible line where the colors meet and it’s not perfectly crisp like printed stripes would be.
I tried a bunch of different methods that November. I tried cutting the yarn and starting fresh each time. I tried carrying the yarn up the side. I tried that invisible join thing that people talk about on YouTube. None of them looked perfect and eventually I just accepted that handmade stuff looks handmade and if people don’t like it they can make their own candy canes.
The other thing is the edges tend to curl when you’re working with single crochet in rows like this. Some people block their pieces before rolling them. I tried that with one candy cane and it didn’t make enough difference for me to bother with the other eleven.
yarn choices and why they matter more than i thought
So Red Heart Super Saver is acrylic and it’s cheap and it works fine. But I also made one with Wool-Ease in Cranberry and White and it looked way better, the colors were richer and the texture was nicer. But it also cost like three times as much so for classroom decorations I stuck with the cheap stuff.
The weight of the yarn matters too. I used worsted weight (that’s the medium weight, size 4) for most of them. I tried making one mini candy cane with Aunt Lydia’s crochet thread and a tiny hook and it took FOREVER and looked cute but was absolutely not worth the time investment. Stick with worsted weight unless you hate yourself.
Also acrylic is washable which matters if these are gonna be decorations that get handled by kids or hung on a tree year after year. Wool can felt if you wash it wrong and cotton doesn’t have as much body to it.
different ways to do the stripes
You don’t have to do equal stripes. Traditional candy canes have thicker red stripes than white I think? Or is it the other way around? Anyway you can do 4 rows of red and 2 rows of white, or whatever proportion looks right to you.
I also made a couple where I did the whole thing in white and then afterwards I used red yarn to stitch stripes on top, like just wrapping red yarn around the outside. This actually looked pretty good and meant less ends to weave in during the construction, but it added an extra step at the end and the wrapped yarn could potentially get snagged or pulled loose.
You could also crochet in the round instead of in rows to make an actual tube from the start. Chain like 8 or 10, join to make a ring, then single crochet around and around, changing colors every few rounds. This would eliminate the seam from having to stitch it closed. But then you’re committed to the diameter from the beginning and you can’t adjust it, plus stuffing a long narrow tube is its own nightmare.
what to actually do with these once you make them
They’re decorations obviously. You can hang them on a tree if you add a loop at the top. Just chain like 10 with white yarn and attach it securely to the top of the straight part of the candy cane before you bend it into the hook shape.
My sister used the ones I made as classroom decorations, just laid them on windowsills and bulletin boards and stuff. Some people make them as package toppers instead of bows. You could also make really tiny ones as ornaments or attach them to gift bags.
I’ve seen people make giant ones like 2 feet long to use as door decorations but that seems excessive. The ones I made were about 6 inches long finished, which felt like a reasonable size that didn’t use tons of yarn but also didn’t look dinky.
the actual step by step if you want it broken down
Okay so here’s the process without all my rambling:
- Chain 30 with red yarn and 5mm hook
- Single crochet in second chain from hook and across – you’ll have 29 stitches
- Chain 1, turn, single crochet across all 29 stitches
- Repeat row 3 two more times so you have 3 total rows of red
- Cut red, attach white, do 3 rows of white
- Keep alternating colors every 3 rows until you have about 7-8 stripes total, ending with red at the top
- Fasten off and weave in some of the ends, or at least the ones that will be visible on the outside
- Roll the rectangle lengthwise tightly
- Pin in place if needed
- Whip stitch the edge down with white or red yarn, stuffing lightly as you go if desired
- Bend the top third into a hook shape
- Add hanging loop if wanted
- Weave in remaining ends
The whole thing takes maybe 45 minutes per candy cane if you’re not watching TV and getting distracted. With distractions it’s more like an hour and a half.
troubleshooting the common problems
If your candy cane won’t hold the curved shape and keeps straightening out, you probably didn’t stuff it enough or your stitches are too loose. Tighter stitches = more structure. Or just add a few tacking stitches to hold the curve in place.
If the stripes are spiraling weird when you roll it, you might be rolling it at an angle instead of straight. Try to keep the edges of the rectangle parallel as you roll. Or just embrace the wonky spiral, sometimes those actually look more interesting.
If the ends are poking out and looking messy, you didn’t weave them in far enough. Weave them through at least 4-5 stitches in different directions so they’re really secured and hidden. I learned this the hard way when one of my candy canes started unraveling at the end because I got lazy with weaving in.
If your candy cane is lumpy or bumpy instead of smooth, your tension is probably inconsistent. This happens to everyone sometimes, especially when you’re switching colors. Just try to keep your stitches the same tightness throughout. Or again, embrace the handmade look because perfection is overrated.
variations i’ve tried or thought about
You could do different color combinations. Green and white for a minty look. Blue and white for Hanukkah maybe? Pink and white would be cute for like a Valentine’s version or just because someone likes pink.
I thought about adding glitter yarn for one of the colors but I hate working with glitter yarn because it sheds everywhere and gets in your eyes and never comes out of your carpet. But it would look sparkly and festive if you can tolerate the mess.
You could also make them in different sizes – tiny ones for a garland, medium ones for individual ornaments, huge ones for outdoor decorations if you’re really ambitious. The technique is the same, you just adjust your starting chain length and keep going until it’s the size you want.
Adding embellishments could be cute too. Like a little bow at the top where the curve starts, or some embroidered details, or even just some white stitching on top of the red stripes to make them look more dimensional. I never did any of this because I was making twelve of them and just wanted to be done.
yarn amounts
For one regular sized candy cane about 6 inches long, you’ll use maybe 20-25 yards each of red and white. So not much at all. This is a good scrap yarn project if you have partial skeins sitting around.
If you’re making multiple candy canes, one skein each of red and white should get you at least 10-12 candy canes depending on size. I used most of a skein of each color for my sister’s twelve candy canes but I also made them slightly on the bigger side.
Just make sure your red and white yarns are the same weight and preferably the same brand so the texture matches. I mixed brands once and you could tell because one yarn was smoother and shinier than the other and it looked weird striped together.
why i probably won’t make these again anytime soon
They’re fine. They’re cute. People liked them. But the color changing and the end weaving and the hand stitching to close them up just got tedious when I was making a bunch. If you’re making one or two as a quick project they’re actually pretty satisfying. Making a dozen was my own fault for agreeing to it.
Also they’re very specifically Christmas decorations so the window for using them is limited. I’m more into making stuff that can be used year-round now because I got tired of having bins of seasonal decorations taking up space in my closet.
But if you want to make candy cane decorations and you crochet, this method works and it’s pretty straightforward once you get the first one done and figure out your process. The first one took me like two hours because I kept second-guessing myself. By the twelfth one I had it down to about 40 minutes including weaving ends.
alternatives if you dont want to do all this
You could also just crochet a flat candy cane shape instead of making it 3D. Like chain an outline of a candy cane and fill it in with single crochet, or use a granny square pattern adapted into a candy cane silhouette. This would be faster and use less yarn but wouldn’t have the dimensional quality.
Or make a candy cane shaped applique that you could sew onto stockings or sweaters or whatever. Just the outline of a candy cane in red with white stripes stitched across it. This would be much quicker than the rolled tube method.
There are also actual formal patterns out there if you want something more structured than what I’m describing. I’ve seen some that use specific stitch patterns to create the stripes without having to change colors as much, or that incorporate the curve into the construction instead of bending it at the end. Those might be worth looking up if my method seems too annoying.
