Add Adorable Animals to Your Sweaters and Hats

With the vast collection of handknits I have, I don’t have a lot of colorwork sweaters (and no colorwork hats that I regularly wear). And when you look at the colorwork, there’s not a lot that I’d consider fun.

That’s really sad, because there are a lot of great whimsical colorwork knitting patterns out there. Today I’d like to introduce you to two of them. Or really four of them.

Vicky Chan has two sets of really cute colorwork designs that include a matching hat and sweater: Averie and Fiona (all links ahead point to Ravelry, FYI).

Averie is a sweater and hat pattern that feature fern fronds, flowers and a little bird. Fiona is a similar design, except here the bird has been replaced by a cat

All of the designs use worsted weight yarn. The hats come in one size and start with a provisional cat on so that the colorwork can be knit from the top down and the rest of the hat from the bottom up. The colorwork portion of all the patterns is charted. Because there are some long floats, instructions are given both for trapping floats and using ladder back jaquard if you prefer.

The sweaters have seven size options, but the largest size is on 56 inches/142 cm, and the design is intended to be worn with 2-8 inches (5-20 cm) of positive ease, which lowers that sizing even more.

But if you do happen to fall into that range of sizes (the smallest one is 32 inches or 81 cm) these sweaters are super cute. It might be fun to work the cats or birds in a different color from the rest of the colorwork (though that would involve even more long floats) or to use a multicolored yarn for the colorwork. There’s one in the Fiona sweater patterns that added color to the cat so check that out if it’s something you want to try!

[Photos: Vicky Chan]

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork.

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn.

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look.

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me.

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round.

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.

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