An Easy Way to Rip Back Your Knitting

I’m a big fan of using lifelines when knitting lace, but there are times when you need to rip back regular knitting and you might have a bit of paranoia related to having a stitch (or a bunch) drop past where you want to stop ripping.

If you’re worried about that, first you should know that if you’re knitting with wool it probably won’t be a problem. Second you should know that you can make a spare needle into a sort of lifeline after the fact by running it through the legs of the stitches on whatever row you’d like to rip back to so that you can easily hold the stitches without having any of them wander farther than you’d like.

Check out exactly how to do this over on the WEBS blog.

[Photo via WEBS.]

If you need to rip back your knitting due to a mistake, it can be difficult to properly grab the live stitches and place them back on your needle.

One way to ensure that the stitches don’t unravel is to pick them up before ripping back.

For stockinette stitch, locate the row below the one you want to begin re-knitting on.

Insert your needle under the first strand of yarn in the V-shape of the first stitch on the right side, continuing down the row and picking up the first strand of yarn in each V while skipping the second leg.

In garter stitch, the same process applies, but you will be inserting your needle into the first leg of the V in the bumps of the garter stitch.

Once you have your needle inserted all the way down the row, you can pull the working yarn to rip back the rows above the needle and the stitches will be ready to use on your needle.

Remember to use a smaller needle for picking up the stitches and switch back to the original size when you start knitting again.

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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