Cooperative Press to Close Warehouse (and Book Sales)

Cooperative Press, the independent publisher of knitting books, crafty business books and a bit of fiction, is closing down its warehouse and stopping direct sales to customers.

In an email to fans recently, founder Shannon Okey said fulfillment costs have been rising to the point where they have less to create new books and pay authors, so once the warehouse is substantially cleared out they will be sold through third-party sites such as Amazon and Barnes & Nobel, as well as independent book sites (yarn shops will still be able to wholesale direct from CP, and they will still sell at events like Rhinebeck).

Through Tuesday, Sept. 15, some of the remaining inventory is available at 40 percent off with the code 40PERCENT. I’m sure they’d appreciate it if you take a look.

In other book sale news, Vogue Knitting is having a sale of 30 percent off books, including knitting, crochet, quilting and sewing books. No code, just visit the site for pricing.

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.

Have you read?