Free Knitting Pattern: Pierre de Coubertin’s Mustache

Now that the Fourth of July is over, the next big even ton the minds of Americans and many others around the world is the Olympics, which start three weeks from tomorrow (July 27).

The founder of the modern Olympics is said to be Pierre de Coubertin, a French aristocrat who founded the International Olympic Committee and is credited as being one of the people who helped restart the Games (and, according to Wikipedia, he was awarded a gold medal for literature at the 1912 games for his poem “Ode to Sport.” Now there’s an Olympic contest I can get behind!).

All of this does have something to do with knitting. A little bit. Isabelle Dutailly, the bilingual knitter behind Aiguilles magiques (Magic needles), designed a mustache chart inspired by de Coubertin’s prolific facial hair that you can use to embellish all sorts of knitting, from a simple dishtowel or washcloth to a pair of wrist warmers or a hat. I’ve been wanting to do a coffee cup cozy with a mustache on the side, and this chart may just inspire me to get started.

Are you excited about the Olympics? What event is your favorite? Spill it!

[Photo by Aiguilles magiques.]

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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