Help the Kids of Kenya with Knit Goodies

Do you all know about Craft Hope? It’s a really amazing group of crafters that band together periodically to make things that are donated to others. It started with 29 pillowcase dresses for children in an orphanage in Mexico and has grown such that through the years Craft Hopers have donated more than 150,000 handcrafted pieces to make the world a little brighter for kids and others around the world.

The latest project benefits We Are Kenya, and they are looking for knit (or crocheted, or sewn) hats, scarves, gloves and stuffed animals to donate to about 200 kids ages 4 to 15.

We Are Kenya is a nonprofit that works to educate children in the slum of Soweto, the second largest slum in the country. They feed the children — sometimes the only meal they get each day — and the children are taught by university-trained instructors.

These crafted items will help keep the kids warm through the winter and give them comfort they almost certainly wouldn’t have otherwise. How great is that?

The deadline for sending items is November 1. Please go to the Craft Hope website for more information and to chime in with what you’ll be making. I hope you’ll consider this project if it touches you and you have some knitting time in the next month.

[Photo from We Are Kenya via Craft Hope.]

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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