If You Don’t Like Swatching, Read This

I don’t know if you know that I’m a pretty big proponent of swatching, but I am. I understand the need to get to know a yarn before you use it, enjoy the time playing with a stitch pattern or colorwork design before the finality of the full project, and I know as a designer that I just need to know what my gauge is rather than setting out with a guess of how many stitches I need.

(I will say, however, that I don’t just swatch for swatching’s sake. I’m willing to take a gamble on something like a scarf, just guessing at what needle size and number of stitches will give me the gauge and the width I want. I did this last night, in fact.)

Clara Parkes is a swatcher. I mean, it’s a big part of her job at Knitter’s Review to test yarns, and that means swatching and then trying to mess up the swatch through wear.

But she appreciates swatching for its own sake as well, as a form of meditation and a time to listen to the yarn, see what it can do and figure out what it wants to be.

She set out her feelings on swatching in what she calls the Swatcher’s Manifesto, and if you’re not a swatcher you should read it and see what the fuss is all about. If you are a swatcher you should read it, too. It’s OK to feel a little superior.

Are you a swatcher? Why or why not? I’d love to know!

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?