Improvise Your Way Through This Dress Knitting Pattern

I occasionally find myself scrolling through new patterns on Ravelry just to see what’s out there that I might want to share with you, and it was on one of these occasions that the Black Cloud Dress by Julia Monning stopped my in my tracks.

I mean, you’re seeing the same picture. Isn’t it stunning? And while it shouldn’t be a difficult dress, that is a ton of knitting, with a full circle skirt the designer worked in mohair yarn.

The pattern is more of a guide than a strict pattern that will help you improvise your own dress to whatever size you need. The top can be worked with any yarn in the fingering, DK or worsted weight range. It’s a little hard to see in the photo but the top was worked with different patches that look like different yarns or yarns worked singly and held together.

The skirt calls for mohair yarn, but you could probably use anything light in a fingering weight. It’s just with that much knitting it will get heavy really fast and you don’t want it to sag on your body. It looks like the top of the skirt is worked with two strands held together while the lower part is worked with a single strand. The bottom I’m going to guess is hemmed, but it could also be worked with two strands to give a little weight to the base.

This pattern also calls for six different sizes of knitting needles, so that can also account for some of the transparency (and it makes the skirt get progressively bigger as you go without having to do as much shaping.

This looks like (is) a massive project but it also looks like it would be so much fun to wear. If you make one I absolutely want to hear all about it!

You can learn more and get the pattern from Ravelry.

[Photo: Julia Monning]

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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