Knit a Shawl Fit for an Italian Winter

Most of the time when I think of knit shawls, I imagine ethereal lace patterns that take a million years to knit and don’t suit my lifestyle (or my actual style, for that matter). While I’d love to knit a shawl like that some day, it’s not super practical for me or what I really want to spend my time knitting.

But the fun thing about shawls is, they can be just about anything. You can make an intricate shawl that is so fine it can slide through a wedding ring (really!) or a bulky wrap to keep you warm on the coldest of days.

An Italian Winter Shawl from An Italian Knitter is closer to that second category, though it uses worsted/aran yarn rather than bulky.

It’s a simple triangle worked in garter stitch with bands of eyelets throughout, and a nice I-cord edging to pull it all together. It’s a great project to knit and to wear when the weather is cold, and if you’re stocking up on knit gifts this year, this would be a good one to add to your collection.

Because it’s a triangle, you can work the pattern in any weight of yarn you like; just keep going until the triangle is the size you want. You could also make this a stash-busting project if you wanted by changing colors after each eyelet row. I could see it in rainbow colors, or done as an ombre with lots of shades of the same color.

The shawl pattern is available as a free Ravelry download.

Looking for more garter stitch projects? Check out my roundup of garter stitch knitting patterns. Or even more garter stitch patterns! Can you tell I like this stitch even though it’s a basic as it gets?

[Photo: An Italian Knitter]

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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