Knit Socks with Gate-Inspired Colorwork

I’ll admit to not totally understanding the appeal of fancy knit socks. I enjoy knit socks (both wearing and knitting them), but my socks are generally super simple, stockinette or a basic textured stitch pattern. For me socks are all about warmth and comfort and much less about how they look.

But then I come across a pattern like Palace Gate by Tiina Kuu, and I wonder if I should rethink my position on fancy knit socks.

These lovely socks include colorwork inspired by the gates of Buckingham Palace (they were designed in memory of Quenn Elizabeth II). The rest of the sock has a pretty textured stitch pattern. There’s even a little picot cuff for extra frills.

The pattern uses two colors of sock yarn (choose high contrast colors so the gate really pops) and uses a chart for the colorwork sections. The socks are worked from the top down and feature a strong heel.

The pattern is available in four sizes, ranging from 60 stitches to 78 stitches.

It’s available as a free download on Ravelry, or you can get a pay what you want version from PayHip.

If you’re new to knitting colorwork, you might want to know more about color dominance in knitting. Since the gate is the part you want to stand out, you’d want to work with that color to the left, whatever that means for the way you knit colorwork.

Want more Queen-inspired knits? This collection of Queen Elizabeth II knitting patterns was put together for her Jubilee, but they are still great patterns to stitch in her memory. Or how about knitting a royal corgi?

[Photo: Tiina Kuu.]

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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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