Knitting in the News and on the Internet

It’s been a while since I shared any knitting news, and quite a bit has piled up, so let’s get to it.

Over the holidays you might have missed BuzzFeed’s take on 22 things that happen when you get into knitting. it’s actually a pretty accurate summary of how it goes, from the difficulty of getting started to wanting to knit all the things for everyone all the time to realizing yarn isn’t cheap to becoming a crafty zealot.

In other fun knitting-related roundups, Bored Panda collected a bunch of fun winter scarves, knit, crocheted and sewn. You’ll want to check these out for their sheer creativity, there are foxes, cockatoos, a knit USB cable scarf and the most amazing Hobbit-inspired scarf you’ve ever seen (shown above, you can also check it out on Ravelry).

The Toast has a list (it’s probably just as well they don’t all show pictures) of things you can actually find knitting patterns for that includes such silly things as broccoli, a sweater for a rat (which doesn’t seem silly if you’re the rat, I suppose), an alien autopsy and a couple of projects dealing with parts of the male anatomy. And Mashable has a photographic collection of 15 great achievements in knitting, ranging from spectacular yarn bombs to an anatomically correct knit skeleton with organs and a knit periodic table (some of these, of course, are actually crochet).

A company in the Netherlands knit a giant cozy for an Eames chair. Just because it was there. And a writer from Maine shares the story of how knitting brought her back from anxiety and depression.

Bulky knits are still going to be hot (see what I did there?) next fall and winter, according to the fashion shows in Italy, so keep out that big yarn and needles! And don’t miss the display from Spinrite at the Craft and Hobby Association: a knit celebration of Narnia called Yarnia. Too cool.

If you ever see knitting in the news and what to share, submit a link!

[Photo via Bored Panda.]

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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