Make a Trivet out of I-cord

We’ve talked before about I-cords, and whether you knit them with needles, use an I-cord maker (I just broke mine a couple of weeks ago!) or make them with a French knitter/spool knitter, they’re kind of fun and meditative and a great way for kids to learn the basics of knitting.

But what to do with all those cords? Why not make useful trivets for the table? Evelyne from Nemcsok Farms has a great tutorial that shows just how to sew the cord together so that it will hold its circular shape.

It occurs to me you could also glue the yarn trivet to a piece of cork, which would keep it from sliding so much on the table and add an extra layer of protection. And remember that if you use acrylic yarn, it might melt, so make sure you keep really high temperature things away from it (or use wool or cotton yarn).

What do you use I-cord for? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo via Nemcsok Farms.]

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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