Ottawa Yarn Bombers Release Manifesto

Did you see the pictures of the yarn bombing that happened last weekend in Ottawa? Someone (four someones, as it turns out, but we’ll get to that) made scarves to wrap around the necks of 14 statues in the city’s Valiant’s Memorial, which commemorates some of Canada’s war heroes, as well as some other places around the city.

The temperature that day was -20 C (or about -4 F), and the scarves had unsigned notes directing people to take the scarves if they needed them.

The identity of the crafters has been revealed as four friends who call themselves Dropping Stitches to Make a Better World and whose manifesto is “peace, love, knitting.”

Michelyn St. Pierre, one of the knitters, said the group didn’t immediately reveal their identities because they weren’t sure what they were doing was legal. But word and pictures of their deeds spread across the Internet and they wanted to let people know who did it.

This is such a great idea that would be valued just about anywhere in the northern hemisphere right now. Here’s to more peace, love and knitting!

[Photo by Chris Mikula via the Ottawa Citizen.]

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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