Patty Lyons Shares Her Least Favorite Knitting Myths; What Are Yours?

I’m loving this post — and the conversation in the comments — from knitwear designer and teacher Patty Lyons, in which she talks about her least favorite myths about knitting. These are the things she hears people say that she wishes would go away because they’re simply not true.

There are practical things, like always slipping the first stitch (or, worse, always adding two stitches to a project so you can make a selvedge edge even if it isn’t called for in the pattern) or always making an ssk by slipping the first stitch as if to knit and the second as if to purl. That word “always” seems to cause a lot of problems.

There are some more philosophical ones, too, like “knitting is hard” and “knitting is easy.”

That one about casting on with a larger needle to make a more elastic cast on is one of my favorite least favorites, too, so I’ll let her explain more fully:

The needle creates the size of the stitch, therefore using a larger needle only creates a first row with big sloppy stitches. The elasticity of the edge would come from how far apart you space your stitches. When doing a long tail cast on, plant your finger on the needle to the left of the stitch you just cast on, to act as a spacer between it and the next new stitch.

You’re going to love her number one, too, but I don’t want to spoil it so click on over and check it out.

I’d love to hear what myths about knitting you can’t stand, too. Some of my favorites include “you’re doing it wrong” and “continental knitting is faster.”

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.

Have you read?