Pin of the Week: An Awesome Reference for Circular Knitting

I don’t have the original source for this one, I’m sorry to say, but I first saw it on Cascade Yarns’ Facebook page a couple of days ago and someone who commented on the post had a link to a pin for it.

So I pinned it, and I think it’s awesome.

This little chart gives you an idea of how many stitches you need to be able to comfortably work with a circular needle of a particular circumference given your gauge. So, for instance, if you’re casting on 100 stitches for a sweater and you’re getting 5 stitches per inch (a totally made up example, by the way), you would want to use a 16-inch needle. Or to got the other way, if you were knitting a hat that started on a 16-inch needle and you had, say 3 stitches to the inch, once you got below 48 stitches you’d want to switch to DPNs.

Isn’t that cool? If anyone knows where this chart came from I’d love to give credit!

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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