Play with a Fun Lace Stitch Pattern

One thing I love about knitting is all the different ways that a relatively small combination of stitches and techniques can make so many different designs.

I have a long-running obsession with stitch dictionaries, even though I tend to use the same basic stitches over and over when I design. It’s still fun to have all those options and to think about how someone came up with all those different patterns.

This one is shared by Lilia on her blog Lilia Craft Party, where she calls is knitting stitch 18. I’m not sure where this one came from or if it has a more descriptive name. She also described it as being like dancing feathers, which is definitely a nicer name!

It reminds me a bit of candle flame stitch (which I used on a cowl a long time ago and the pattern is no longer available so I need to repost that somewhere!) with a zig-zaggy twist, and it is worked in a similar way. This would be a great stitch to use for a shawl or scarf, or just to play with to have in your arsenal.

You can use any kind of yarn weight but Lilia recommends to use sock or fingering yarn and 3.25mm needles. She also suggests using a row counter to help you keep track of where you are in the pattern, since the repeat is long (29 rows) and it could be easy to get lost if you put your work down in the middle.

This might be a good time to use a lifeline, too, if you’re new to lace knitting and want to make it easier to rip back should you make any mistakes. If you don’t use a lifeline and need to rip back, you can thread a needle through the stitches on one of the wrong-side rows (so you’re not trying to pick up yarn overs) and rip back in the same way. The needle or yarn stops the piece from unraveling further than you’d like and makes it easy to put the stitches back on the needle.

If you want to try this stitch pattern, check it out at Lilia Craft Party.

[Photo: Lilia Craft Party]

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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