Project Notebook: Swirly Sqaure

The last week has been a lot about a lot of different works in progress, and one of them’s a bit of a secret so I don’ have that much to show but I can show you the beginning, as well as a cool technique for making blankets or afghan squares — or squares for anything, really — from the center out.

There are several different ways to do this (and you should check out the book Knitting Block by Block by Nicky Epstein if you’re a fan of funky blocks of all sorts of construction methods) but the one I’m using involves yarn overs at four points in every round (or should that be square?).

To begin, cast on 8 stitches and divide onto 4 double-pointed knitting needles. Join in the round and knit in the front and back of every stitch on the first round. This will be incredibly fiddly and may take you a few tries to get it done without twisting or having the stitches fall off your needles. (You could also cheat and do the cast on and the increase and then divide onto 4 needles and join in the round, because you’re going to have to sew the center closed anyway.)

At the beginning of each needle on each round, perform a yarn over. When you get too many stitches for your DPNs, change to a circular and place markers at the points where you make your yarn overs, using a different color to mark the beginning/end of the round.

You can keep going like this indefinitely, so long as you have a long enough needle. Mine is actually quite a bit bigger than this right now, but as I said, it’s surprise knitting, but I’ll share the pattern when it’s done.

What’s on or recently off your needles? I’d love to hear about it.

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?