Project Notebook: The Cursed Ball of Yarn

As most knitters do, I have quite a stash, and some of it is pretty old. In the fall, I decided I wanted to knit some gloves for the girl (since her hands are finally big enough that I felt like I could stitch individual fingers without going insane) and I let her pick out the yarn.

She picked a ball of Opal Harry Potter (Ron colorway), which has been long since discontinued. Maybe there’s a reason for that, because this yarn has been nothing but bad luck for me.

The yarn itself is lovely, and I whipped up a pair of kid-sized gloves in no time.

And that’s when it all started to go wrong.

The first day she wore them to school she lost one.

So I knit another one.

I was sure we’d lost another one last week, right before our first snow, but I found it, thank goodness.

A while later I decided she needed some new knit socks, because her ones from last year are getting a little small. And I thought it would be cute to use the Harry Potter yarn again.

And though I measured and calculated and did all the things you’re supposed to do, she could not get the first sock on her foot.

The second one I think would fit, but the foot is too short.

So I’m still going to end up knitting three socks, just as I knit three gloves.

There’s some kind of dark magic here, no doubt.

Sigh. At least she probably won’t lose a sock. Maybe.

Have you had any exciting knitting adventures lately? I’d love to hear!

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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