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Red Heart Joins the Yarnspirations Family

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Consolidation seems to be a part of most businesses these days, and it’s true of yarn companies, too. Two giants in the field have joined forces and Red Heart yarns has become a part of the Yarnspirations family.

Visitors to Red Heart’s website will be forwarded to Yarnspirations, where they will find the full catalog of Red Heart yarns to purchase. Red Heart patterns are being migrated to the site as well, so the site will have thousands of free patterns from all the various yarn lines, including Red Heart, Caron, Patons and more.

In a Facebook Live about the merger, knit and crochet designer and spokesperson for Red Heart Marly Bird said the reason for the combination of the two websites was because the Red Heart website wasn’t great and this allowed the parent company to combine all of its brands into one website rather than continuing to keep a separate website for that brand.

The major change aside from the different website is that many of the Red Heart designers will no longer be a part of the team, though Marly said she is continuing in her role and will now use the full range of Yarnspirations yarns instead of just Red Heart.

I love the Yarnspiration website so I think this is a great change and it makes it clear that Red Heart is part of the family, which I’m not sure everyone knew (the company was purchased in January). What do you think about the change?

[Photo: Yarnspirations.]

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Beyond Basic Pumpkin Knitting Patterns

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.