Rowenta Steam Iron – Steam Kicks it for Blocking!

Just got my hands on this beauty and I couldn’t wait to try it out. Course, being a knitter, I needed something “knitty” to use it on. And this one really came through.

I love the cord reel. Very handy, nix the messy cord tangles. It’s easy to hold, and while a bit heavy, it’s very well balanced, even with my old arthritic hands and arms.

It has multiple temperature settings, as you would expect, but what really rocks is the burst of steam. And this is perfect for blocking. The fine tip point makes smoothing out those lace edges super easy. Of course you don’t want to directly iron your knits, I never do anyway, seems to crush them, but the burst of steam makes it so you don’t have to. There are multiple steam settings also, from a bit of steam to a full blown explosion. Startled me at first but I love that feature.

I didn’t like the 8 minute shut off feature, but I suppose that’s necessary, for safety. Heats up quickly too. We’ll see how fast it cools down. Oh, it has an auto clean feature, important when you run over bits and pieces of interfacing, not speaking from experience or anything….

I’d highly recommend this iron to any crafter or even just for ironing shirts I suppose. And we’re doing a giveaway!

Check it out here: http://craftgossip.com/blog/giveaway-celebrate-national-craft-month-by-winning-the-rowenta-focus/2011/03/22/

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?