Take a Chance on Knitting the Dice Cowl

What happens when you mix a bunch of different colors with a few different stitch textures on the same knit cowl? Something like the Dice Cowl from Audrey Borrego.

This sock yarn stash buster is perfect for using up the leftover bits from other projects, or finally using that advent calendar yarn or set of mini skeins you’ve had in your stash forever.

The pattern includes two sizes for a cowl that’s worked in the round, and it includes five stitch patterns: stockinette, garter stitch, bobbles, feather and fan and eyelet stripes. There’s no real pattern to it other than explaining the set up and how to do the stitch patterns (which are given in words as well as charts).

It’s suggested you could make this a year long (or six month long, for the smaller version) daily practice by working a round a day, or you can knit it more quickly, which I’m sure you’ll want to once you start playing with colors.

There are no rules for how often you switch among the patterns, or indeed if you even do, but I like the idea of making it into a game, which you could do lots of different ways.

You could, for example, decide you want to change patterns every time you change colors, or every inch, or based on the Fibonacci sequence or the numbers in a special date or the code for a person’s name.

You can go through the patterns in order or literally roll the dice to figure out which pattern to use next. (Yes, dice have six sides and there are only five options. Pick another stitch pattern to add or make 6 mean continue in the pattern you’ve been working. Reverse stockinette stitch might be fun.)

This project is available as a free pattern on Ravelry. While you’re there, check out the pattern gallery to see the different ways others have interpreted this design.

[Photo: Audrey Borrego]

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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