Knitting

Free Patterns, Tutorials and Project Ideas

The Eleven Twelve Sweater is a Lesson in Customizing Knits

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I love it when designers have a lot of different test knitters for projects and give them free reign to play with their designs. You end up with a wealth of variations that can be really inspiring to the rest of us knitters.

A great example of that is the Eleven Twelve sweater from Tina Tse. It’s a pretty straightforward top-down, circular yoke sweater that uses a textured slip stitch stripe pattern.

If you look through the photos on the Ravelry project page you’ll see so many different options for what’s sure to become a favorite sweater. There are some who chose a rather neutral color scheme, while others went bold. There are long sleeved and mid-length sleeve variations.

One even used scraps of yarn to make stripes of many colors instead of using a single contrasting color, which is a great tip for people looking to pare down their stashes — more color is always OK!

The design is worked in sock yarn and comes in 10 sizes. You can use her pay what you can model if the suggested price of $12 isn’t feasible for you.

[Photo: Tina Tse.]

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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.