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Underwhelmed by hand-dyeds?

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Newish topic at [tag]Knitter’s Review Forums[/tag]. This topic has generated quite a few posts concerning [tag]hand-painted yarns[/tag].

One post dated 06/28/2007  is from Margaret of [tag]Inspirations Yarn.[/tag]

“I can’t speak to anyone elses technique or motivation but I can tell you that I started this business because I love to work with fibers and color. I wanted to do something creative that would be my job and that involved yarn. Lacking the capital necessary to start a brick and mortar yarn shop and with a love for knitting, spinning and dyeing, a handpainted yarn shop online seemed a natural fit”.

Margaret goes on to write about the time, money, and effort that hand dyers of yarn spend on their products.  Many of the posters have valid points in the fact that some dyers are “me too” hobbyist types and not really in it for the long run and consequently do not use quality yarns and dyes.  It is consumer beware as it is in all purchases.

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Pumpkin Knitting Patterns

There are so many great pumpkin knitting patterns out there, and it looks like I haven’t done a roundup of pumpkin knitting patterns in a few years, so it’s high time for another one.

The Lancaster Pumpkins from Cuddle Bunny Knits on Etsy are classic, made with stockinette stitch in the round and using super bulky yarn. If you’ve never knit a pumpkin before, this is a good place to start.

Jazz it up a little bit by knitting ribbing instead of straight stockinette, which gives your knit pumpkin a little more texture, too. This one is form Jessies Knits on Etsy. This one is worked flat on straight needles and there are three size options to choose from.

Or try the Pumpkin Patch pattern from Blue Sky Fibers, which is a free pattern on Ravelry. It’s worked with two strands of worsted weight yarn held together to give your pumpkins a marled look, or you can keep it solid. 

There’s another free ribbed pumpkin knitting pattern at Yarnspirations that is really cute. These are knit flat and seamed, and they come in three different sizes. You can either stack them as a centerpiece to decorate a table or you can leave them separate. Or make a whole pumpkin patch and do some of both! I love that they chose unconventional colors so you can see you don’t have to be limited to orange when you knit up your pumpkins.

Made by Devrie on Etsy has these cute pumpkins with twisted stitches (they look like cables but it’s only moving one stitch at a time) that you can make in any size with any yarn you like.

The Twisted Heart Pumpkin for Etsy seller Percival Makes Things uses cables to make a heart shape on the side of the pumpkin. It’s worked in the round and the cable pattern is charted.

And while I was really sticking to plain pumpkins here, not knit jack o’lanterns, I can’t resist sharing this beaded jack o’lantern knitting pattern from Knit Cole Studio on Etsy. The base pumpkin is simple Stockinette and you can stitch on beads in whatever design you like to make your face, or keep it plain.

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