Use Your Stash on this Stranded Knit Sweater

I am known to be a big fan of stash busting projects (I even have a whole little ebook about it!) so when I saw the Stowaway pattern from Wool & Pine I knew I had to share it, and I might just have to make it, too.

The body of the sweater is a solid color, but the sleeves and kangaroo pocket (!) are worked in stranded knitting, which you can make match across the pieces if you have a lot of the same colors, or you can mix it up and use all your odd balls in one place. Or you can use fewer colors than are called for and use a great amount of each color if that’s how your stash works.

This project calls for DK weight yarn, and the pattern lists the weight in grams for each color used so you can go hunting in your stash for just the right thing. And if you don’t have enough leftovers, you can leave off the pocket, though that seems pretty drastic (there’s a cropped and pocketless version shown on the pattern page on Ravelry if you want to see what that looks like.

The pattern comes in 10 sizes, ranging from 32 to 66 inches, or 76 to 168 cm in the chest. It’s meant to be worn with 2-6 inches/5-15 cm of positive ease depending on what works for you. And as mentioned if you don’t want a pocket you can knit a shorter version, or do the longer sweater without a pocket if you’d rather. It’s made by picking up stitches at the bottom front, knitting flat and attaching to the body at the top with mattress stitch; no seaming required!

Check out all the options and grab your copy of the pattern from Ravelry, or buy direct from Wool & Pine.

[Photo: Wool & Pine]

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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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