Use Your Stash to Make Loop Scarves

I’ve recently been playing more with my Sentro knitting machine, and my favorite thing to make right now is loop scarves. Because the easiest thing to make on one of these machines is a tube, you can just crank out a bunch of knitting and sew the ends together and you’ve got a great looking and useful project.

If you’re a knitter and you know how to graft, this is even easier because you can just put all the stitches on needles and graft them together as if you were finishing a giant sock.

Of course you can make loop scarves on your knitting needles, too, if you don’t happen to have a circular knitting machine. Just cast on a comfortable number of stitches for working in the round and knit as long as you want. A provisional cast on makes it easier to finish because you can graft with live stitches on both ends, but you can also bind off and just sew the ends together.

I decided this was going to be my charity knitting project because it’s faster than knitting by hand, and also an easy way to use up stash. I’m ending up with a lot of color blocked loop scarves as I use up leftovers from other projects, but it’s fun and easy and a great way to help people keep warm in season.

I love loop scarves because you can more easily loop them around your neck and it stays where you put it, but you could make non-loop scarves in the same way, just sew the ends of the loop closed rather than to each other.

You can find my pattern for a loop scarf on the Sentro (or any other circular knitting machine, of course!) over on Our Daily Craft. I have a 40-pin machine but of course you can do this same thing with whatever machine you have.

If you have a circular knitting machine I’d love to know what you’re making with it!

[Photo: Our Daily Craft]

Sentro Knitting Machine Review

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?