I was checking out some of the questions over at glasscommunity.com’s forum and came across a good one that I bet a lot of kiln formers/fusers have trouble with. Sometimes as I look around etsy and other sites where people sell their fused pieces I see the same situation. To me it looks like the piece was fired either too fast or too hot or both. I think this was the situation with the piece pictured at the site. I don’t necessarily want to post this picture since it is their “problem” piece. I’d rather show the solution since I want to show things in a good light. If there were before and after pictures that would be different. Have you had the problem of the sides pulling in when you’ve fired a piece? Doing a dog bone kind of thing? You’ll need to ramp it up a bit slower, fire it cooler and you could hold it longer, especially when slumping. Check out the answers to this persons question. It may help you with one of your fusing/slumping projects…
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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.