Question for all of you Sock Knitters (and a giveaway hidden inside…)

Socks are a great portable “take it and go” project, I don’t have to tell you that. However. For me, socks take and E.T.E.R.N.I.T.Y to knit! Forever! I would love to get into knitting socks, but when it takes longer to knit one sock than a whole sweater, I lose my drive.

So, how do you, as sock knitters deal with that? I’d love to find a pattern that uses worsted, dk, or even sport weight. Can you steer me towards one?

The last catalog that KnitPicks sent out (not this past one, but the one before that) featured socks. The socks, all supposedly hand knitted, were all lined up in a drawer and looked so soft, comfortable and squishy. Made me want to knit nothing but socks the rest of my life.

I know what you’re saying, figure it out yourself, how hard could it be, but I’d rather hear from you tried and true knitters on your failsafe patterns.

Anyone? Anyone at all?

The above book, Sock Innovation is by Cookie A. Pretty cool book, lots and lots of neat ideas but beyond that, it’s a technique book. Take the cuff you want, the heel and toe you want, choose a gusset and put them all together, the way you want to. Even an after thought heel. (there is hope for my sock knitting after all!). There’s a chapter on stitch techniques, working with charts, taking a written stitch pattern and converting it to a sock pattern and lots more. The socks in this book are all gorgeous, there aren’t any I don’t like, so why give it away? I’m sure someone else could better be served by this book. Someone like you!

So, of all the comments that I get (steering me toward sock patterns that use worsted, dk or sport weight yarn), I’ll send an email to everyone. First one to respond with their mailing address gets the book. K?

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?