The Ovis Socks by saskie&co are a super popular design in the knitting sphere: they feature a simple, sheep-inspired colourwork pattern that runs across both socks, despite the colours being inverted to make a ‘mismatched’ pair. I’ve wanted to make them for a while, but they’re knitted with a fingering weight yarn held together with a mohair yarn and I don’t love the feel of mohair (in general, really, but particularly on my feet!). Luckily, my mum loves a cosy, fluffy sock (and a sheep motif, she is a knitter after all), so I figured she would be the perfect person to make these socks for!

Full disclosure: these socks took me a while to finish, not because the knitting itself requires a lot of time/effort (they’re actually pretty quick to work up!), but because I ran into so many problems with gauge/fit/trying to knit them without my mum knowing. I started them in early summer and I finished them… in the New Year. Poor Mum had to open a single sock on Christmas Day (and the ends weren’t even sewn in…)!

In this post, as always with my 'Making a...' series, I'll be chatting about my experience making this pattern, as well as detailing any changes/adaptations I made. If you want to make your own Ovis Socks, you can purchase the pattern from saskie&co on Ravelry here!

Table of Contents

• The Pattern
• The Yarn
• The Knitting Process
  • Cast-On
  • Colourwork
  • Afterthought Heel
  • Toe
  • Blocking
• Final Thoughts

The Pattern

The pattern for the Ovis Socks is super clear & concise, without being too brief (I’ve talked before about how I like to be spoon-fed when it comes to knitting patterns!). Each section has a little subheading (e.g. ‘TOE’ or ‘AFTERTHOUGHT HEEL’), which makes it super easy to navigate your way through the instructions— it’s a small thing, but it made a big difference for me!

My favourite thing about this pattern is the design: I think the colourwork pattern is simple, but so effective and I really like the whole mismatched vibe. Not only does switching the colours balance out your yarn usage of each colour (yay for saving money!), but I also just think it’s a really fun, unusual feature. I think saskie&co does this for all of their sock patterns, which I love!

In terms of the construction itself, the socks are knitted cuff-down with an afterthought heel. This was my first time knitting an afterthought heel and I actually quite enjoyed it! The socks are pretty short on the leg: if I made them again, I’d be tempted to make them slightly longer so that they can be worn comfortably with hiking boots (I just feel like they’re hiking socks?!). Luckily, that would be super easy to do with this pattern: you’d just knit more repeats of the colourwork chart!

My only real issue with the pattern was the recommended needle size. The pattern instructs you to use 2.25mm needles, which seems pretty small for what is essentially a DK weight sock (especially one with colourwork!). For the first sock I made, I used the suggested needles for the ribbed cuff, toe and heel, then used a 2.5mm needle for the colourwork (because I just couldn’t bring myself to use a 2.25mm needle for that too). I made the whole sock (at great cost to my fingers, which, let me tell you, were SORE from fighting the yarn) and… it didn’t fit on my mum’s foot. Admittedly, this may have been my fault (the main problem area was the stripe of 3-colour stranded colourwork, so maybe my floats were too tight?), but the fabric was so stiff that it was a) no fun at all to make and b) just didn’t give me the right vibe for a sock (socks are supposed to be soft and cosy, right?!).

Ultimately, I decided to switch to using 3.00mm needles for the whole of the next sock (cuff, heel, toe, leg AND foot) and it was much better: the socks fit perfectly and my fingers were (slightly) less sore. I don’t have a particularly tight tension typically, so I don’t think that was the problem here, but no matter, it worked out! Naturally, because mohair is a menace to frog, I opted to just make a third sock instead of trying to rip back the first one, so, if anyone can think of a use for a lone, almost unwearable, but very beautiful Ovis Sock, let me know!

The Yarn

I decided to make things a little easier for myself by using the same main yarn as the one used in the pattern: Istex Einband (in the shades Almond Heather (9076) and Light Ash Heather (1026)). I get most of my wool from Wool Warehouse, but they don’t stock this particular brand, so I bought it from LindeHobby instead.

This was my first time using Icelandic wool and I have to say, it was a pretty different experience! Usually, I knit socks in wool/nylon blend yarns, so they’re soft and stretchy, but still hardwearing. This yarn is not at all stretchy and not overly soft (I did find it a little hard on my hands!), but it made a really great pair of socks that I know will last for a long time (plus, the mohair softens up the fabric, so it works out). I do like how natural this yarn feels though and I really love the two neutral shades used in the pattern.

The mohair yarn suggested by the pattern (Ritual Dyes Fae) was a bit out of my price range, so I opted to use a cheaper mohair that I knew pretty well already: DROPS Kid Silk. My mum had actually used this particular yarn for mohair socks before and really liked it, so I figured it was a safe bet. It’s very soft and it has a pretty extensive shade range, so I was easily able to find shades that matched the Einband ones (Off White (01) and Toffee (51)). It does tangle pretty easily, but I think that’s a bit of a classic feature of mohair yarns, so I won’t hold it against it.

I made the 5th size and bought two balls of each colour in each yarn (which, in hindsight, was a ridiculous amount of yarn? If only I could explain the actions of past Gemma but, alas, I have no idea what was going through my head…). After making 3 socks (2 with the brown shade as the main colour, 1 with the grey shade as the main colour), I had approximately 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 balls of each leftover. Yes, I know, I know: mistakes were made. The required yardage listed for both shades/yarns in the pattern was 251m and the Istex yarn comes in 50g/250m balls, while the DROPS yarn comes in 25g/210m balls. I guess I must have been very worried about running out? Whatever the case, I am writing this realising I have all of this leftover yarn and will, inevitably, have to make another pair of hard-on-the-fingers socks. Sigh. Maybe I’ll try one of saskie&co’s other sock patterns? Or maybe even… the Ovis Mitts?! I do have some dreams of an Ovis Gnome too… urgh, someone restrain me!

The Knitting Process

This pair of socks posed a lot of new challenges for me: it was my first time making socks with no-stretch yarn, making mohair socks, working an afterthought heel, making a DK weight sock AND making mismatched socks! When I think about that, it’s no surprise that I encountered a few issues throughout the process: that’s a lot of first times for one pair of socks!

Cast-On

The pattern calls for using ‘your choice of stretchy cast-on method’, so I opted to use the German Twisted Cast On, because I’d been using it a lot for my various gnomes at this point. However, I have been finding that it hasn’t been working up super neatly for me recently (can you see the slightly uneven edge on the grey sock?), so I wonder if Alternating Cable might have been a slightly better fit here?

Colourwork

I’ve been working on my colourwork technique over the past year (previously, my technique was, quite literally, dropping and picking up the yarns as needed, which wreaked havoc on my tension!) and have started using a two-handed approach, which I first saw on this Instagram video, by @engineeringloops. I’ve been loving this method! It works so well for two colours, but I haven’t found a way to make it work with three colours, so, whenever there are three-colour sections (like the sheep in this design), I revert back to my drop-and-pick-up method of old.

The main colourwork pattern that repeats throughout the leg and foot of the sock is super simple and easy to remember, which makes the knitting process that bit quicker. I love the subtle, rustic effect the design gives the socks.

The sheep that sit along the top of the sock are a little more complicated, because they contain a third colour. I was so careful with my floats, making sure they weren’t too tight, but I think just having that extra yarn in there really tightens up this section, which definitely affects the fit of the socks. I can see why some knitters opted to duplicate stitch on the heads/legs of the sheep, but it just felt like too much of an extra step at the time! Luckily, on the larger needle size the socks actually go over my mum’s heel, so all’s well that ends well!

Afterthought Heel

As I mentioned, this was my first time working an afterthought heel and it was so much simpler than I expected! I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I’m a convert (I am loyal to my beloved Shadow Wrap Heel!), but I can see that there is a time and a place for an afterthought one (that time and place being a sock featuring intense colourwork!).

It’s a little bit of a drag to have to go back and work the heel after finishing the toe, and it does feel pretty odd essentially knitting a… second toe? I did also have to look up a separate tutorial for picking up the stitches for the heel (apparently, the rule is you always go into the right leg of the stitch, in case you’re wondering too!), but, once I knew that, I was absolutely fine!

Toe

The toe shaping in the pattern is really easy to work, but the finished result is ever so slightly too pointy for my taste: it’s not bad by any means, but I am a big fan of a more rounded toe, so I think I’ll stick to my usual method with future socks.

Blocking

Once I’d made both of the (correctly sized) socks, I wet-blocked them and left them to dry on sock forms (which make the process so much simpler!) to really even out the colourwork and make the knitting (and, by extension, the socks) look super neat! I definitely felt this was necessary, especially with my slightly looser gauge on the 3.00mm needles, which looked a little less neat than the smaller gauge had (but also, you know, actually fit and felt like a sock!). Once blocked though, both sock sizes looked just as neat as each other, so I’m happy.

Final Thoughts

I’m so happy with these Ovis Socks: I’d definitely make them again… for the finished product, not necessarily for the process. If I’m being honest, the yarn hurt my fingers (rip) and the 3-colour section was a bit of a sticking point for me, but I love the design and I really enjoyed learning the new heel technique.

My biggest problem that I ran into with this project was definitely the gauge (and it’s subsequent effect on the fit of the socks). If I did make them again, I do think I would use the 3.00mm needles again: it does make the finished socks ever so slightly less neat, but the fabric is much better (and more sock-suitable!) and it didn’t destroy my fingers in the same way that using the 2.50mm needles did!).

Also, most importantly, my mum (who now finally has her finished Christmas socks!) loves them, which is all that really matters in the end!

If you're interested...

You can buy the Ovis Socks pattern on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ovis Socks project page on Ravelry here.

Gemma

xxx

Last Christmas (I gave you my heart)(no, just kidding), Petite Knit released a free knitting pattern for a Christmas Caramel, a stuffed ornament that looks like a little wrapped candy. I fell in love but, alas, I had too many other projects on the go to make one last year, so I set the pattern aside for this year.

Serendipitously, while I was making my Christmas Caramels this year, DROPS released a pattern for a Holiday Confection as part of their Christmas Calendar, which I always love following along with this time of year. This pattern makes a very similar, though slightly smaller and rounder, stuffed candy ornament.

So, naturally, I made two candies following the instructions from each pattern to compare them (you know, for science).

In this post, as always with my 'Making a...' series, I'll be chatting about my experience following these patterns, as well as detailing any changes/adaptations I made. If you want to make your own Christmas Caramels, you can find the free pattern on Petite Knit's Ravelry page, here. If you want to make your own Holiday Confections, you can find the free pattern on the DROPS Design Ravelry page, here.

Table of Contents

• Materials
• Christmas Caramels vs Holiday Confections
  • Size
  • Shape
  • Initial Stitch Count
  • Shaping Method
  • Edges
  • Design
  • Design Symmetry
• The Pick ‘n’ Mix Sweet
• Final Thoughts

Materials

To make these knitted sweets, I used the following materials:

• 2.5mm circular needles.

Both patterns call for 3.0mm needles. This makes sense with the Christmas Caramels, because they use a worsted weight yarn, but is slightly surprising with the Holiday Confections, which use a fingering weight yarn (and a particularly fine one at that: DROPS Flora). I used a fingering weight yarn for my sweets (more on that below) and I think it’s always better to have a tighter gauge whenever you’re working on a project that will be stuffed, so I used a 2.5mm needle for all of my candies.

• Fingering-weight yarn (I used DROPS Fabel in the shades Off White 100, Blue 107 and Ruby Red 113, plus a scrap of a gold yarn with unknown origins).

Are you sick of seeing these colours yet? They’ve kind of become my unofficial Christmas 2025 colour palette and… I’m not mad about it!

• Stuffing.
• Darning needle.
• Scissors.

Christmas Caramels vs Holiday Confections

While these patterns are very similar to one another, they are not identical and they do produce quite different candies.

Here are the key differences between the two patterns:

Let’s go through these one by one!

Size

The Christmas Caramels are significantly larger than the Holiday Confections. This is achieved simply by knitting more rows (as the starting stitch counts of each pattern are the same).

Shape

The Christmas Caramels have a longer, more oblong-esque shape, while the Holiday Confections have a rounder shape. Again, this is caused by the number of rows: working fewer rows produces a rounder shape, while working more rows produces a longer, more rectangular shape.

Initial Stitch Count

Both patterns start and end with the same stitch count: 24 sts.

Shaping Method

The shaping method used is one of the most significant differences between the two patterns: I think the Christmas Caramel version is easier to work (and work with, when stuffing/ finishing), but the Holiday Confection version gives a slightly more defined shape.

Edges

The first and last row of the Christmas Caramel is worked plain, while the first and last row of the Holiday Confection is worked in 1×1 rib. I was surprised by the addition of the rib row at first, but it a) stops the ends of the sweet from curling and b) somehow makes the ends look even more gathered and realistic, so I’m team 1×1 rib all the way!

Design

The Holiday Confection pattern has a greater variety of design variations than the Christmas Caramel but, admittedly, 4 out of the 6 of the designs are just slight variations on a horizontal stripe. I made all my sweets using the 2-row stripe pattern, for continuity.

Design Symmetry

The main problem I encountered with both of these patterns was the (potentially unintentional?) asymmetry of the stripe pattern!

As written, the main colour sections at the start and end of the body piece are different sizes (a natural consequence of the way the shaping is worked in both patterns), which drives me slightly crazy. In the photos above, the red sweets are worked according to the pattern and have this problem (the far left end of the Christmas Caramel (left) and the far right end of the Holiday Confection (right)).

On my second attempt at each pattern, I made a a slight adjustment to rectify this:

For both patterns, on the striped, body section, always START with two rows of the contrast colour and END with two rows of the main colour.

To achieve this, I made both of my second attempt sweets 2 rows shorter than the pattern suggests (these are the blue sweets in the above photos!). I’m much happier with them this way!

The Pick ‘n’ Mix Sweet

After making 4 sweets of various pattern origins, colours and alterations, I decided to combine my favourite features of each pattern and make my ultimate, knitted ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ sweet. Here’s what I did:

• Used 2.5mm needles (magic loop method) and fingering weight yarn (omit extra glitter yarn).
• Followed DROPS pattern for BONBON-2 from cast on to Round 4, leaving long tail for later.
• Worked 3 closure rounds as per Petite Knit pattern.
• Worked 12 plain rounds of 2-round stripes, starting with contrast colour and ending with main colour.
• Worked 3 closure rounds as per Petite Knit pattern.
• Followed DROPS pattern for BONBON-2 from Round 27 to cast off, leaving long tail for later.
• Tied off contrast yarn ends inside the sweet.
• Used tail ends of cast on/off to tie off each end of the sweet. I wove in the end until I reached the closure rounds, then wove the end in and out of the holes created by the yarn overs. I pulled the yarn tight to gather the fabric in, then wrapped the yarn around the outside 3 times to cinch it in even more. I then secured the end by threading it up underneath the yarn wraps and darning it in on the inside of the work.

Final Thoughts

And that was my (super scientific) process of knitting up some little sweet decorations! I’m so happy with my finished ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ pattern— I’ve obviously opted to go for the slightly rounder shape, but I could definitely knit more rows for the body to make it more of an oblong shape if I ever needed to.

I think these little candies look so cute just dotted around the place, but you could also attach a loop of yarn or thread and they’d make adorable little Christmas tree ornaments too! I feel like there are a lot of creative possibilities for these… maybe I need to cut myself off from making them now, lest I end up surrounded by sweets that I cannot even eat…?

If you're interested...

You can find the free Christmas Caramel pattern on Ravelry here.

You can find the free Holiday Confection pattern on Ravelry here.

You can find my Christmas Sweets project page on Ravelry here.

Gemma

xxx

Anyway, as it turns out, knitting clothes for babies is very similar to knitting clothes for adults: just smaller (and cuter). I’ve been following Ann-Kathrin Stoll on Instagram for a while now and I’ve been working up the courage to try out one of her adult designs (not that they all seem crazy challenging or anything— I’m just bad at committing to large projects!) and when I saw her design for the Babybearsweater, I fell in love, so this felt like the perfect opportunity to give it a go!

In this post, as always with my 'Making a...' series, I'll be chatting about my experience making this pattern, as well as detailing any changes/adaptations I made. If you want to make your own Babybearsweater, you can purchase the pattern from Ann-Kathrin Stoll on Ravelry here!

Table of Contents

• The Pattern
• The Yarn
  • DROPS Baby Merino: Mini Review
• Other Materials
• The Knitting Process
  • Cast-On
  • Edge Stitches
  • Intarsia in the Round
  • Italian Bind-Off
  • Ears
  • Neckband
  • Button Band
  • Sleeves
  • Embroidering the Face
• Final Thoughts

The Pattern

The Babybearsweater is a sweet little jumper, knitted in two colours and featuring ribbed cuffs/hems, a double-knitted button band and, as the name suggests, the CUTEST bear design!

I made the 6-9 months size, because I figured then the baby could grow into it over time and hopefully get a little more wear out of it? I won’t lie though, it seems quite… large? Then again, I don’t have much experience with 6-9 month old babies (read: I have no experience with 6-9 month old babies)…

To create the bear design, you use a combination of intarsia in the round (something I didn’t actually think was possible, but the technique is explained really well in this pattern!), embroidery/duplicate stitch and some partly-double-knitted ears, which give the bear face more of a 3D effect.

There were loads of different, new-to-me techniques in this jumper, but it still felt really fun and not too overwhelming to knit. It was a great project to challenge myself a little, learn some new techniques and practise some old ones! I really enjoyed it.

The Yarn

I used DROPS Baby Merino for this project, in the shades Wheat (59) and Beige (17) and met gauge with the suggested needles (3.00mm).

The Beige shade was exactly the shade I was looking for: a warm, but not-too-warm, soft brown colour. The Wheat shade, on the other hand, was not what I was hoping for: it was a much cooler tone than I had hoped (which I thought was kind of odd, given that it was called wheat? I mean, wheat is golden, right?), so I think I might have been better off going for the shade Off White (02), instead.

DROPS Baby Merino: Mini Review

DROPS Baby Merino is a sport-weight, 100% wool yarn that is sold in 50g balls. As is usually the case with DROPS, it’s pretty affordable, so I figured it was a good choice for a baby jumper!

Apart from the aforementioned colour-naming issues (I’m still stewing about the whole ‘Wheat‘ thing), I actually really like this yarn. It’s soft (though, admittedly, not the softest) without being overly fluffy, which is something I really like in a yarn. That does mean, however, that there isn’t really anything to hide behind: slightly uneven stitches/colourwork sections do show up with this yarn! My jumper’s pretty neat, but I think it could be even neater if I knitted it in a slightly less smooth yarn?

The yarn is really nice to knit with: very smooth and not at all hard on the hands. I’d definitely use it again!

Other Materials

As well as the two shades of yarn, you also need 2 x 10mm buttons (for the button band on the shoulder), some scrap, black yarn for embroidering the face and some thread for sewing on the buttons.

Like many knitters/crafters/humans, we have a miscellaneous button box in our house, so I just rifled through that until I found these little coconut shell buttons. I wanted something quite rustic, to match the brown bear, and I thought these were perfect. It wasn’t at all tricky to find a thread colour that matched the Wheat yarn (I already had one on hand!).

We also have copious amounts of scrap yarn in this house, so it wasn’t too tricky to find a sport-weight black yarn for the bear’s face.

The Knitting Process

Into the knitting of the jumper itself now and, I have to say, I actually really loved knitting this project! I did run into a few problems here and there, and there were times when I struggled to understand the pattern, but, on the whole, I really enjoyed the process and it was a fun, semi-challenging project to take on.

Cast-On

The pattern doesn’t specify what kind of cast-on to use, which is not a huge deal, but, as I’ve mentioned before, I do like to be spoon-fed when it comes to knitting patterns (I get major decision anxiety and I’m still not confident enough in my cast-on repertoire to know what’s the best fit for which project!).

Ultimately, I just used a regular, cable cast-on for all of the casting-on throughout the pattern and it worked well, so I’m just running with that.

Edge Stitches

Okay, this was something that really confused me about this pattern: there’s a whole instruction for ‘edge stitches’, but, from what I can tell, it’s no different from just knitting/purling the first/last stitches on the knit/purl rows? There isn’t really any textured knitting going on in the pattern, other than the ribbed hems/cuffs, so the whole time I was making this jumper, I was waiting for the penny to drop so that I could FINALLY understand what this instruction was for but it just… never did?

This might just be a knitting convention that I’ve never seen before, but I don’t think it was a necessary addition to this pattern and, honestly, it just made the pattern more confusing for me!

Intarsia in the Round

This was the most significant new technique in this project for me: partly because I didn’t even know this was possible and partly because the instructions for the intarsia section are… long. I’m talking pages of row-by-row pattern, which, although slightly overwhelming at first, was actually quite nice to work from (as I said, I like to be spoon-fed my patterns).

I did try to read through the pattern ahead of time and visualise what was going on, but I eventually just decided that I’d have to try it to understand it, which worked much better! Going in blind was a bit scary, but the instructions were so detailed that I could just follow them and watch it all work out.

I did get into a little bit of a pickle towards the end of the intarsia, which my mum (very kindly and rather painstakingly) managed to pretty much fix for me, but it did require a little bit of fudging at the sewing up stage to even it out. I’d tell you what I did, but, honestly, I have no idea, so I think I’ll just have to work through the last few rows of the intarsia very slowly if I make this again!

I did enjoy this colourwork method: I think it’s very effective and, despite the complicated instructions, was deceptively simple. The only thing I’m not 100% about is the fact that, on my jumper, at least, you can see some of the muzzle colour in the brown section to the right of the muzzle, which makes it look a little messy there. Maybe that’s something I could avoid with more practice? Or perhaps that’s just another downside to using such a smooth yarn?

Italian Bind-Off

This was my first time working an Italian Bind-Off and I really liked it! Especially after the tedious amount of tubular binding-off I had to do for my Braidy Loop Sweater, which I really didn’t enjoy, this version felt much less laborious (even though, as bind-offs go, it still takes a bit of effort).

The pattern suggests a YouTube video tutorial for the Italian Bind-Off, but I tend to prefer working from written tutorials (just personal preference!), so I found this one online that I found really helpful:

https://www.interweave.com/article/knitting/how-to-italian-bind-off-ribbing-brioche/

Ears

The bear’s ears are knit directly onto the jumper, which I think gives a super neat (and secure, which is important for a baby sweater!) finish. The pattern includes a super helpful schematic that shows you exactly wear to work the ears which really satisfied my aforementioned spoon-feeding preferences.

The ears were a little fiddly to work up (you start by double-knitting them, then split them onto two needles and work them in the round), but that’s mainly because they’re so small. They look super neat when they’re finished, so I definitely think they’re worth it!

Neckband

The neckband is just worked in regular rib, so it was pretty standard! The only problem I ran into here was the suggested pick-up rate, which I found wasn’t quite right for my size.

In the end, I picked up 1 st out of 2 rows for the left front slant and 2 sts out of 3 rows for the right front slant to get the necessary stitch count.

I also showed my inexperience and started picking up at the wrong place, so it took me a couple of attempts to get this right (sigh). I still haven’t quite got to grips with the whole left/right side ‘as the jumper is worn’ convention, which is unfortunate, given it is an extremely common one!

Button Band

I’ve actually never knitted a button band before, so this was another first for me! I thought the method for attaching the band to the knitted piece was SO clever, so I really enjoyed this part of the process (and, as an added bonus, because it’s so small it went super quickly, which was extra fun!).

My only problem with the button band was that it ended up with a lot of yarn ends to darn in, which actually filled me with terror and led to me putting off sewing in the ends and finishing this project for weeks. In the end, it wasn’t as bad as I expected, but I still wonder if there is a less end-heavy method to making a button band?

When it came time to sew the buttons on, I used sewing thread, so that I could make it really neat and secure. I laid the button bands over each other, as they would be once closed, and marked where the buttons needed to go, to ensure everything would fit together perfectly. I sewed through the holes of the buttons a number of times, then wrapped the thread around the base of the button a good few times to form a ‘shaft’ for extra strength, before pushing the needle through that shaft and sewing in the end. This was a technique my mum showed me and the buttons do feel very secure, so I think it’s a good one!

Sleeves

The sleeves were pretty simple, with basic decreases, which was a nice break after the more complex button band.

However, I do think there is an error in the pattern at this point: in the paragraph after Round 2, for the third size (which I made), it states that 63 rows should have been worked, but I think this number should be 56 (I think the number for the second size might also be wrong?). It doesn’t really matter, but it did throw me for a loop for a second there!

Embroidering the Face

Embroidering the face was actually a really simple experience: mainly because of how clear and detailed the instructions were. My aforementioned love of spoon-feeding really came into its own here: the pattern explains exactly where to stitch on the eyes and nose, as well as how to position the mouth. It doesn’t specify using duplicate stitch, but I think that is what is used for the eyes/nose. I used a regular back stitch for the mouth.

The mouth was probably the trickiest part (just getting the right curve— I was going for cute, not Joker), but even that wasn’t too difficult (even if the mouth here is giving me major vibes of this emoji: 😏).

Sewing in the ends of the embroidery section was a bit fiddly, mainly because I wanted to keep the black ends super neat, because they stand out against the cream/brown yarn so much! I think I probably could have done a better job, but, at the same time, it’s on the inside, so I guess it doesn’t really matter!

Final Thoughts

I can definitely see myself making this pattern again, even without the bear intarsia pattern, just as a plain jumper (though the bear is, obviously, the cutest thing in the whole wide world)!

I thought the pattern as a whole was very clear and, as I said, I really enjoyed working from it and making this project. It was on the more challenging side for me, but it was an achievable challenge that I really enjoyed. In particular, I found the schematics at the end of the pattern very helpful, especially for the ear/face placement (once I realised there were different schematics for the different sizes, anyway…). I also think the finished product is SO CUTE, which is all I really wanted anyway!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my experience making this Babybearsweater! Have you ever worked intarsia in the round? Let me know in the comments below!

If you're interested...

You can buy the Babybearsweater pattern on Ravelry here.

You can find my Baby Bear Sweater project page on Ravelry here.

Gemma

xxx

The Stjärna pattern by Karolina Eckerdal is such a popular design, and is one I’ve had my eye on for a good few years, but, up until now, I was always too intimidated by it to give it a go. I’ve spoken before about my fear of DPNs and this pattern feels like the epitome of DPN-knitting, which made me very reluctant to try it out. However, this year, having embarked upon a DPN-fear-conquering journey, I finally decided to be brave and give it a go!

I ended up making 4 Stjärna ornaments, so I thought I’d share a bit about my experience making them!

Table of Contents

• The Pattern
• The Yarn
  • Drops Merino Extra Fine: Mini Review
• The Knitting Process
  • Barber Cord Cast-On Method
• Star A vs Star B
• Final Thoughts

The Pattern

The Stjärna pattern is a FREE pattern by Karolina Eckerdal. It uses DK weight yarn and 3.00mm needles (6 DPNs + a pair of circular needles). You work one side of the ornament at a time, working from the edge of the ornament inwards, decreasing as you go to give it the star shape. You then pick up the stitches around the perimeter and knit the other side of the ornament in the exact same way. The ornament is stuffed and a loop of yarn is attached to the top to hang it from.

The pattern offers two variations for the Stjärna ornaments: Star A uses slightly fewer stitches and makes for a slightly softer-edged, puffier star. Star B uses more stitches and introduces a series of purl stitches to help define the star shape and make the points, well… pointier. I made two ornaments following the pattern for Star A and two following the pattern for Star B, just to get the full experience.

The Yarn

For once, I actually used the yarn that the pattern calls for: Drops Merino Extra Fine. I used the shade Off White 01, to make neutral-coloured stars like the ones in the pattern. I’ve also seen some projects on Ravelry where people have used multiple colours to make a rainbow of Stjärna ornaments, which I think would be so fun!

Drops Merino Extra Fine: Mini Review

I’ve actually used this particular yarn before (albeit in the shade Amethyst 36), for my Daphne Top (the very first knit in my Project Knitwear series!). I didn’t remember much about my experience using it, so it felt a little like trying out a new yarn for the first time. It is quite a soft, smooth yarn, but I did struggle a little bit with how split-y it was— particularly when picking up the stitches for the second side.

From 1 x 50g ball of the yarn, I was able to make 4 Stjärna ornaments, with some yarn left over (each ornament took about 10-12g of yarn). Each ball is £3.50, which works out at under 90p per ornament, which I think is pretty good value!

The Knitting Process

These Stjärna ornaments are… fiddly, to say the least. They definitely got easier to make as I got used to the process and made more of them, though. The fiddliest part for me was picking up the stitches before knitting the second side— I just couldn’t seem to get this right, so I actually ended up finding a bit of a workaround for this, which I will share in a second.

The pattern contains full instructions for a Two-Way Cast On, which apparently helps to eliminate the half-stitch jog between the front and back of the ornament. Sadly, I could not for the life of me get the hang of this technique, so I ended up using a regular old provisional cast on instead, and just had to make my peace with the jog (which, honestly, isn’t even that noticeable). I think my problem might have been that I was casting on too tightly, but it was all such a faff that I don’t think I can face trying it again…

Once the first few rows on each side are complete (and before you get to the fiddly bit at the centre of each side where you’re juggling lots of DPNs with very few stitches…) the knitting process is actually super straightforward— it’s simple and repetitive, so, strangely enough, I actually enjoyed the majority of the knitting process.

Barber Cord Cast-On Method

Back to the less than enjoyable part then… the picking up of the stitches. Whether you’re using a provisional cast on or the special, Two-Way Cast On from the pattern, you have to pick up the stitches around the perimeter of the star at some point, so that you can knit the other side. Picking up the stitches was the worst part of this pattern for me— even with the provisional cast on, which should have made it super easy, I really struggled to pick up the right number of stitches around the decrease columns (where the centred double decreases are worked). Picking up the stitches is also quite fiddly, because of the star shape, so I began trying to think of a way to avoid the whole picking-up part.

In the end, I decided to try a slightly different cast on method. I just used a regular, cable cast on, but I set it up over both the circular needle AND a barber cord. To do that, I just attached one end of the barber cord to the tip of the needle I was casting on onto, and held it down alongside the needle. I then cast on over both the needle and the cord, making sure to keep it nice and loose. Once I was finished, I disconnected the barber cord from the tip of the needle, then knit the first round of the pattern onto the DPNs, only working off the needle (NOT the barber cord), so that the cast on stitches remained anchored on that. I knit the whole first side of the star, then, when it was time to pick up the stitches for the second side, I just slipped them from the barber cord to my DPNs and went on my way.

There are pros and cons to this method— it is by no means a perfect solution! While it is easier to work up, it does leave a slight ‘seam’ (it looks a little like a series of whip stitches?) and it does make the stars a little chunkier (though this could also be because I was getting more relaxed with my knitting, so my tension might have been looser?). Honestly, though, I’m willing to forgive all that for the EASE.

Also, a couple of notes on this method: firstly, you might need to sew the two sides of the star together with a couple of little stitches, just at the start of the round— I found I tended to get a little hole in the seam around here, but it was easily fixed with a darning needle and the yarn end that’s already there.

Secondly, if you’re making Star B, remember that the pattern is not symmetrical on each DPN, so it does matter which way you ‘pick up’ the stitches. I forgot this, and ended up having to reverse the pattern on the second side (i.e. purling the stitches at the end of each needle, rather than the start), which wasn’t the end of the world, but did take me a minute to realise!

Star A vs Star B

Before I made my own Stjärna ornaments, I was fully expecting Star B to be my favourite, because I liked the extra definition of the star shape. However, after making them, I think I actually prefer the softer, more seamless look of Star A! I think, because they’re knitted and stuffed, the pointier look is almost at odds with the object itself, while the puffy look just feels right.

As much as I love the neat, seamless look of the Star A that I knit as instructed, it was definitely a struggle to pick up those stitches (and I did have to do a bit of fudging to get the right stitch count…). It worked out for me here, but I know that picking up stitches in the wrong place could make the half-stitch jog even worse, so it’s a bit of a risky technique (for me, at least)! The Star A that I made using my Barber Cord Cast-On Method isn’t quite as neat, and does have a noticeable half-stitch jog, but it was just so much quicker and easier to make, I still think I’d use that method again if I were to make another Stjärna!

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m really happy with my Stjärna ornaments. They were fiddly to make, but no more fiddly than I expected (though I didn’t have high expectations). As I mentioned, I do prefer the style of Star A— I just think the softer, plushier look works better with the whole knitted, stuffed ornament vibe. Once I got the hang of them (and worked out a way to avoid picking up the stitches), these were actually super quick little knits (and they felt even faster than they were, because you’re always working from the outside in and decreasing, so the rows get shorter every time!).

Long story short, I’d definitely make more of these in the future, but, after four in a row (and a lot of DPN knitting in general), I think I’m due a little break. I continue to dream about making a rainbow of Stjärna ornaments (perhaps for a fun, festive garland?!), but I think I’ll store that idea away for another day…

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post! Have you ever made a Stjärna ornament? Let me know!

If you're interested...

You can find the FREE Stjärna pattern by Karolina Eckerdal on Ravelry here.

You can find my Stjärna Ornaments project page on Ravelry here.

Gemma

xxx

In this post, as always with my 'Making a...' series, I'll be chatting about my experience making this pattern, as well as detailing any changes/adaptations I made. If you want to make your own Christmas Bear, you can purchase the pattern from the designer here!

Table of Contents

• Pattern Variations
• Materials
  • Yarn
  • Notions
• Adaptations
• Final thoughts

Pattern Variations

The pattern contains instructions for making two different styles of bear: a polar bear (i.e. all white) and a brown bear (i.e. with a different colour muzzle), though you can obviously use whatever colours you want! I opted to make a polar bear, just to really drive home the whole ‘Christmas Bear’ vibe (and, as an added bonus, it meant I only had to buy one colour of yarn…).

Another customisable element of the pattern is the outfit you make for your bear. Instructions are given for both a romper (with individual leg holes) and a dress, though the design of both is exactly the same (as with the bear, colours can be changed). I opted to make the dress, using the same green/brown colour scheme as the outfit on the main pattern photo, because I thought it was really cute and very Christmassy!

Finally, the pattern comes with two separate sets of instructions: one for knitting the bear flat (on straight needles) and one for knitting the bear in the round (on DPNs). I actually didn’t realise this at first, so I could have just knitted this little bear flat, but I’d already committed to facing my fear, so I stuck with my plan to knit it in the round.

Materials

Yarn

For this project, I used the following yarns:

• Drops Lima Uni Color, in the shade Off White (0100).

I used this yarn for all of the bear’s body pieces. I bought 1x50g ball (despite the pattern calling for 55g…) and I had just enough to make the whole toy (yarn chicken success!).

• Rowan Felted Tweed, in the shades Pine (158), Camel (157) and Ginger (154).

I used this yarn for the bear’s dress: Pine for the bodice/sleeves, Camel for the skirt and Ginger for the reindeer’s nose.

• Oddments of fingering weight yarn, in Black and Brown.

I used the black yarn for embroidering on the bear’s face and the reindeer’s eyes (the pattern suggests using beads for this, but, since I already had the yarn to hand, I just used that!). I used the brown yarn to crochet the little reindeer antlers.

Notions

I used the following needles/hooks:

• 5x 2.75mm DPNs

Used for the bear’s body pieces.

• 2.75mm circular needles

Used for the bear’s dress.

• 2mm crochet hook

Used for crocheting the reindeer’s antlers.

• Darning needle

For sewing up.

• Fine sewing needle

For embroidering/attaching buttons.

I also used the following extra materials:

• Lockable stitch markers

Essential for toy-making!

• Toy stuffing

I like to stuff knitted soft toys quite firmly, because I think it gives them the most professional look, so I always use quite a bit of toy stuffing (though it is possible that I overstuffed this particular bear— she’s definitely on the tubby side).

• Two 20mm coconut shell buttons

For attaching the legs to the body.

• Two 11mm wooden heart buttons

For the dress closure.

Adaptations

While I didn’t make any changes during the actual knitting process (your girl is not confident enough for that… yet), I did make a few adjustments when it came to sewing the bear together/embroidering on all the details:

• Head

I sewed the head on to the body using quite a wide circumference on the body, to make sure the neck was nice and sturdy (no lolling heads here!). I went around the head once and it was still quite flimsy and floppy, so I went round again, a little further out, and it was much more secure.

• Nose

After using the cast on thread for the head to sew the nose shut (as instructed), I didn’t cut it off, so I could use it to do the nose shaping later on. The pattern suggests using embroidery thread for this stage, but I felt lazy and found the matching thread worked just as well.

I also used the Camel shade of the Rowan Felted Tweed (the same one I used for the dress) to embroider the nose, instead of embroidery thread. When stitching the nose, I started in the centre, rather than on one side, to ensure the nose was centred and symmetrical.

• Eyes

I did not use French knots for the bear’s eyes as instructed— I really struggled with them and definitely couldn’t get anything that resembled the cute eyes from the pattern! Instead, I used the black fingering weight yarn and my 2mm crochet hook to make a magic ring (6 dc— as always, British crochet terminology) and stitched that on. Having said that though, I’ve actually been working on my French knots since this and I think I’m starting to get the hang of them now? Nevertheless, the magic ring-style eyes worked really well, so I’m still happy with them!

• Arms

I didn’t gather up the cast on edge at the top of the arm as instructed, but instead sewed the stitches together so that I had a flat edge to sew onto the bear. This meant that I could kind of tuck the arms in between the body and the head, which I felt gave a better, cleaner finish. The arms need to be quite high up on the body, so I found this helped them to sit more neatly.

I realised that it was super important that the arms lined up with the dress, so I actually put the arms ‘into’ the dress, then put the dress on the bear to see where they needed to sit before stitching them on (otherwise the dress wouldn’t fit right!). I ended up sewing the shoulder seams right into the crevice between the body and the head.

• Legs

The buttons I was using to attach the legs had four holes (as opposed to two), so I had to do some more stitches than instructed to attach the legs. I went through the first leg (and one button), went back in through another hole on the button, then pushed the needle right through to the other side, through the other leg (and other button), then repeated the process until all of the button holes had been stitched through. This makes the legs move together, which I think (?) is what the pattern suggests.

• Dress

I used heart-shaped buttons for the dress, because I thought they were cute. I did make my button holes 5 chains long (instead of 6), because my crochet hook was slightly larger than the one suggested in the pattern, but I think I could have gone down to 4 chains for a closer fit to my buttons.

Final thoughts

Phew… my first, proper, DPN-knitted toy and I think it turned out super well! I’m actually so happy with it— there’s always that worry when you make a handmade toy that it won’t turn out as cute and perfect as it looks in the pattern, but I think this one is pretty close! I admit, knitting on DPNs is a bit of a trial, but it wasn’t as completely impossible as I thought it would be and it does give a really lovely, polished look.

I thought the pattern for this bear was super clear and detailed— I really enjoyed making it. I would have loved a little bit more guidance on specific placements for each of the body parts, just to make sewing up the bear that little bit easier, but I’m really happy with how my bear turned out, which, to me, is a sign of a good pattern.

I was a little sceptical about the button-leg-joint situation, just because it was kind of giving Coraline vibes which freaked me out a little bit, but I actually really love that feature. It makes the bear much more agile and manoeuvrable, so it can be positioned easily. I also think it actually looks quite cute in real life (but the dress covers the buttons anyway, so you can always just pretend the buttons aren’t there!).

Speaking of the dress… it is quite short! I feel like my little Christmas Bear is a bit exposed… If I were to make the dress again, I definitely add a few more rows (maybe 3-5?), just to give my bear a little more modesty. This dress was actually my very first time knitting Raglan lines, which means this project is kind of, almost, a Project Knitwear instalment? In mini, bear form? I learned about M1T and M1A, but it did take me quite a bit of getting used to and, honestly, I don’t think I could remember how to do it now, so I might need a little bit more practice on that one!

On the topic of what I’d do differently next time, if you’re making a polar bear, I’d also recommend placing a stitch marker on Round 9 of the head when the pattern says to change from Yarn B to Yarn A. Because there isn’t the same colour distinction with the polar bear as with the regular bear, I found it really hard to figure out where the nose was after I stuffed the head!

Overall, I am SO happy with how this Christmas Bear turned out! I think it’s such a cute, neat pattern and I’m really proud of my bear. I’d love to make more bears (I saw the cutest ‘Autumn Bear‘ variation!), but I think I’d need to gear myself up a little bit before going in for Round 2— I may have faced my DPN fear, but I don’t think I’ve quite conquered it yet!

If you're interested...

You can find the Christmas Bear pattern by Ekaterina Popova here.

You can find my Christmas Bear project page on Ravelry here.

Gemma

xxx

I’ve been eyeing up Petite Knit‘s December Bow pattern for a long time now, mainly because I’m desperately trying to get myself into a hair bow era (long, not-at-all-interesting story). However, this pattern makes a large bow, and my hair is super fine, so I’m easily swamped by hair accessories. I wonder, if I made the bow in fingering weight yarn, would it be more proportional for me? Perhaps, but that’s a problem for another day.

My desire to knit a December Bow persisted, and it happen to spring to mind while I was doing my annual binge-watching of Hallmark Christmas films (I start in late August and try to cram in as many as possible before I start rewatching the proper Christmas films in December). Sometimes (okay, most of the time), the decorations in those films are excessive (dare I say tacky?), but there’s something very joyful about the completely over-the-top, festive feel. There’s always massive trees, perfect garlands and huge bows! It was the latter that made me realise that I could just make December Bows to use as Christmas decorations and create my very own Hallmark heaven! This is ironic, because while I was set on a December Hair Bow, the actual pattern is for a hanging ornament, but we’ll just gloss over that one.

I imagined a garland, studded with big, red, knitted bows (I feel like the handmade, knitted element takes these bows from gaudy to alpine chic, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking). I figured if I got some green wire I could loop it through the middle band of the bows and attach them directly to the garland, to bring me joy all throughout December.

Anyway, that’s the long and rambling story of why I ended up making these December Bows (of which there are 5 in total). As always with my ‘Making a…’ Series, here are the details of the yarn/needles and the adaptations I made…

Table of Contents

• The Pattern
• The Yarn
  • Cascade 220 Superwash: Mini Review
• Adaptations
• Attaching the Bows to the Garland
• Final Thoughts

The Pattern

The December Bow is a knitting pattern by the popular designer Petite Knit. It is worked back and forth in garter stitch, with an i-cord edge, using simple increases/decreases for the shaping at the ends, before being gathered into a bow shape (for which there are detailed instructions included in the pattern). A double knitted band is made separately, on smaller needles, then wrapped around the middle of the bow. The ends of the band are then grafted together at the back, for a seamless look.

As I mentioned, the pattern is designed to make a hanging ornament, so it also includes instructions for attaching a leather handle to the bow. I opted to skip this step.

The Yarn

I decided to use Cascade 220 Superwash yarn, in the shade Ruby (893) for my bows. This is listed on Wool Warehouse (my go-to yarn source) as a DK weight yarn, but I think it is much more of a worsted weight (on their website, Cascade list it as a light worsted/DK weight, but I still think this is a bit off— on Ravelry, it’s listed as worsted and that definitely feels like the most accurate description to me). Needless to say, my bows probably turned out slightly bigger than they should have, but I’m not too mad about that, seeing as I’m only using them for decoration.

I chose a superwash yarn because I wanted the feel and general fanciness of a natural fibre, but I was also very aware that the bows were likely to get a bit dusty over the course of the festive season, so I wanted to be able to wash them easily, if needed.

I picked this particular superwash yarn because I just loved the colour— it was exactly the rich, festive red I was looking for! I did not, however, quite register the price of the yarn when I first bought it, which was a shame, because I wanted all of my bows to match. Each 100g ball costs £8.99 (at time of writing) and makes a grand total of 2 December Bows, so I ended up buying 3 balls in total (which is a ridiculous amount of money to spend on bows but, hey, what can you do?). If I were to go back in time, I’d probably look for a slightly cheaper alternative, but we live and learn.

Cascade 220 Superwash: Mini Review

I liked this yarn! As I mentioned, it’s definitely a worsted weight yarn (not a DK, or even a light worsted, at that, I don’t think), so that’s something to bear in mind, but I really enjoyed using it. The colour was rich and even, which was perfect for this project. It’s not the softest, but it’s also not not soft— it definitely has the feel I would expect from a superwash, wool yarn. I have read that it gets softer after washing, but I haven’t tried that yet. I’ve also seen a couple of reviews saying people had trouble with the dye coming off on their fingers, but I didn’t have that problem with this particular shade. The price isn’t too bad, especially for a 100% wool yarn, but I do think it was a bit too pricey for this particular project here.

I liked it, but I didn’t quite fall in love with it. It’s nice, and it worked well for this project, but it didn’t feel like anything particularly special. I’d use it again, but I’d also be interested in trying other, similar products.

Adaptations

On the whole, I didn’t make too many adjustments to these bows. I used the same needles listed in the pattern with my (ever so slightly thicker) yarn, and worked the main bow section to the stated length (50cm). When I wove in the ends on the main bow section, I used them to neaten up the points a little, then wove them into the i-cord edging for a seamless look.

I did, however, make a few little changes…

• I made the double knitted band a bit longer

The pattern calls for knitting the central band until it is 5cm long. I did this the first time and found that it was a bit too much of a stretch to get it around the middle of the bow, which left me with a slightly weird, pulled-looking bow. I wasn’t happy with it at all, so, next time around, I knitted the central band until it was 6cm long— it was SO much better! It was still a slight stretch to get it round, which kept things nice and neat, but it didn’t stay stretched once I had grafted the ends together, which made for the perfect bow shape. I definitely ran into this problem because of my slightly thicker yarn, so it’s definitely a me-problem, not a pattern-problem, but it’s good to know how to adapt the pattern for heavier weight yarns!

• I ran the first line of stitching lower down on the bow

When you’re gathering up the bows, the pattern instructs you to run a horizontal line of stitching across the main piece, 15cm up from the tips of the work. I found this made my bow a little bottom-heavy (i.e. the bow loops were a bit small, proportionally), so I actually ran this stitch line across at 13cm up from the tips instead. I found this gave me a much more even-looking bow.

• I used one extra piece of yarn to sew the whole bow together

In the pattern, you’re instructed to sew the horizontal line then tie off and cut the yarn. You then work a vertical line and, again, tie off and cut the yarn. I despise sewing in ends, so I just cut one long length and used that for the whole lot. I still tied it off tightly after each step, but I didn’t cut it until the very end.

• I added a few more stitches to help shape the bow

Sometimes, the gathered bow looked a little funny, so I took to adding a few more stitches (again, using that same yarn from above) here and there to even out the gathers and the shapes. This didn’t take long and wasn’t tricky to do at all, but I think it makes a huge difference.

Attaching the Bows to the Garland

To make my bow garland dreams come true, I had to find a way to attach them to the garland.

This was actually really easy to do— I just used a 10-15cm piece of green florist wire and threaded it through the back of each bow, right under the central band.

I then positioned the bow onto the garland and twisted the wire around the nearest branch to secure it in place. This means that the bows are easy to move around, if they’re not quite in the right spot, and to remove at the end of the season, ready to be packed away!

I used this prelit garland from John Lewis. It’s nice and worked well, plus it has different light options (you can choose between warm white and multicoloured lights, along with a variety of flashing/fading options), but I do feel it could do with a few more lights on it— it’s a little sparsely lit!

I also found these cute little felt stars in Sainsbury’s (and they were on offer!), which I hung on the garland, in between the bows, to add a bit more colour and interest.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m super happy with how these December Bows turned out! It took a little bit of trial and error at first to get them looking perfect, especially with my slightly different yarn weight, but I’m really happy with the process now— I feel like I can just whip one of these up whenever I need! After the first couple of bows, I got super quick at them, so they’re actually a pretty speedy knit for me, now that I know what I’m doing.

At first, I pretended I didn’t know how to graft stitches and opted to just (slightly shoddily) sew up the central band at the back, but I was just being lazy— I started grafting a few bows in and it really does make the bows look so much neater and more professional.

I also could not be happier with how my finished garland turned out! It looks just like I dreamed it would and, strangely enough, I think the impulse-bought white stars just bring the whole thing together!

I’ve loved making these bows and I think they’ll be a staple festive decoration for many years to come. Have you ever made a December Bow? I know it’s a popular pattern, so I’d love to hear about it if you have!

If you're interested...

You can buy the December Bow pattern, direct from Petite Knit here.

You can buy the December Bow pattern on Ravelry here.

You can find my December Bows project page on Ravelry here.

Gemma

xxx

I thought this project would be a great way of trialling some of the amazing, free patterns out there for knitted/crocheted pumpkins. I wanted my pumpkins to have a variety of textures, colours and patterns, so it gave me the perfect opportunity to try out lots of different methods and styles. In total, I made 5 different pumpkins. In this post, I’ll go through all of the details for each pumpkin, link the patterns I used & share any amendments/changes I made.

I think it’s time for some pumpkins, don’t you?

Table of Contents

• Pumpkin #1: Wee Pumpkin by Susan Rainey
  • Thoughts on Pumpkin #1
• Pumpkin #2: (Fluffy) Pepo Pumpkin Patch by Sandra Magalhães
  • Thoughts on Pumpkin #2
• Pumpkin #3: Darlin’ Plaid Pumpkin by Stitchberry
  • Thoughts on Pumpkin #3
• Pumpkin #4: Vertical Stripe Pumpkin by Sara Myers
  • Thoughts on Pumpkin #4
• Pumpkin #5: Handsome Cable Pumpkin by Sara Kiesel
  • Thoughts on Pumpkin #5
• Final Thoughts

Pumpkin #1: Wee Pumpkin by Susan Rainey

Craft: Knitting

Pattern: Wee Pumpkins by Susan Rainey.

Yarn: King Cole Merino Blend 4 Ply, in the shade Cinnamon (leftover from my Anthology Pumpkin Hat).

Needles: 2.75mm DPNs.

Stem Details: 5-stitch i-cord, made using King Cole Merino Blend 4 Ply in Chocolate (023) on 2.75mm DPNs. I knitted 5 rows of i-cord, then pulled the yarn through the stitches to ‘cast off’.

Adaptations:

• Used fingering weight yarn instead of sport.

You can find the link to my Ravelry project page for Pumpkin #1 here!

Thoughts on Pumpkin #1

• This makes a super small pumpkin. It’s SO cute, but a little flat.
• It’s quite easy to make the pumpkin ‘segments’ uneven by accident (I did).
• Pattern used BLCO for increases (not my fave method) and K2tog for decreases (a classic). This pattern, unlike some of the others, does include shaping, which gives the pumpkin a nice appearance.

Pumpkin #2: (Fluffy) Pepo Pumpkin Patch by Sandra Magalhães

Craft: Knitting

Pattern: Pepo Pumpkin Patch by Sandra Magalhães (large size, in-the-round version).

Yarn: Scheepjes Sweetheart Soft, in the shade 06 (leftover from a spontaneous mammoth amigurumi, made a while back for my soon-to-be sister-in-law).

Needles: 4.5mm circular needles (40cm).

Stem details: I followed a similar method to the stem of Pumpkin #5, using the same Scheepjes Metropolis in Valencia (062), but made the stem a bit wider (24 stitches, as opposed to 12) to suit the larger pumpkin. Because of the larger stitch count, I worked an extra round of k2togs before finishing off.

Adaptations:

• Used fluffy, chunky weight yarn instead of worsted.
• I added stitch markers to mark where the purl stitches went on every round. This was super helpful, particularly at first, because the fluffy yarn is quite difficult to see/work with! It also made the knitting process much quicker/easier, because I didn’t have to keep double checking where I was in the round.
• I knitted the main piece until it measured 25cm.

You can find the link to my Ravelry project page for Pumpkin #2 here!

Thoughts on Pumpkin #2

• I had planned to crochet a pumpkin using this yarn, but my GOODNESS it was hard to work with— it was a real struggle to feel where the stitches were! I decided to use it for a knitted pumpkin instead and it was MUCH easier.
• This particular pattern gave some very helpful information on the ratio between the length of the knitted piece and the height of the finished pumpkin (0.4 ish), which I was able to apply to all of my subsequent pumpkin-making endeavours.
• I LOVED the use of purl stitches as a guide in this pattern— it made dividing the pumpkin up evenly SO simple and easy.

Pumpkin #3: Darlin’ Plaid Pumpkin by Stitchberry

Craft: Crochet

Pattern: Darlin’ Plaid Pumpkin by Stitchberry (regular size).

Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK, in the shades Cream (1005) and Gingerbread (1806) (from my excessive stash of Stylecraft Special DK).

Hook: 5.0mm

Stem details: I made a basic, crochet stem for this one using a single strand of the Gingerbread yarn and a 3.0mm hook. The pattern is as follows (as always, UK terminology is used):

Round 1: Work 6 dc into a magic loop (6)

Round 2: 2 dc in each stitch around (12)

Rounds 3-7: dc in each stitch around

Fasten off yarn, leaving long end for attaching to pumpkin.

Adaptations:

• Used DK weight yarn held double, instead of worsted (obviously, this is not equivalent, so my pumpkin is a bit chunkier than it should be!).
• For the surface crochet, I worked all of the horizontal stripes on the right side, leaving 4 stitches between each one. For the vertical stripes, I alternated between working them on the right and wrong side (to add a bit of interest) and left 5 1/2 rows between each right-side, vertical row.
• I didn’t darn in the Gingerbread ends from the surface crochet, just used a needle to carry them right to the edge of the work, in the same chain pattern, then tied them off and caught them behind the work with the ‘cinching’ yarn (though I don’t actually think the pattern calls for darning in the ends either!).
• I used a few extra stitches as well as the ‘cinching’ method to close the pumpkin shut (because my fabric was so chunky!).
• I used the MC yarn (Cream), not the CC yarn (Gingerbread) to define the pumpkin ‘segments’. I think this looks a little more seamless.

You can find the link to my Ravelry project page for Pumpkin #3 here!

Thoughts on Pumpkin #3

• Using DK held double was probably a bit thick— it worked perfectly everywhere except the top and the bottom, where there was a bit too much stiff material to gather it in properly.
• I really liked the effect and colour combo of this pattern!

Pumpkin #4: Vertical Stripe Pumpkin by Sara Myers

Craft: Knitting

Pattern: Trio of Pumpkins by Sara Myers (Pumpkin #1 (Maroon & Beige Vertical Stripe)).

Yarn: Cascade Cantata, in the shades Cocoa (15) and Sand (16) (leftover from my Atlantis Sweater).

Needles: 5.0mm circular needles (40cm).

Stem details: Using the darker shade (Cocoa), I made a 4-stitch i-cord that was about 10cm long, then twisted it back on itself and secured it in that shape with a few stitches before attaching it to the pumpkin.

Adaptations:

• I used smaller needles than suggested (even though I actually used the right yarn weight with this one!) because I was worried about the stuffing poking through. I’m actually glad I did this— I think I could have gone even smaller because this pumpkin definitely has the loosest gauge of all of them!

You can find the link to my Ravelry project page for Pumpkin #4 here!

Thoughts on Pumpkin #4

• I was a bit disappointed that my pumpkin wasn’t as ‘swirly’ looking as the pumpkin in the pattern photo? I’m not entirely sure how you could achieve that, and I do like the stripes, but it’s just not quite what I was hoping for.
• As I mentioned, I think I would use slightly smaller needles if I were to make this again— perhaps 4.0 or 4.5mm?

Pumpkin #5: Handsome Cable Pumpkin by Sara Kiesel

Craft: Knitting

Pattern: Handsome Cable Pumpkin by Sara Kiesel.

Yarn: Fyberspates CoopKnits Socks Yeah!, in the shade Citrine (118) (leftover from a project that I will be sharing soon!).

Needles: 2.75mm (DPNs and circular (40cm)).

Stem details: I followed the instructions for the stem from the pattern, but made it separately (as opposed to directly on from the pumpkin itself) and stitched it on after stuffing because I knew my pumpkin was a little more sparse at that end (because of my reduced row count) and wanted to stitch it together first! Like Pumpkin #2, I used Scheepjes Metropolis in Valencia (062).

Adaptations:

• Used fingering weight yarn instead of worsted.
• After round 62, I jumped straight to round 103 to decrease the height of the finished pumpkin.
• I intended to follow the pattern from there as written, but I was playing yarn chicken, so, I ended up working rounds 103-108, then only worked rounds 110, 112, 115, 117, 119, 121, 124 and 126-134 (i.e. the ones with shaping/cables, plus a few extra rows, just until I was confident I had enough yarn!). I don’t recommend doing this, because (obviously) the top of my pumpkin was a little sparse, but it was nothing a little darning couldn’t disguise.
• I made the stem separately (so that I could fix the problems caused by my above fudging more easily).

You can find the link to my Ravelry project page for Pumpkin #5 here!

Thoughts on Pumpkin #5

• I ran into SO MUCH trouble with this one at first, because I just couldn’t work out the increases vs the stitch count! Turns out you absolutely NEED to use an increase that doesn’t use an existing stitch (i.e. not KFB), otherwise the stitch count won’t add up right. I ended up using a combo of lifted increases and M1Ls.
• This pattern is a little bit fiddly to work up at the beginning and the end (when you’re on the DPNs), but becomes much more fluid on the circular needles.
• This definitely took the longest of all of my pumpkins— it involves a lot more knitting than the rest!
• If knitted as instructed (using worsted weight yarn/ and working the whole pattern), this pumpkin would be absolutely huge. Like, HUGE. If you want a massive pumpkin, this pattern is your friend.
• I absolutely LOVE the cable pattern and yarn colour.
• I’m also a big fan of the slip knot/crochet starting technique used in this pattern! It’s not a technique I’ve come across before, but I thought it was very neat and super snazzy.

Final Thoughts

I have to say, I really LOVE my yarn-y pumpkin patch. I think each pumpkin has so much character— they’re all so different and individual, but still all very pumpkin-y. I think that they make the perfect, autumnal decorations!

Overall, I think my favourite pumpkin is probably Pumpkin #5 (the Handsome Cable Pumpkin), which is funny because it was definitely the one that caused me the most grief as I was making it! I don’t think the written pattern is perfect, but the cable pattern is just so gorgeous, and the Fyberspates yarn is such a pretty shade of orange, I think it all came together really nicely (even with all of my fudging).

Sadly, I do think Pumpkin #4 (the Vertical Stripe Pumpkin) is my least favourite of the quintet. It just doesn’t have the same neatness (dare I say, elegance?) as the other pumpkins, and I was disappointed not to achieve the same swirly effect that the pumpkin from the pattern seems to have. I also think I could have knitted this pumpkin on even smaller needles, because it has a slightly more open fabric than I would have liked for a stuffed object.

Having said all that, I love all the pumpkins together and think they make a lovely, autumnal cluster! What do you think? Which pumpkin is your favourite?

Gemma

xxx