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

Fear not, though, because I am back now and intent on bringing you as much joyful, creative deliciousness as possible this year. There’s a lot of horrible stuff going on in the world right now and, sometimes, I feel like posting about my cakes and crafts is a bit… silly? Or just unhelpful? Or maybe even inappropriate? However, I saw a post on Instagram recently that said it’s important to allow space for both outrage towards the big issues (of which there are many) and appreciation for the small joys of everyday life (of which there are also many). It really resonated with me: I feel that the small joys allow us to maintain hope for better times, while the outrage spurs us to help bring those better times about. So, I will continue to share my small joys with you, in the hope that some of them can become your small joys and we can maintain hope for a happier, less hateful world together.

With that, it’s time to get back to what I do best: unhinged creativity by the bucketload. First on the blog for 2026: my annual fusion of bullet journalling and knitting… the Knitting Journal!

Every year, I make my mum a Knitting Journal, where she can plan out her upcoming projects and make notes on her current knits. This journal is purely for planning: I’ve seen some amazing journals where people make these gorgeous, scrapbook-style spreads for their finished projects (and I’m OBSESSED), but that’s not what we’re going for here (truly, that would just be time away from knitting for Mum, which is never her aim!).

I’ve shared her previous two Knitting Journals here on the blog: you can find the 2024 version here and the 2025 version here, if you want to check them out. Today’s post, though, is all about the updated 2026 version!

Table of Contents

• Journal
• The Brief
• Equipment
• Initial Pages: General Planning
  • Cover Page
  • Project Ideas
  • Yarns to Try
  • Stash-Busting
  • Present Ideas
• Monthly Spreads
  • Project Overview + Monthly Calendar
  • Project Notes
• Christmas Planning
• Final Thoughts

Journal

I’m trying a different notebook brand for my journals this year: Tiefossi. For my mum’s Knitting Journal, she picked the Moonlight Melody notebook in the Light Blue shade.

It’s always a risk trying out a new notebook (I’m specific about what I like!), but I really loved using this one! The dot-grid pages are thick (and numbered!), the notebook has an elastic closure, pen holder and back pocket AND the design of the cover is so lovely. The best thing about the notebook, though, is that the centre of each page is (discreetly) marked with a +, while the centre of each side is marked with a short line. I was a little suspicious of these markings at first, because I was worried that they would be too visible on the finished spreads, but they really disappear into the designs (even the simple ones, like I’ve done here) and I can’t even BEGIN to explain how HELPFUL they are. They really sped up the whole setup process for this journal and it was so luxurious not having to constantly measure/count as I went. I did notice, however, that one of the other Tiefossi journals (the purple version of the Gold Vintage Dot Grid Notebook) I purchased did not contain these markings, so maybe this is only a feature in certain notebooks?

The Brief

My personal, bullet journal style tends to include lots of decoration and lots of designated sections for organising all of my thoughts. My mum, on the other hand, prefers to be less restricted by small boxes and detailed tables. Her knitting journal is, first and foremost, meant to be practical, so I’ve kept the decoration to a minimum. In fact, the main decorative feature (using a different colour for each month) is also a practical choice, because it helps her to navigate through the journal super easily (though, of course, it also looks nice, so really it’s a win-win!).

The journal is split into monthly sections, with a few more general spreads at the beginning for overall planning/notes. Each monthly section contains a Project Overview, a Calendar (not strictly knitting-centric, but useful nonetheless!), a blank page and 3 pages of Project Notes (with each page split into 3 sections, for a possible total of 9 projects overall).

Equipment

I decided to use coloured pencils to create this setup to make the whole thing feel really fun and creative. For each month, I picked two similar shades of coloured pencils in rainbow order (so January was two shades of red, February was two shades of orange etc.).

The only places that I didn’t use coloured pencils were the Monthly Calendars. For these, I used my Sakura Pigma Micron 05, in the shade Black. This was just because the calendars are quite small and I wanted to make sure they were super clear and functional, so I needed finer, crisper lines (and numbers!). Everywhere else, I used coloured pencils for the decorations, lines and lettering.

Initial Pages: General Planning

To differentiate the initial, more general pages from the monthly sections, I used a select rainbow of coloured pencils (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink) in all of the spreads.

Cover Page

The Cover Page is super simple, but it really sets the vibe for the rest of the setup: I’ve gone for a simple, block capital font with an uneven baseline (for fun! For whimsy!), along with some little heart and star doodles (again, for fun and for whimsy!).

Project Ideas

Next up, we have a Project Ideas spread, which I’ve split into three sections: Sweaters, Gifts & Other. If this were me, I’d have this spread split up into an extensive, comprehensive list of categories (you guys have seen my wish list spreads, right?!), but the more minimal, open vibe with fewer categories is what works best for my mum!

I’ve used these two-line wavy borders all throughout the setup (always using two different colours/shades for each border). Not only does this look pretty fun and add a little extra decoration, it’s actually pretty quick to set up, because you don’t have to get a ruler out!

Yarns to Try

The next spread is the Yarns to Try spread, where Mum can keep track of any yarns that she’s interested in and would like to try knitting something with at some point. I’ve split this spread up into 4 sections: Fingering weight, DK weight, Worsted weight and Other (i.e. the three yarn weights Mum uses most, plus a space for all the other weights, just in case!).

Stash-Busting

Like all knitters, Mum has an extensive stash of yarn leftover from previous projects (and purchased yarn that is yet to be knitted into new projects!), so reducing that is always one of her goals (because, obviously, that means she can buy more yarn!). I’ve left this Stash-Busting page really open, with just a border around the edge of the spread, so she can jot down any notes/ideas she has on the topic of stash-busting in whatever arrangement she feels like.

Present Ideas

Just like with the last page, I’ve left the Present Ideas spread super open, so Mum can use it in whatever way she would like. Here, she can keep her notes on knits she would like to make for specific people. This will be particularly useful around Christmas (always a busy knitting season!), but also throughout the year, as friends and family celebrate their birthdays.

Monthly Spreads

Into the Monthly Spreads now and I won’t show you every page because, aside from the colour/calendar changes, every monthly setup is identical! Instead, you can see the rainbow progression of colours in the image above and I’ll use January to show you the individual pages in each monthly section.

Project Overview + Monthly Calendar

The first double-page spread in each monthly section is the Project Overview + Monthly Calendar. The right-hand page features the monthly heading (so, here, that’s January) and a (pretty small, but as big as possible!) grid-format calendar. As I mentioned earlier, the calendar’s not a strictly knitting-centric addition, but it’s helpful nonetheless!

The left-hand page is split into three sections: Ongoing Projects, Projects to Start and Miscellaneous Notes. It’s nice to have some space to map out the (knitting) month ahead, so that’s what this is.

Project Notes

Each monthly section contains a further two double-page spreads, featuring a single, blank page at the start (for assorted notes, sketches, reminders etc.) and three pages for Project Notes.

Each Project Notes page is split into three sections horizontally. Each section corresponds to a different project. This is where Mum plans out individual projects: here, she’ll write out yarn ideas, needle sizes, which pattern size she plans to knit and any notes on her gauge. She fills these sections out ahead of time, so she always has a bank of projects all figured out, ready to knit immediately. This way, she’s never left with nothing on her needles!

Christmas Planning

In the December monthly section, right at the end of the journal, there’s an extra Christmas spread (because Christmas always requires a lot of planning!). For this spread, I used red and green as my two coloured pencil shades (because what’s more festive than that?). This festive spread is split into two sections: Christmas Presents and Christmas Cards.

Both sections are laid out in a rough table format: in both tables, the left-hand column is for the name of the recipient. Then, in the Christmas Presents table, the right-hand column is for the present Mum intends to give, while, in the Christmas Cards table, it’s for the address the card needs to be sent to.

Final Thoughts

As the years go by and I make more of these for my Mum, I’m definitely getting a better idea of how her mind works and how she likes to organise things (which is very different to how my mind works and how I like to organise things, I’ve discovered!).

My goal this year was to keep everything as minimal as possible, not in terms of decoration, but it terms of layout: while I prefer lots of specifically-labelled boxes to slot my thoughts into, Mum prefers a big, open space to write down all of her thoughts. I think I achieved that pretty well this time around!

I think the coloured pencil theme I went for brings a lot of fun and whimsy to an otherwise pretty minimal setup. I love using coloured pencils in my bullet journal because there’s no chance of them bleeding through the paper (though, they do, unfortunately, sometimes transfer a little to the opposite page…). Using coloured pencils also meant I had a huge range of shades at my disposal, which really helped me to add dimension to the spreads by using a two-tone colour palette each month.

It’s a bit of a labour of love to set up a whole year’s worth of a journal at once, but it makes me very happy to help Mum plan the hobby that brings her so much joy and peace, so it’s definitely worth it!

All in all, I’m really pleased with how this Knitting Journal turned out!

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

My brother and his wife (they got married last weekend!) recently moved into their new house and, as a housewarming present, I offered to make them a set of gnomes! They both picked their favourite gnome from my copy of The Gnomes of Grimblewood and, so, I set about making them their very own versions of Gnicole (the cabled gnome) and Gnatalia (the colourwork gnome).

Gnicole is a self-proclaimed instant noodle connoisseur and maintains that spicier noodles are always better. While the curly, ramen-style noodles are her favourite, she does also enjoy some nice spaghetti. In fact, she always carries a stash of dried spaghetti with her, under her hat, in case of emergencies (hence why her hat is so outrageously tall). Of course, she stole that idea from Paddington, but she doesn’t think he’ll mind: imitation is, after all, the sincerest form of flattery.

Gnatalia loves ballroom dancing: she very much enjoys a classic waltz, but her favourite dance is the tango, because she likes the drama. Because she only has feet (no knees), she can’t dance the Argentine tango, which is a source of great sadness to her. Unfortunately, Gnicole is too top-heavy (as a result of her spaghetti-stuffed hat) to be a suitable dance partner, so Gnatalia is in the market for a someone new (her first choice is Anton Du Beke, but she is willing to settle for someone else if necessary).

Table of Contents

• Yarn Choices
• Thoughts on the Patterns/Gnome-Making Process
  • Gnatalia
  • Gnicole
• Changes/Adaptations
• Final Thoughts

Yarn Choices

As with all of the gnomes in my Year of Gnomes undertaking, I made both of these gnomes using leftover fingering weight yarn that I had already had on hand. In general, I tried to stick as closely as possible to the colours in the inspiration photos (both in The Gnomes of Grimblewood book), though, obviously, I did have to make a few changes here and there where I didn’t have exact matches.

Even though the two gnomes are very different from each other, I still wanted them to feel like a set. I opted to use the same colour for both Gnicole‘s hat and one of the accent colours on Gnatalia‘s hat (the brim/horizontal stripe colour). I also gave Gnicole a grey beard (as opposed to a white beard), so that Gnatalia wouldn’t look dirty next to her, with her grey beard and hat. Both gnome designs already had tassels, so I think, along with the colour choices, this version of Gnicole and Gnatalia look like a nice, matching-but-not-too-matchy pair.

Little note here: I’ve never worked with teal yarn before, so I wasn’t expecting this, but MY GOODNESS did my hands look a MESS after knitting Gnicole. The dye on the yarn just seemed determined to get all over me, which did make the experience slightly less enjoyable. Sometimes the dye washed off, sometimes it didn’t, but it definitely turned me off knitting with teal again for the foreseeable future!

Thoughts on the Patterns/Gnome-Making Process

As I’ve mentioned multiple times in my Year of Gnomes series, I absolutely love following Sarah Schira‘s gnome patterns: they’re SO clear and easy to follow and understand, which makes knitting up even the fiddlier parts of the gnomes seem super doable and not at all overwhelming.

This was, however, my first time making both Gnatalia and Gnicole, so I thought I’d share my initial thoughts on those specific patterns here.

Gnatalia

Gnatalia is quite different to the other gnomes I have made: not only does she have the whole folded hat thing going on, she is also a much rounder shape. Furthermore, she has the most complex colourwork I’ve done in a gnome (the only other gnome-based colourwork I’ve tried was Gnolan‘s stripes, which doesn’t really compare at all).

I was dreading the colourwork element of Gnatalia a little bit, but it actually wasn’t too bad! I did end up with a lot of ends to tie off and darn in (though the darning probably wasn’t completely necessary— I could have just left them as stuffing additions), which was sad, but kind of a given with colourwork. My work is pretty neat everywhere except the beginning of the round, where everything gets a little loose and, well, less neat, so that’s definitely something for me to work on next time around.

Weirdly, I was also very nervous about folding over and sewing down the hat, but it was genuinely super simple and easy to do. Yet again, Schira’s instructions make even the overwhelming tasks feel approachable and I am so very grateful for that.

I really enjoyed making the more rounded body shape for Gnatalia, but I did find it a little trickier to stuff than the other gnomes. Gnatalia is quite a stable gnome, so I didn’t find that it was necessary to leave 1/3 of the body for weighted stuffing (I ended up only filling about 1/4 to 1/5 instead).

Gnicole

My first thing to say about Gnicole is that she is MUCH bigger than I expected? I don’t know how, but I was genuinely shocked by the size of her once I’d finished her main body piece. She’s a TALL girl (though, to be honest, it’s mainly hat). Because of her size, there is quite a lot of knitting in her and her hat also features a lot of cables, which adds to the total knitting time too. She wasn’t the most complicated gnome, but she definitely took longer to work up than most of the other gnomes I have made!

This was my first time making a curly beard and I could not, for the life of me, visualise how it was going to work. In the end, I just trusted the process, went for it and got to witness it just, well, happen (I find that’s usually the way with knitting). I love the effect of the curly beard, but I do think the shape of it is a little off— mine just feels a bit wider/more trapezoid-y than ones in the photos? More on that later.

Similarly to Gnatalia, I found stuffing Gnicole quite challenging. The pattern warns you that her hat is super stretchy, so you need to be careful not to over-stuff it. I tried my best, but I still feel she’s a little bit over-stuffed, though this could also be because the brim of the hat is quite tight and pulls Gnicole in where her hat meets her body.

Changes/Adaptations

For Gnicole, I followed the pattern pretty much exactly. The only slight change I made was that I blocked the tassel of the hat, because it was looking pretty limp and sparse when I first made it. Blocking worked wonders though: the tassel looks much thicker and all-round prettier now, so I’ll definitely be carrying that technique forward in my gnome making journey! In fact, I was able to carry it forward almost immediately, because Gnatalia also has a tassel, so it worked out well.

As I mentioned, I’m not 100% happy with Gnicole‘s beard. It’s quite… unruly at the edges— the outer ‘curls’ have a tendency to stick upwards and outwards, which kind of overwhelms Gnicole‘s little body. I folded the outer sections of the beard under the rest of it, then used the arms to hold it in gently in place, and I much prefer it that way. Perhaps next time I’ll try making the beard slightly less wide? But it would still stick out, surely, so I’m not sure…

For Gnatalia, I made two, small changes: firstly, I added feet, which the original pattern does not include, but the worsted weight sample (which I was basing my Gnatalia on) does. The feet are a bit fiddly to make, but they’re so cute and I haven’t made any since Gnorri (my very first gnome!), so I thought it was about time to make some more.

The second change I made was also a result of trying to mimic the style of the worsted weight sample as much as possible: for Chart 2, I used Yarn A in the place of Yarn B (and vice versa). It’s just a little alteration, but I’m pretty sure it’s what’s done in the sample, so I did it too.

I think, if I were making Gnatalia again (maybe even any gnome, given my problems with Gnicole too?), I’d use a stretchier cast-on for the brim of her hat. I’ve been struggling with the brim being too tight on my most recent gnomes and I think a stretchier cast-on would help with that.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m super happy with how Gnicole and Gnatalia turned out and I think they’ll make the perfect Gnomewarming gift for my brother and his wife. I didn’t experiment too much with the colour choices for these two, because I wanted these gnomes to be pretty accurate representations of the ones in the book. Both of these gnomes felt quite different to the gnomes I’ve already made, so it was fun to branch out a little bit and introduce some new techniques to my gnome arsenal.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my Gnomewarming project! I’ll be back next month with 2 (!!) more instalments of my Year of Gnomes series (April and May), so stay tuned for that!

If you're interested...

You can buy The Gnomes of Grimblewood on Amazon here.

You can find the pattern for Gnicole the Cabled Gnome on Ravelry here.

You can find the pattern for Gnatalia the Colourwork Gnome on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ravelry project page for Gnomewarming here. 

Gemma

xxx

Gnarley the First!

Gnarley the First is a renowned interior designer, best known for her cutting-edge work with throw pillows and cushions. She’s not a big talker, but no other gnome can furnish a tree the way she can. She tries to cultivate a mysterious persona, in order to establish herself as a true ‘artiste’, but her creative idol is Edna Mode and her favourite song is ‘Raspberry Beret’, so make of that what you will...

Table of Contents

• Choosing March’s Gnome
• The Yarn
• Thoughts on the Pattern
• Changes/Adaptations
• Things I Loved!
• Things I Didn’t Quite Love…
• Final Thoughts

Choosing March’s Gnome

After two relatively… pointy gnomes, I was craving a bit of a shape change for this month’s gnome. Gnarley is the only square-hatted gnome in The Gnomes of Grimblewood (the book by Sarah Schira, which contains the patterns for all three of the gnomes I’ve made so far), so he seemed like a good choice! I was also quite excited to try knitting his textured body, which is unlike anything I’d ever knitted before.

The Yarn

For this knitalong, I’m aiming to use up leftover yarn scraps from my mum’s extensive stash (and my own, not quite so extensive stash). While this does mean that I typically won’t be able to identify the specific yarns I’m using, I actually do know what the pink tweed yarn I’ve used here is! It’s Slubby Sock by Ainsworth & Prin, in the shade Mallow. Unfortunately, according to Ravelry, this yarn has been discontinued, which is a shame, because I really liked working with it.

A tweed-y yarn possibly wasn’t the best choice for Gnarley, just because it does obscure the wavy pattern she’s got going on on her body a little bit… You can still see it, but you just have to look a little closer than you would have to with a more basic yarn. I half suspected this going in, but I just really loved the colour and fancied making a pink gnome this month, so I rolled with it anyway.

I wasn’t sure how much yarn Gnarley would use up, because her whole body and hat are made using the same yarn, so I made sure to pick a yarn scrap that I had a good amount of, just in case. I wish I’d weighed it beforehand though, because I don’t think it used as much as I expected! Note to self: start weighing all gnome yarn before gnome-ing.

For Gnarley‘s beard, I really wanted to branch out from the cream colour I used for the past two gnomes, so I decided to use a grey shade, instead. However… I did run into a number of problems with this: Gnarley‘s quite a simple gnome, for one, and the grey shades did leave her looking a little… flat? Also, because the Mallow yarn is quite a deep shade, if I went too dark with the grey Gnarley started looking very ominous and gloomy, which wasn’t quite the vibe I was looking for… Finally, because my other two gnomes have such bright, cream beards, I was a bit worried about Gnarley looking a bit… mucky next to them.

In the end, after many, many, trials of different colours (and even different beard/nose combinations!), I settled on pale, warm-toned grey shade for both the beard and the nose. By herself, Gnarley looks great, but she does look a little drab compared to the other two gnomes in my collection. I’m hoping that, as the year goes on and I make more gnomes with darker/greyer beards, Gnarley will fit right into place!

Thoughts on the Pattern

My love for Sarah Schira’s patterns continues: they’re so clear, concise (without being too brief) and always work up perfectly. This was my first time following the pattern for Gnarley the Wavy Gnome though, so I thought I’d share some more specific thoughts on this pattern in particular.

Overall, I loved making Gnarley. I’d never worked left/right twists before (like, ever!), so this was an entirely new concept to me and, with the help of Schira’s instructions, I slipped right into an easy rhythm with it. Gnarley worked up SO quickly: in part because of the simplicity of the shape (that square hat was a dream after the struggle that was Gnolan‘s hat last month!), but also because there was something strangely addictive about knitting the textured body— there must just be the perfect amount of rows between the increases and the twists, because it really flew off my needles!

Much like with Gnolan, Gnarley has very few additional elements that need to be sewn onto the main body (in fact, Gnarley has even fewer: just a beard and a nose— no arms in sight!), which made knitting her even quicker and easier. Long story short, I had a lot of fun making my Gnarley!

Changes/Adaptations

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m still getting to grips with the whole gnome-making process, so, much like with the previous two gnomes, I opted to keep things simple and follow the pattern for Gnarley to the letter, instead of trying to make any of my own adaptations.

I do think, however, that if I made Gnarley again, I would make the brim on the hat ever so slightly longer, just to help it sit better over the beard/nose, and differentiate between the hat and the body a little more. Does this mean I’m finally building up the courage to start adding my own little touches to my gnomes?!

Things I Loved!

There are a lot of things I loved about making Gnarley:

• I loved the simplicity of the hat. Both of the previous two gnome hats I have made have been conical (or, at least, vaguely conical), which I love the effect of, but does include a little more shaping and faffery to create. Gnarley’s hat was SO straightforward, making it just felt like a little treat to myself.
• I loved working the twisted stitches. As I mentioned, this is a technique I’ve never used/encountered before, but it was so simple and easy to do, I found myself really enjoying the process!
• I loved the effect of the three-needle bind off on Gnarley‘s hat. I love a three-needle bind off and I think it is just the perfect finish for the top of the square hat!

Things I Didn’t Quite Love…

There were, however, a couple parts of the Gnarley-making process that I wasn’t quite so keen on…

• As I mentioned, I feel like the brim of Gnarley‘s hat is a little too short. This is very possibly due to my stitch-picking up inabilities (more on that in a sec), but I do think I’d consider increasing the length of the rib by 1-2 rows if I made Gnarley again!
• I do not enjoy picking up stitches from 3×3 rib. Why is it so much harder to stay in a straight line?! Not a fun time (but also, why did I find 3×3 rib so much harder to pick up from than the 1×1 rib on Gnorri‘s hat?! I don’t understand…).

Final Thoughts

I loved making Gnarley (especially if we ignore the aforementioned rib-picking-up-struggles)— I definitely think she was the most enjoyable of the three gnomes to make, but I do feel like the other two gnomes (Gnorri and Gnolan), just have a little more presence about them? Gnarley is quite one-dimensional in comparison and, while part of that is my fault for using a tweed yarn and giving her a grey beard/nose, I do think it will take a few more gnomes for her to feel at home in my collection. Truly, though, she was so much fun to make— I can see myself making many more Gnarleys, just for the fun of the process.

So that’s all the intel on Gnarley the First, my March entry for the Year of Gnomes 2025! Next month, I’m planning to follow along with the April mystery gnome, Professor Fungi, so I won’t be posting that one on here until the knitalong has completely finished in May (to preserve the fun of the mystery gnome!). Soooo, there’ll be two instalments of my Year of Gnomes 2025 series in May, and none in April (sad face, but not too sad face because I’m still hoping to get a bit of gnome-ing into the blog next month anyway…!).

If you're interested...

You can buy The Gnomes of Grimblewood on Amazon here.

You can find the pattern for Gnarley the Wavy Gnome on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ravelry project page for Gnarley the First here. 

Gemma

xxx

Let me introduce you to… Gnolan the First!

Gnolan the First has long dreamed of being the next Santa Claus, delivering toys to children and soaring over the seas in his sleigh. However, the Council of Legendary Figures has repeatedly informed Gnolan that he is not nearly portly enough for the job, so Gnolan has been on a strict, self-imposed diet of sugar cookies and mince pies, in a desperate attempt to plump out his tum…

Table of Contents

• Choosing February’s Gnome
• The Yarn
• Thoughts on the Pattern
• Changes/Adaptations
• Things I Loved!
• Things I Didn’t Quite Love…
• Final Thoughts

Choosing February’s Gnome

I mentioned in my last Year of Gnomes post that I had initially planned to make Gnolan the Swirly Gnome first, since he was my favourite gnome from the Gnome Bible (i.e. The Gnomes of Grimblewood, Schira’s book). However, in the end, I opted to go for a slightly more straightforward gnome for January (Gnorri the Pocket-Bearded Gnome, to be exact), just to ease myself into the gnome-making process a little.

This month, I decided I was ready for the slightly more challenging Gnolan. With his twirly, swirly hat and beard, I have been enamoured with Gnolan since I first saw him, so he felt like a fitting gnome for February (after all, it is the month of love!).

The Yarn

For this knitalong, I’m aiming to use up leftover yarn scraps from my mum’s extensive stash (and my own, not quite so extensive stash). While this does mean that I typically won’t be able to identify the specific yarns I’m using, I actually can identify two of the yarns I’ve used for Gnolan the First! They are:

• Drops Baby Merino, in the shade Peanut (55).
• Drops Fabel, in the shade Ruby Red (113).

I also used the same, plain, cream-y/white shade for Gnolan’s nose, beard & hands that I used for Gnorri the First (though, unfortunately, I’m not quite sure on the provenance of that yarn).

I was absolutely set on making Gnolan the First in a similar, red-and-gold colour scheme to the sample Gnolan in the book (for maximum Santa Claus vibes). I realise that means I’ve made both of my gnomes in very similar colour ways to the ones suggested inbythe book, so I’m hoping to expand my shade horizons over the next few months and try out some new, gnome-y colour combos!

Thoughts on the Pattern

I waxed lyrical in my last Year of Gnomes post about how much I love Sarah Schira’s patterns— they’re just so clear and easy to follow! Anyhow, I won’t bore you with that spiel again (just know that all of my previous thoughts and statements still stand). This time, I’ll focus a little more on the Gnolan pattern specifically…

I have to say, I am glad that I made a slightly simpler gnome before making this one— while Gnolan is by no means tricky to make, he does have a few extra techniques and elements that make him slightly more challenging than Gnorri. The shaping of his hat/beard, as well as the i-cord elements, both paired with the striped colourwork details just make Gnolan a little more complex than Gnorri, and, while all of the techniques are super clearly explained, I definitely noticed that added layer of complexity while making him.

Luckily, Gnolan has very few additional elements that need to be attached to his gnome-self after knitting (for reference, Gnorri had 8 separate elements (1 nose, 1 beard, 2 arms, 2 pockets and 2 feet), while Gnolan has only 4 (1 nose, 1 beard and 2 arms), so the increased complexity of his body is balanced out (a little) by his minimal sewing-up requirements. You win some and you lose some, I guess.

Changes/Adaptations

I’m still getting to grips with the whole gnome-making process, so, much like with Gnorri the First, I opted to keep things simple and follow the pattern for Gnolan to the letter. I’m looking forward to switching things up a little and making my own, gnome adaptations in the future, but, for now, I think I need to focus on just getting used to the gnome-y techniques!

Things I Loved!

• This is weird, but I love the shape of Gnolan‘s body? He’s a tall gnome, and the subtle striped pattern, paired with the rich red and gold colour scheme just make him look so regal. Such an elegant gnome.
• The lack of feet. This was a surprise to me, because I was actually quite disappointed not to be making more lil’ feet this time around (and practising the three needle bind-off that I’m suddenly obsessed with). However, without feet, Gnolan looks like he’s kind of gliding around, which makes him feel extra wizard-y and robe-y, so I kind of love it.

• Gnolan‘s arms. I think I did a neater job of the arms this time around, and, because Gnolan is so tall, they’re much longer arms than the ones I made for Gnorri, so I think they look very smooth and elegant.

• The shape of Gnolan‘s hat. I didn’t love the process of this (so. much. slipping. of. stitches.) but the curve is giving me definite Grinch-y, Christmas tree vibes, so I kind of love it. Also, how clever is the pattern to create that shape? I’m obsessed.

• The fact that Gnolan‘s base is worked in the contrast colour. I was a bit surprised when I saw this, but I just think it adds a lil’ something something (even though you can’t even see it when he’s upright…).

• The way you can tuck Gnolan’s hand into the little loop of his beard so he can carry it around. Like… how did Schira think of that and why is it the best thing in the whole wide world?!

Things I Didn’t Quite Love…

• The. Striped. I-cord. That last bit of the hat was ridiculously infuriating and I’m not entirely happy even now with how it’s sitting (even after blocking!)…
• The aforementioned slip-stitch process to shape the hat. It wasn’t the worst, but it also wasn’t crazy fun, so I’m putting it here.

• Gnolan‘s beard. Don’t get me wrong— I LOVE the whole hat-swirling-one-way, beard-swirling-the-other-way vibe Gnolan‘s got going on (it scratches an itch in my BRAIN), but I feel I could have knitted the beard a little more… neatly? I love the method used in the pattern to give the beard a clean edge, but I think maybe I didn’t execute it very well, because mine looks a lot messier than the sample Gnolans from the book? Maybe that’s something to work on with Gnolan the Second?

• The jog. I know, I know, jog is kind of inevitable when you’re knitting colourwork in the round, but it still kind of… upsets me?

Final Thoughts

I admit, while I was making Gnolan, I started to have some doubts… I think I was just so excited about the prospect of making him that, when he was a little more challenging than my previous gnome, I panicked and worried that he wouldn’t quite live up to my expectations. However, the second that I finished sewing on his final details, I set him on the mantelpiece next to Gnorri the First and realised… he’s pretty darn cool.

I do think I could improve the beard, but I’m optimistic that with a little more gnome-making practise, that is a perfectly attainable goal for the future. Overall, I’m really happy with Gnolan the First. He’s not perfect, but he’s pretty close for a first attempt! Also, I love how festive he looks— I think he’s going to be the perfect, Christmastime decoration (and Christmastime decorations are my favourite decorations, so it all works out).

Make sure to check back in next month for my March Gnome! I can’t WAIT to make another one.

If you're interested...

You can buy The Gnomes of Grimblewood on Amazon here.

You can find the pattern for Gnolan the Swirly Gnome on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ravelry project page for Gnolan the First here. 

Gemma

xxx

And, after making my first ever gnome, I can tell you: boy, was I right!

Let me introduce you, then, to my January gnome: Gnorri the First.

Gnorri the First has perpetually chilly hands, so his pockets come in, well, handy. He can be a little grumpy and prefers gnot to speak too much (he’s more of a grunter), but you’ll see his wild side if you ever take him line dancing— he loves a good ol’ hoedown throwdown!

Table of Contents

• Choosing January’s Gnome
• The Yarn
• Thoughts on the Pattern
• Changes/Adaptations
• Things I Loved!
• Things I Didn’t Quite Love…
• Final Thoughts

Choosing January’s Gnome

For my January gnome, I wanted to keep things relatively simple. I have the The Gnomes of Grimblewood book (or the Gnome Bible, as I like to think of it), which is written by Sarah Schira (the mastermind behind Imagined Landscapes) and features 8 different gnome patterns (though the elements of the gnomes can be mixed and matched to your heart’s content!), so I decided to pick a gnome from the book to make this month.

At first, I planned to make Gnolan the Swirly Gnome, because I very much enjoy his Santa Claus/wizard-esque vibe, but, ultimately, I decided to start with something a little more straightforward, just to ease myself into the gnome-making process. Enter: Gnorri the Pocket-Beard Gnome. I think the beard pockets are SO cute and Gnorri‘s basic, gnome body seemed pretty simple, so he felt like the perfect starting point.

The Yarn

After many years of knitting, my mum has acquired a multitude of leftover yarn, particularly in the fingering weight category. I’m viewing this Year of Gnomes as a stash-busting project for those yarn scraps, so I won’t be buying any new yarns for this knitalong (she says, hopefully). Unfortunately, that does mean I have no idea what brands/shades any of the yarns are, but I guess that’s just part of the fun?

So, I went yarn-diving, hoping to find the perfect combination of yarns for Gnorri the First. After much deliberation, I settled on a slightly moody, autumnal colour palette: a auburn-y, coppery brown for the hat/pockets, a variegated charcoal grey for the body and a plain ol’, natural, cream-y white shade for the beard, nose and hands.

I used the recommended needle sizes for my fingering weight yarn (2.25mm and 2.50mm). I opted to make this gnome using the magic loop method, so I used circular needles (as opposed to DPNs) for most of the pieces. I did, however, use DPNs for the I-cord arms (and one extra DPN needle for the 3-needle bind-off, though a regular, straight needle would have worked too).

Thoughts on the Pattern

I… LOVED working from this pattern. I’m someone who likes to be walked through every step of a project super clearly, which is fine, but a lot of knitting patterns tend to assume a lot of knowledge/aren’t necessarily catered to the less confident, so I always find myself getting frustrated (and making completely incorrect assumptions, which seem very logical to me, but are apparently completely nonsensical). This pattern, on the other hand, is SO clearly explained, SO nicely written and SO detailed (especially when it comes to the sewing up instructions, which I particularly appreciated), without being overly wordy. Exact stitch placements are given! Every step is noted, even briefly! And the best part? It’s all done in a way that is brief and chilled, so it doesn’t feel overwhelming, but is still super clear and easy to follow. It’s a HUGE thumbs up from me!

I’ve mentioned on here before that I think the sign of a good knitted/crocheted toy pattern is that the finished product looks good. I always get a little panicky just before sewing up any yarn-y toy, because there’s always a chance it could end up looking a bit… cursed? However, the instructions for sewing up this gnome were so clear, it really took the stress out of the whole process. Plus, even when you don’t follow those instructions perfectly (I, for example, believe I attached the feet a little too far out from the centre of the beard, somehow), the gnome still looks SUPER CUTE. I’m so proud of my first gnome, which I think is a huge testament to the pattern.

Changes/Adaptations

Aside from the aforementioned, unintentionally far-apart feet, I didn’t make any changes to this pattern as I worked it up. This was partly because this was my first ever gnome, so I had no idea what it was going to look like, how it was going to go or what I would even like to adapt, but it was also partly because I just really wanted to follow the pattern exactly. I spend a lot of time thinking of new ideas, trying to put fun twists on things and be creative, but sometimes it’s really nice to let someone else be creative for you, while you just enjoy the process of making the item.

Gnorri the First, then, is exactly as Gnorri the Pocket-Bearded Gnome should be!

Things I Loved!

• The pockets! I’m obsessed with the pockets!
• The 3-needle bind off on the feet— I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually done a 3-needle bind off before (I had to google how to do it…), but I love the effect it gives and it was so simple to do!
• How absolutely adorable this gnome is and how perfect he looks even though I know he isn’t actually perfect, which almost makes him more perfect.

Things I Didn’t Quite Love…

• Sewing the gnose onto the body (it wasn’t even that tricky, but it was the hardest bit of the whole process, so it felt very irritating at the time).
• Stuffing the gnome (WHY DID IT TAKE ME SO LONG?! I think I got into the swing of it with the fluffy stuffing by the end, particularly after getting through the tricky, skinny bit at the top of the hat. However, putting in the little weighted stuffing pellets was a bit fiddly and vaguely infuriating, so that made me miffed all over again…)
• I’d like to do a better job of hiding the threads inside the I-cord arms: I feel there’s a few places where the hand colour pokes through in the sleeve, which isn’t quite the vibe.

(Sorry, Gnorri).

Final Thoughts

In case you hadn’t quite figured it out yet, I’m obsessed with Gnorri the First, I’m obsessed with the Gnome-Making World and I’m obsessed with Imagined Landscapes (aka Sarah Schira) and all of her iconic, gnome puns. Truly, I think I would knit any of her patterns, as long as there is a silent ‘g’ in the title.

I think Gnorri the First was a great, first gnome for me to make. I also like how he’s ever so slightly dreary, but also has a bit of fun to him— I think it pretty accurately reflects the general vibe of January, so he was a the perfect pick for my January gnome!

Here’s to more gnoming over the next 11 months!

If you're interested...

You can buy The Gnomes of Grimblewood on Amazon here.

You can find the pattern for Gnorri the Pocket-Bearded Gnome on Ravelry here.

You can find my Ravelry project page for Gnorri the First here. 

Gemma

xxx

Table of Contents

• Funfetti Socks
• Hosta Pillow
• Pig in Blanket Ornament
• Cat Ornament
• Stjärna Ornament
• Grace Blanket
• Cookie Boxes
• Final Thoughts

Funfetti Socks

Craft: Knitting

Pattern: I didn’t use a strict pattern for these, but you can find all of my notes on the sock-making process on their Ravelry project page. In essence, this is just a cabled design with a shadow wrap heel and a rounded toe!

Yarn: Drops Fabel, in the shade Confetti Cake (924).

This was actually my first time knitting a pair of socks for someone other than myself! Luckily, they were for my mum, who keeps extensive notes on her own knitting projects on her Ravelry page, so I was able to piece together a pattern/stitch count that fit her perfectly, without her suspecting a thing!

I bought this particular yarn a while ago, because I thought it was SO pretty, and I kept it aside to use for this project. I really love how it looks knitted up!

Hosta Pillow

Craft: Crochet

Pattern: Hosta Pillow by Sidsel Sangild

Yarn: Stylecraft Special 4 Ply, in the shade Teal (1062).

Many years ago, I knitted a cabled cushion (this one, to be exact) as a gift. Back then, my knitting tension was not the best (read: I didn’t tension my knitting at all— whole thing), so the cover ended up bigger than the cushion pad and I may or may not have had to fill in the extra space with toy stuffing… Anyway, this time around, I decided to stick to my strengths and make a crocheted cushion cover instead!

I really loved the design of this particular pattern and I have made crochet projects that use similar techniques before, so I decided to give it a go. It took me quite a bit longer to finish than I expected (it’s a little bit of an involved process), but I really like the finished product!

To ensure the cover is washable, I used an acrylic yarn and inserted a zip (by hand, with a good ol’ needle and thread). I used this 40cm, teal zip and, while it’s not an exact colour match, it is a similar shade to the ‘Teal’ Stylecraft shade. Speaking of the yarn… I was not a big fan, which was SO disappointing, because we all know how much I LOVE Special DK. Unfortunately I just found its 4 ply counterpart super splitty and annoying to work with, so I don’t think I’ll be using it again 🙁 …

Pig in Blanket Ornament

Craft: Crochet

Pattern: Pig In A Granny Square Blanket by A Good Right Hook

Yarn: Oddments of Stylecraft Special DK.

The first of three ornaments that I made this year (for gifting purposes), this Pig in Blanket pattern came up so often on my Pinterest that I really couldn’t escape how cute it was, or avoid making it. I particularly liked the colours used in the pattern, so I rummaged through my stash of Stylecraft Special DK to find some shades that were as similar as possible!

I was so happy with how this one turned out and it was so quick to whip up (I’ve made a lot of amigurumi in my time, so I’ve had lots of practice with projects like this). I did make a few little changes here and there to this pattern, mainly to adapt it so that I could use DK weight yarn for each element (the original pattern uses DK, 4 ply, 2 ply and thread). Unfortunately, I seem to have mislaid all the notes I took on the process! You can find all the details (that I can remember…) for the adaptations I made on the Ravelry project page I made for this lil’ pig.

Cat Ornament

Craft: Knitting

Pattern: Cat Christmas Ornaments by Amy Gaines

Yarn: Oddments of Stylecraft Special DK.

The second ornament and another pattern that I just happened to see one day and immediately fell in love with— I just think this cat is so cute! I also love how simple it is— like a little cat bean bag! I used DK weight yarn for this project, instead of the worsted the pattern calls for, so mine was a little smaller than it should have been but, honestly, I feel like it’s kind of the perfect bauble size as it is? I did have to shorten the length of the scarf because of this though, to ensure it fit the cat correctly. You can find the Ravelry project page for this ornament here.

Stjärna Ornament

Craft: Knitting

Pattern: Stjärna by Karolina Eckerdal

Yarn: Drops Merino Extra Fine, in the shade Off White (01).

I’ve actually already written a whole post about making these Stjärna Ornaments, as part of my Blogmas At Home 2024 series! I had to include it here too though, because one of the four ornaments I knitted was for a present. If you want to read more about my experience making this, you can go directly to that post here!

Grace Blanket

Craft: Crochet

Pattern: Grace Blanket by Anita Gibney

Yarn: Wendy Supreme DK, in the shades Cream (WD02), Duck Egg (WD28), Rose (WD09), Soft Peach (WD52) and Natural (WD17).

Another project that I’ve already written a post on, I made this Grace Blanket way back in the summer, while watching the Olympics. Since then, it’s been hiding out in the airing cupboard, waiting to be wrapped and stashed under the tree, buy it’s finally out in the open now and living its best, blanket-y life! If you’d like to read more about my experience making this blanket, you can find the original post here.

Cookie Boxes

Craft: Baking

Treats included:

• German Mandelhörnchen
• Austrian Vanillekipferl
• Mini gingerbread houses
• Peppermint bark
• Rocky Road bark
• Copycat Christmas Market Nuts

Finally, we come to the only edible presents I made this year: my (kind of) cookie boxes. I dream of establishing a tradition where I make a ridiculous amount of cookies, box them up and deliver them to friends and family during Advent (social media and Hallmark films seem to have brainwashed me into obsessing over this particular American custom, and now I can’t get it out of my head…). This wasn’t quite that, but I like to think of it as a little stepping stone into that world.

My ‘cookie boxes’ this year, then, were a mix of cookies and non-cookie-but-still-very-festive treats. My German Mandelhörnchen were such a hit last year that I just had to make them again (and they were just as good as I remember!). I also branched out a little bit with another recipe from Anja Dunk’s festive cookbook, ‘Advent’: Vanillekipferl, which are these little, vanilla-almond crescent cookies. I did like these and I’m excited to play around with them a bit more next year, but the Mandelhörnchen are still my favourite Christmas cookies at the moment. The final cookie entry was a tiny gingerbread house, made using Mima Sinclair’s Light Gingerbread Dough recipe and some tiny gingerbread house cutters from Søstrene Grene (one of my favourite purchases of this festive season).

After that came the non-cookie confectionery, of which there were three types this year: my classic Peppermint Bark and Copycat Christmas Market Nuts (both well-established, festive traditions in my household now), as well as a new addition: Rocky Road Bark. This was a special request from my soon-to-be sister-in-law, which I made using a 50:50 blend of milk and dark chocolate, along with crumbled digestive biscuits, mini marshmallows and raisins.

To package up the cookie boxes, I used these craft paper treat boxes. I lined each box with baking paper, then arrange the cookies inside. Naturally, I ran out of room, so I had to put btoh the barks and the nuts into little treat bags alongside the box, instead. I planned to do this for the peppermint bark anyway, because I didn’t want the peppermint flavour to spread to all of the other treats, so I wasn’t too disappointed. After that, I just closed up the boxes, tied them up with twine and added a little gift tag, to explain all of the treats inside.

Final Thoughts

And that is everything I made to give to my friends and family over the holiday season! It’s not as much as I’ve done in the past (I really love making handmade gifts), but Christmas always seems to sneak up on me, no matter how early I try to start preparing, so I was still pretty impressed with my creative output this year!

I hope you had a lovely Christmas & New Year, and that you’re ready for lots more creative, crafty fun in 2025!

Gemma

xxx

Last year, I set up a Knitting Journal for my mum, so that she could keep all of her notes & yarn-y plans in one place. It’s kind of a cross between a bullet journal and a project planner, with, of course, a focus on knitting (Mum’s favourite pastime!).

I’ve set up another journal for my mum for 2025, so today’s post is all about the spreads, designs & thought process behind this planner. Unlike with my bullet journal, in her knitting journals, I set up the entire year at once, so that she can plan as far ahead as she needs. I hope you find this spread helpful, and that, even if you aren’t a knitter, it gives you some ideas & inspiration for your own journal!

Table of Contents

• Journal
• Equipment
• Initial Pages: General Planning
  • Cover Page
  • Future Projects
  • Yarns to Try
  • Stash-Busting
  • Present Ideas + Plans
• Monthly Spreads
  • Projects Overview + Cover Page
  • Project Notes
• Final Pages: Christmas & New Year Spreads
  • Christmas Presents + Cards
  • 2026 Plans
• Final Thoughts

Journal

For last year’s knitting journal, I ended up using just over half of the pages in the notebook mum had chosen, so we decided to fit the 2025 spreads into the same notebook, using the remaining pages. I did have to condense some of the spreads a little, just to make sure I could get everything in, but it still has everything Mum will need to keep on top of her projects and plans.

The journal itself is the ‘Sun Solstice’ journal from Notebook Therapy, which was, unfortunately, a limited edition notebook that is now sold out. However, Notebook Therapy has loads of other journals to choose from, so definitely check it out if you’re looking for a new notebook! The ‘Sun Solstice’ notebook is an A5 journal (my go-to for bullet journalling) with a teal fabric cover, elastic closure and a paper pocket at the back. My only slight gripe is that it doesn’t have a pen holder, which I find incredibly useful in my own journals, but maybe Notebook Therapy will add that to their journals in the future!

Equipment

To create this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Uni Pin Fine Line pen: sepia, 0.5.
• Sakura Pigma Micron fineliners: black, 05 (0.45mm) and 08 (0.5mm).
• Kuretake clean colour dot pens: mild colours.
• Coloured markers (I used a combination of Crayola SuperTips and Tombow ABT Dual Brush Pens).
• Ruler.
• Pencil.
• Eraser.

Initial Pages: General Planning

At the start of the journal, I set up some more general spreads, for any overall notes/plans. Because I enjoyed my own 2025 journal setup theme so much, I opted to create a similar style setup here, using the same Kuretake dot pens, along with the brown fineliner for a softer look. I wanted this section to be super colourful, but also minimal, with plenty of space for writing in.

Cover Page

I kept the Cover Page for this setup pretty simple: just the title and some decorations made with the Kuretake dot pens (which look vaguely like worms, but we’ll pretend that’s not the case…). I wrote the heading in the centre of the page, using my brown fineliner.

Future Projects

Next up is the Future Projects spread, where Mum can map out when she plans to make any potential projects. To make this spread, I wrote the heading across the top using my brown fineliner, then divided each page into 6 sections using my Kuretake dot pens, so that I had 12 sections in total (one for each month of the year).

Yarns to Try

Next we have a double-page spread for Mum to jot down any yarns that she’d like to try out! I separated this spread out into 4 sections: one for fingering weight yarn, one for DK, one for worsted and one for any other weights. I chose these categories based on the yarn weights Mum most frequently uses, but this can obviously be adjusted to suit your own yarn preferences.

Stash-Busting

Like any hardcore knitter, Mum has a pretty extensive stash of yarns leftover from projects, so Stash-Busting is always on her agenda. This spread just gives her a space to note down any potential stash-busting projects, ideas/inspiration that she stumbles across or even thoughts on more specific plans. I’ve kept this spread nice and empty, just decorating it with a simple, dot pen border, so she can use it however she would like.

Present Ideas + Plans

The final spread in these initial, general pages is this Present Ideas + Plans page. I’ve set this out in exactly the same way as the Stash-Busting spread, so that Mum can use it in any way she likes. The purpose of this spread is to give her a space to note down any plans/ideas for gifts throughout the year.

Monthly Spreads

Now we come to the main bulk of this knitting journal: the Monthly Spreads. Each month is set out in exactly the same way over 2 double-page spreads, but each uses a different colour marker, to differentiate between the months and make the journal super easy to navigate through.

Projects Overview + Cover Page

The first double-page spread of each month features a calendar on the right-hand page and an overview of that month’s projects on the left-hand page.

While this is a knitting journal, Mum also likes to have a calendar layout to keep track of appointments and events, much like in my standard bullet journal. It’s also helpful for her to see the structure of each month (for planning knitting timelines, of course!). For all of the calendars, I’ve drawn out a grid (in which each box is 3×4 grid squares), using my brown fineliner. I used the colour of the month to add a band of colour above each row, on top of which I wrote the dates. I used a black fineliner (the 05 size of my Sakura Pigma Microns) to write in the dates, because I found that the brown fineliner did not show up very well on top of some of the coloured markers. At the top of the page, I added some larger dots of colour and wrote out the name of each respective month (using the larger, 08 black fineliner), one letter per dot.

I split the left-hand page into 3 sections: Ongoing Projects in the top left, Projects to Start in the top right and Miscellaneous Notes in the bottom. I drew the three boxes using my brown fineliner, then added small dots of colour to write the subheadings on (again, using the 05 black fineliner).

To finish off this spread, I added a wavy line of colour down each side of the paper.

Project Notes

The second double-page spread of each month is populated with 6 individual project sections. In these, my mum will be able to jot down any notes/plans that are specific to certain projects. To set up these pages, I divided each page into 3 horizontally, then outlined the boxes with my brown fineliner. I added more dots of colour in the top left of each box, on top of which I wrote ‘PROJECT’, so Mum can write in the name of each project beside it. Just like the previous double-page spread, I added a wavy line of colour down each side to finish everything off.

Final Pages: Christmas & New Year Spreads

After the Monthly Spreads, I set up a couple of spreads for Mum to use towards the end of 2025, specifically for Christmas and looking ahead to 2026. Because they aren’t necessarily associated with a single month, I used the same, multicoloured dot pen theme as the initial pages here, which bookends the journal nicely.

Christmas Presents + Cards

First up are the Christmas Present/Card Trackers. I used really simple, table style layouts for both of these spreads, with the first column for the name of the recipient and the second column for the present/address, respectively. Like with the other spreads that I created in this style, I wrote the headings in block capitals, using my brown fineliner, in the space at the top.

2026 Plans

This 2026 plans page is the final spread in this setup and another blank slate, with just a simple dot pen border around the edge. These pages are for Mum to note down any potential projects/plans for 2026, so she can get ahead with her knitting and keep track of all of her ideas.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m really happy with how this turned out (and so is Mum!). Setting up a whole year’s worth of spreads is always a little daunting, but the process was actually super quick and easy this time around— it only took me a few evenings to create this setup!

I still really love using the Kuretake dot pens to decorate, make borders and divide up pages. It’s an easy, slow & therapeutic process (though, at the same time, it always seems to fly by), which makes setting up spreads extra enjoyable.

I’m also really happy with the colours I picked for the monthly spreads this year! Last year, I went for a very bright, rainbow colour scheme, but I wanted to use more muted, rainbow colours this time around to tie in better with the pastel dot pens. I think this makes for a more restful, but still vibrant and colourful, setup.

I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about this knitting journal setup for 2025— I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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