Tag Archives: halloween

Done-kin

You guys, I did it! I actually did it! I finished a project in a reasonable amount of time!

That’s right. I finished up my little no-pattern knit pumpkin, and I’m so pleased with how it turned out.

I put it together it one night after the kids went to bed. I stuffed it, closed it up with some sturdy cotton thread, and gave it a cute little “pumpkin” shape by sewing a couple stitches through the center and pulling them tight. I left it out on the coffee table, meaning to go out in the morning to find a nice twig to hot-glue on as the “stem.”

Well, the next day my husband took the “early shift” with the kids, and so when I got up, I was greeted by both very awake children taking turns chucking the pumpkin at each other as hard as they could and laughing like crazy. Ah, brothers.

Needless to say, I changed my mind about the “very pokey stick” idea. Instead, I knit a couple inches of I-cord and sewed it in place as a little loop stem, and called it a day. I have to say, it looks pretty cute. And it won’t (knock on wood) cause any scratched corneas. I hope.

Have you done any quick, successful projects lately?

Pumpkin

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I’m back on the horse (sort of). I’m starting real slow, and digging (once again) into my stash. I’m all about easy, fast projects right now. I need something that I can work on for max 1 hour per day and get finished in a week.

I was inspired by the pumpkins I wrote about last week, and decided to go ahead and make my own. (Bonus, it will be a pumpkin that my almost-2-year-old can throw across the room without hurting anyone or anything. Which has been a problem… He’s got an impressive arm on him for someone who is literally knee-high.) Of course, I didn’t want to do anything like “following a pattern” or “reading instructions,” so who knows how it’ll turn out. It’ll be a Halloween surprise!

Basically, I grabbed a handful of half-used skeins from a craft kit I finished years ago (I think it was a basketry kit? All I know is that this yarn was not exactly meant for knitting. It’s soft and pretty, but very splitty). I cast on a multiple of 12 stitches (maybe 60? 72? not sure), and got knitting. I started doing a 2×4 rib, but then got bored and threw in some cable crosses every 5th row. I literally grabbed colors at random, and switched when I ran out. It’s all very scientific.

But I like how it’s turning out. My plan is to use some crochet cotton to close the top and bottom like a drawstring bag, then stuff it, and use a few big stitches through the center of the form to give it a more realistic “pumpkin” shape. Then, I was thinking I’d either knit up a little bit of I-cord for a stem, or maybe find a real stick out in the yard to glue in place as a stem. Not sure yet.

But, I’m feeling positive about this project, and I’m excited to see how it turns out. And if I have extra yarn, well, maybe I’ll end up with a little family of pumpkins. Fingers crossed that it turns out as cute as I think it will.

Are you working on any fall-y projects this year?

A Halloween Curse

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I haven’t got anything pretty or cute or nice to show you today- I’m in-between personal knitting projects and neck-deep in super secret work knitting. I had thought about writing about some cute knitted pumpkins I saw the other day. Or maybe looking up spider-related knitting patterns (my kid is currently obsessed with the “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, or as he calls it “Pider Pider Pider”). Or maybe writing a quick warning that we’re just under 2 months away from Christmas (which we are, so if you’re doing any Christmas knitting, you’d better get moving).

But no, instead, I will tell you a spooky Halloween story. A tale of a real live cursed hat, and the person who must live with it (me).

Because, you guys, I’m totally and completely cursed.

Guess I'm Cursed

So, a couple months ago, I came across a call for a design, and I came up with an idea for a really cute cabled hat (I’d love to show it to you, but it’s currently embargoed. Don’t worry, though, once it’s done I’ll be excited to share it). “This will be an easy job,” I thought to myself. Oh how wrong I was.

It’s a simple little cap, with a handful of semi-complex cables all the way around. Nothing too crazy, but getting the sizing right on something like this is kinda tricky.

So, before I even submitted my proposal, I knit up the following:

Swatch #1: The cable didn’t look the way I thought it was going to. Ripped out.
Swatch #2: The cable looked closer to what I was imagining , but needed some tweaks. But, I figured I could do the tweaks on the hat that I was going to do next. Ripped out.
Hat #1: Got about 3 inches into the hat and realized it was a hat for a giant. Ripped out.
Hat #2: Got about 4 inches into the hat and realized it was a hat for a toddler. Ripped out.
Hat #3: Made it all the way to the crown, but ran out of yarn about 5 rows from the end. Ripped it out.
Hat #4: Made the pattern slightly smaller, and made it to the end with about 3 feet of spare yarn. Turned out cute! Fit! Yay!

I wrote up the proposal, and figured, “Hey, if it gets picked up, great! I have the pattern essentially figured out already. And if it doesn’t get picked up, I’ve got a cute new hat. Win-win.”

A few days later, I got the news that the pattern was picked up (Yay!), but they want it knit in a different yarn (Oh no). So the process started over again.

New Swatch #1: Looks good! Right on the money, gauge wise (which is shocking, since my prototype yarn and actual yarn are quite different).
New Hat #1: This hat is killing me. It’s taking forever, it’s super slow-going for some reason, and making my hands ache. I can only knit on it for an hour or two at a time. But then…

Last night, I sang a little song of triumph as I got to the crown. I decided to stay up past my bedtime because I thought I might be able to finish! I pulled out the US7 DPNs from my knitting bag, and switched them out for the circular I had been using. Suddenly, the knitting felt weird. A little too easy. A little loose.

Y’all, I had been knitting the whole dang hat on US5s, instead of swithing to US7s after the brim.

There were swears.

So, I’m going to go rip out the hat. Again.

Talk about a true Halloween horror.

Have you ever worked on any truly cursed projects?

Inspiration: Halloween Candy

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Halloween is next week, and all my students are going bananas. They’ve all sewn extra-big trick-or-treat bags for themselves, and are talking about nothing but their plans for Halloween costumes (so far it seems like there are going to be a lot of Princess Leias and a lot of very creative “slash” costumes: Vampire-slash-witch, dragon-slash-kitten, mummy-slash-bride).

But, when you’re a grown-up without kids, you don’t do much for Halloween, except make sure that your house is well-stocked with candy for the trick-or-treaters. So far, I’ve not picked out my candy yet (I have very little self-control when there’s a massive bag of Almond Joys and Snickers bars in the house, so I try to buy it last-minute). Maybe I could knit my candy instead of buying it?

I could go classic with candy corn. People pretend like it’s some weird old-fashioned candy that no one admits to liking. But, I call bull on that. It’s candy! It’s made of sugar! Of course it’s delicious!

Candy Corns by Purl SohoOr I could be fancy, with these delicate little striped bonbons. How cute are they?! I bet they’d be a great way to use up tiny little leftovers, too.

Sweet Stripes by Tricia McDonaldBut I think if you’re looking to make Halloween candy you can’t get any more appropriate than this flipping adorable zombie candies. I mean, honestly, could they be any more perfect?

Creepy Halloween Candy-Zombie by Dawn Finney(Don’t worry, I’ll give out real candy on Tuesday. I imagine that giving out knit candy would be a great way to get our house TP’d.)

What are you doing to celebrate Halloween?

Inspiration: Kid Pumpkins

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Happy Halloween, everyone!

I’ve got something very cool to share with you. It’s a pumpkin!And it was made (with almost no help) by one of the 7-year-olds in my after-school knitting class (we’ll call her “Raven,” since that’s a suitably Halloween-y name). Sure, it’s a little knobbly, but I’d like to think it looks “homegrown.” Raven made a big square(-ish shape… she’s a big fan of the “accidental yarn over”) of garter stitch with pumpkin-orange yarn. She worked so hard on it- spending the last 4 weeks of class chugging away on her knitting. Then she sewed the cast-on and bound-off edges together to make a tube, and closed up the top. After stuffing the pumpkin with fiberfill, Raven closed up the bottom. I showed her how to make big stitches around the pumpkin to form the “seams,” and then she knit a little green stem and sewed it into place all by herself.

How awesome is that?! It looks even cuter from this angle:Want to make your own? Follow the procedure that Raven used, or try one of these adorable (but slightly more complicated) patterns: