31st of October

The blanket is done!  It seemed like a really long-term project when I started this a few months ago (in July).  My son had asked for this blanket to be even longer than the first one I'd made (the granny square one) so the strips had 100 repeats.  The finished blanket ended up measuring 175cm x 140cm, plenty enough to cover two people sitting cosily on the sofa together.

I tried to use up every last bit of wool I had.  I had some dark blue left over after finishing the strips so I used that to crochet four more rows of squares all around the blanket and then added a little colourful edge by making one more row of single crochet in olive green and one in turquoise.  I think that finishes it off nicely.

I like the nice scalloped shape that you get with these strips…

more zig-zag than scallop even!

And today of course is...

Halloween!  This is not as popular in Europe as it is in America and there will be no trick-or-treating where we are at the moment, but I still like to celebrate it in a small way… and my particular favourite thing is pumpkin-lanterns.

We brought a couple of small pumpkins with us... but were delighted to be offered two giant pumpkins by our farmer neighbour!  The colours and shapes are wonderful.  One of them as been cut by now and made into soup and will also be made into potato-carrot-pumpkin mash tonight… and there will still be loads left!

We continue to enjoy beautiful warm weather today - hardly feels like autumn at all.  The other project I took with me is this very long standing WIP:  the butterfly doily.  I've not touched it for months and months!  But now I've picked it up again, I'm making good progress.  Only showing you a little bit of it, I'll save the full view for when it is finally completed!

To finish, here's one of my pumpkin-lanterns:

Happy Halloween!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Encore Une Citrouille!

Another simple pumpkin design but also another interesting treatment for the leaves.  This one is "Needle Tatted Pumpkin" by Sherry Matthews.

Best wishes,

Yet Another

Have you had enough of pumpkins yet?  Here is another one, this time by Mark Myers and it's called "Autumn Pumpkin".  I started this once and wasn't sure I liked it but then decided to have another go.  In the spirit of autumn and Halloween, I just had to complete it to add to my collection.  Mark Myers (aka Tat-man) does a lot of his designs with one shuttle only and this pumpkin is no exception.

This is quite different to the kind of stuff I normally tat but it was interesting to make.  Unlike the previous pumpkin, this is not a quick tat though.  There are many separate elements composing the design.   I did find it a little difficult to produce the kind of tatting I like with the half rings that he uses for the pumpkin:  because they are incompletely closed rings, it's really hard to get them all looking the same.  So I have to accept the more "free" aspect of this kind of tatting.  On the other hand I like the little green braids which are made on the same principle.  It's also quite nice to tat with just one shuttle for a change.

I would have preferred brown for the tail but I still don't have any.  I was supposed to get some with my last order but they were out.  The orange is "Harvest Orange" by Lizbeth.

Anyone else has got more pumpkins they can suggest for me to try?

Best wishes,

More Pumpkins?

I did receive the two orange colours I'd ordered (Bright Orange and Harvest Orange) as well as "Falling Leaves" which has orange, red and yellow in it.  But in the end, I used Autumn Spice again.  The colour changes in Falling Leaves are too strong, Bright Orange is too bright though I like Harvest Orange and will give that a try next.

So here is another pumpkin pattern I tried.

It is Pumpkin Vine Edging by Heidi Sunday.

My pumpkins aren't perfect on this but I felt, in this case, that it added interest that they were slightly uneven... more like real pumpkins!  (that's my excuse anyway...)   Unless they are tight against each other, it's surprisingly difficult to get the rings and chains of onion rings to look really even and symmetrical.  I also tried different joins on the pumpkins so they are not all the same there either.

I also played around with where I switched shuttles.  In the original pattern, she has all the little rings in the pumpkin colour but I think they are better as leaves so you see I have mine in different colours.  If I was to carry on I would use the Autumn Spice thread where it falls in the browns and greens but otherwise use the green thread shuttle for all the vine and little rings.

Maybe an autumn pumpkin necklace would look nice?

I do find those colours very appealing together.

Autumn Spice and Jungle Greens.

Best wishes,

Small Pumpkin

I was looking for a small pumpkin pattern.  Doodled for a while thinking I'd come up with my own... then I happened upon Mark Myers' Apple pattern... and thought it might look good as a pumpkin!

What do you think?

I'm waiting for some plain orange colours.

I placed an order today so hope to get

the new threads in a day or two.

So this is Autumn Spice again.

Another of my favourite Lizbeth colour ways.

This nice pattern is quick to tat, just what I was looking for.  I particularly like the way he made the leaf.  It has interesting curves in it, using the small ring inside to pull the curves in.

I'm also knitting away and have now started on the second pattern repeat.

Best wishes,

Pumpkin

It's October.  Time for harvest, colourful leaves, Halloween and... pumpkins!  I love pumpkins.  I like the way they look and I like the way they taste!

Here is one very pretty teapot pumpkin conceived by Martha Ess and which she generously shares on her blog.

My only contribution to this great pattern was to add a couple of tendrils.

I imagine this pattern was meant to lie flat.  I have to admit that mine cupped a lot.  I debated whether to press it flat but then opted against it.  So this is a lovely three-dimensional pumpkin.  In fact my young son thought I should tat another half and make it completely round.  I had no brown so used black for the tail and the beautiful Autumn Spice by Lizbeth for the pumpkin itself.  The spout and handle are done in Lizbeth Evergreen Dark.

Ooh, it will soon be time to carve some.  The children (and I!) love doing that.

Best wishes,