Sparkle Pumpkin

The Taylor Lynn YouTube tutorial at this link suggests 45 rows for pumpkins made on the Sentro 40, but I made this one 52 rows tall because that was how many rows it took to use up the small hank of this yarn I had on hand. I mean, after all, real pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes, so why not add a few extra rows to this one? 😉

I wasn't sure how this metallic yarn would work in my machine (wasn't sure if the metallic filament would get separated/tangled in the needles, etc.), but the yarn ran through perfectly smoothly. In fact, I'm used to having to constantly monitor the stitches on my machine to make sure none has dropped (because my machine ALWAYS drops at least one stitch during every project), but this yarn ran through without one single stitch dropping. Amazing!

Finished it off with half of a cinnamon stick for a stem. I think the green color will make a nice contrast to more traditional color pumpkins in my fall display.

Update 10/20/2022: Two years later and I'm still tinkering with this pumpkin. 😊 I decided to crochet a stem to replace the cinnamon stick, figuring that the crocheted stem would fit the scale of the pumpkin better and also be child-friendly. The stem is made with a small amount of Big Twist yarn in the Taupe colorway. And then I went on and added some curly vines, one in Taupe, one in Red Heart Super Saver in Saffron, and one in a double strand of Fixler Brothers Quick Knit Sport in 018 (yellow). How you like me NOW?!? 😂

Proud Santa Hats

I started this project right after last Christmas after seeing a photo of something similar online, but for whatever reason I didn't make a project page on Ravelry at that time. So I actually mostly finished making the hats months ago, but they sat on the table in my sewing room waiting for me to weave in the ends and add the pompoms, which I finally did today. 

I made the tail on one hat a little longer and on the other hat a little shorter just for some differentiation between the two. Fiber Spider has a good tutorial on YouTube for how to crochet a seamless, top-down stocking cap. I modeled these caps after most of his instructions and then added the rainbow stripes using HDC in the 3rd loop before finishing with the ribbing in white.

But since I did most of the work on these nearly a year ago, I can't remember anymore what size hook I used or what colorways the yarns are, etc.! Oh well. I'm still excited to get these in the mail to Mika and Emmy so they can wear them this coming holiday season. I hope they like the hats!