Visions of Pumpkins...

As August prepares to give way to September, I am still busily creating as many pumpkin items as my fingers can possibly keep up with. My towns annual Pumpkin Festival begins in two weeks and I must have these goodies finished up and delivered to the gift shop downtown that's awaiting them. Customers start asking about my pumpkins by mid Spring {Are you kidding me? All I can think of at that point is ~ SUMMER... it's almost here... FINALLY!}

 

I did get some tags on some pumpkin hats last Saturday and dropped them off  at the shop so there would be a few there for some of those eager beavers!  My stack continues to grow here at home but I don't want to deliver anymore because I have ordered new business cards that should be here in the next day or two. After all, I must torture myself by having my name and number on every one of them so I get more outside orders for these silly pumpkin hats, which literally haunt my dreams at night this time of  year. Seriously ~ I go to sleep thinking about them, knit them in my dreams and wake up knowing they are the destiny of my darn day! Sometimes it's like this through October. {Did I mention before that pumkins don't do it for me in a big way and that orange has never been my favorite color?} I do have to smile and be thankful however. They are a big money maker. Last year my dear husband was having 60% of his pancreas removed during the Pumpkin Festival week {he had pancreatic cancer} and I spent 6 days and nights in the hospital with him. I took all my supplies to keep whipping these hats out thinking I'd bring a fresh stack to the shop. I didn't make it home with a single hat. The nurses snapped them up with more excitement than a bunch of fat kids in a candy store! Never saw anything like it in my life.

 

Anyway, this year I decided to give myself, and those pumpkin enthusiasts I am surrounded by, a bit of variety. I have been knitting up these sweet little pumpkin pincushions. Well, the pattern refers to them as pincushions and they are great for that. They are especially nice for a blunt yarn needle. But they make really cute table decorations as well. Even I really like them :)  Of course, you'll notice I have to sneak white pumpkins in the mix for my own viewing pleasure!

 

So~ if I disappear again for a few days at a time, you'll know I'm wandering around in the pumpkin patch {trying not to come unraveled!}

The Pumpkin Patch

As knitter's, crocheter's, or crafter's of any kind we are usually working on more than one project at a time. So this is what I have been doing along side the pretty little pink sweater I just finished up. I've been working in the pumpkin patch! The small town I live in prides itself in being "the Pumpkin Capitol of the World" and every September we have....you guessed it....  a PUMPKIN FESTIVAL.
The gift shop downtown, LULU'S, that carries my handmade items sells these hats like there's no tomorrow. For a few weeks people in this town will buy ANYTHING that remotely resembles a pumpkin! This is the first year I have knit them up in this off white. I just LOVE it! Not being much of an orange lover,  I happen to prefer white pumpkins in all their creamy loveliness anyway. So I thought ... Hey, why not? And I think they are rather sweet and pure and soft.... just like a baby!

So now my workbasket {actually a Longaberger Pie Basket ~hmmm....must be dreaming of pumpkin pie while I knit!} is full of pumpkin making goodies. So the afternoon's find me sitting on my front porch swing with my knittting. As an added bonus each breeze brings with it the smell of Libby's Pumpkin Factory, which is just down the street and around the corner from my house. It permeates the whole town through August and September. It's what Fall smells like to us!
 

And notice the soft pumpkin shade of orange I use instead of a brighter shade. Much more to my liking. I think it has a nice vintage feel to it. I do occassionally make a bright orange one when someone requests it or just to offer up something different because we all have our own tastes. That's what makes life fun!

 

Hope you all have the best weekend ever. As for me... I'll be in the Pumpkin Patch!