This knitted pumpkin is a fun and easy working in the round type of project make décor perfect for the fall season!
It has been a while since I have done a knitting project, so I wanted to do something in honor of the fall season. And what is more fall than pumpkins? I love the way pumpkins looks but live are so much of a hassle. They are bulky and get thrown away at the end of the season. Having a piece of décor to use repeatedly is more my style.
My solution? Knitted pumpkins! This felt like the perfect solutions for some cute items around the house and I got to knit! Knitting is very cathartic for me, especially a pattern where I don’t have to change stitch type. These are great because you can just go and go.
There is not standard size pumpkin, which is great because that means there is no such thing as a perfect replica. I can make them smaller; I can make them bigger (or taller); it didn’t really matter! Not having limitations is great because adding an extra row if I lost count didn’t look like a mistake. While I could have made these wider, I decided to keep a smaller diameter to make them the perfect décor for the table or other shelf areas.
Don’t want to knit it yourself? Check out the MCG store or Etsy to order your own!
Check out the Craft section of MCG for more fun patterns in strings and things or more unlimited ideas.
Supplies
The one interesting thing about this knitted pumpkin is just how many double pointed needles (DPNs) are used. For the main body, since I wanted to have six sides, it meant that I needed seven needles which is a lot. I feel like I’m doing some sort of witchcraft when that many needles are involved. I also used three colors of yarn: orange for the pumpkin, green for the leaf, and brown for the stem.
Process
The Pumpkin
The main part of making a knitted pumpkin is the pumpkin itself. I started with a small number of stitches on three needles and spread it across to six once I made the full circle. Making sure the yarn isn’t twisted when joining the yarn in a circle is very important. If it starts twisted it will stay twisted and there is no way to fix it.
Then it was time to increase the stitches. I did this relatively quickly to make a quickly curved bottom. Since I was going for more of an oblong shape than a sphere, I wanted to have that rapid increase adding 12 stitches on every pass with a little breathing between.
Then, for the main portion of the body, it was just time to knit and knit and knit. This was a really nice process for me because I could just focus on one thing and my hands would just go. I didn’t need to worry about any sort of pattern. Although I did have to make sure I didn’t drop any stitches.
Once the pumpkin reached a good height (this was determined more by feel than anything else), I started doing a decrease that mimicked the increase. I wanted the top and bottom to be somewhat symmetrical.
Add-Ons
I wanted to have a leaf and a stem on the pumpkins because I felt that would look cute. The stem felt like a requirement because that was all pumpkins have. The leaf is more of a fun touch that anything.
I used DPNs for both the leaf and the stem. The leaf was made using three needles: two sides and one to keep knitting. This is effectively equivalent to two flat surfaces begin sewn together. Just minus the sewing. I started small, increased the size, and then decreased it again.
For the stem, there were two different approaches that I wanted to try. One was a shorter stem and the other a longer one. For both, I cast on the same number of stitches as what I used to start the pumpkin but only spread it across three DPNs. To make the short stem, I knitted a few rows and then switched to closing the top. The long stem had a minor decrease and a bit more knitted before switching to closing the top.
To make the top more “stem like”, I did a bind off on 2/3rds of the stem and used the remaining 1/3 to create a panel. It’s moments like this that I feel crocheting is better for. Knitting is not always the best for creating flat circles.
Assembly
The last step for making a knitted pumpkin is putting all the parts together. First, I stuffed the pumpkin with polyester fiberfill to make the pumpkin nice and plump. This made the knitting go into a ball but not exactly a pumpkin. To make it more like a pumpkin, I wrapped a band of yarn around the ball, tightly to create six different sections.
Then I filled the step with the polyester fiberfill as well. The last step was sewing everything together. I started by sewing in the ends on the pumpkin first, then the leaf went on top and finally the stem.
Reflections
This project was a lot more fun than I was anticipating. It has been a while since I made a knitted piece of this size, and I was really into it. The knitted pumpkin looks amazing too. I really love how cute they look, and they really have that classic pumpkin look. Using the string to create the sections was the right way to go. This is a great project, and I would gladly make more.
Lessons
No Sewing Needle? No Problem?
While making the pumpkin, I realized that I could not find my sewing needle. But that was not going to stop me. Instead, I found my crochet hook and used that to connect the pieces. It worked! I am not the best at using a crochet needle, so it was a little sloppier than if I was able to do this with a needle. but in a pinch, there are always other options so see what you can do with the tools you have!
Pattern
This is such a large project that I decided to just create an external file rather than embedding the pattern in the post. Download using the link below!
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