Crocheted Pumpkins

It’s fall, time to crochet pumpkins!!

Crochet was my first love. My mom taught me the basics when I was a kid, but I didn’t seriously crochet till my mid 20s. So even though I don’t crochet all the time, I come to it off and on. Another thing about me and crochet is that I am not too much into following a pattern and the crochet pumpkins I am about to share with you are pretty much patternless. I will tell you the basics, and you decided how big, wide, tall you want your pumpkin to be.

You will need:

Crochet hook

Yarn

Scissors

Polyfil

Embellishments: fall leaves, raffia, ribbon, burlap

So I started with a chain of 15. Then I did a single crochet in the back loop only. This is the trick to making these pumpkins look like they are knitted. The single crochet in back loop only gives it the ribbed look. How many rows? Well you decide. I multiplied the number of initial chains, 15 chains in my case, by 2.5 and got 37 rows. This gave me a well rounded pumpkin. If you want your pumpkin to be tall, sort of elongated upwards then reduce your rows, (example: only multiply your starting number of chains by 2 and crochet that many rows). You get the idea. But really you decide, and there is no wrong way. No one is going to think you skipped a row, you had to many or to little rows. Just get your yarn and hook and start and end when you feel like it. A pumpkin will take its own shape, just like they do in nature.

So then when you are about to be finished with your last row don’t tie off your yarn yet. Fold your piece in half and join your last row with your first row by slip stitch, joining front loop to back loop. Once everything is joined you will have a tube.

Close off one end of your tube by sewing around the edge and then pull the yarn to gather up the opening and tie it up.

Stuff it with polyfil.

And then sew shut the top in the same way except you need to leave an opening big enough to insert whatever you are going to use for the stem. I used wine corks. You can use sticks from your back yard, thread spools….whatever you have around. Add ribbon, raffia, burlap or whatever you have to further embellish your pumpkin.