Spool Knitted Pumpkin

I posted this a couple of years ago.  Since I love spool knitting and pumpkins so much, I thought I would share it with you again.  This would be a great holiday gift to give or get your kids to give.

I like decorating for all holidays (I go crazy over board at Christmas) but for some reason I really like putting out pumpkins and Jack O’Lanterns for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Since I have been talking about spool knitting in this blog, I decided I needed a new pumpkin decoration.  This also give me a chance to show how to change colors while spool knitting.

So I pulled out my bigger spool knitter and started knitting with green yarn for the stem of the pumpkin. Now I could finish off the knitting (as described in the blog post ‘Spool Knitting Tutorial’) and then later sewn it to the orange cording for the pumpkin body. 

Start stem

But I wanted a continuous cord for this ornament.

 This means I have to change color while knitting.  It is easy to do.   When you have the amount of color cording you want ( I knitted about 1 ½ inches), cut the yarn coming from your skein about 3 inches.   Make sure the yarn doesn’t come off the pegs. 

Green in knitter

Lay your next color next to the yarn you just cut and tie the two colored yarn together with a simple over hand knot .  Now continue knitting as before. 



adding orange yard

knot two colors together

When the knot gets to the knitting, I usually take my knitting tool and push the knot into the center of the cord so it is hidden.

close up of knot

When I think I have enough coil, I usually make whatever shape I am planning just to make sure I have knitted enough but I don’t sew it yet.  If I need to do a little more, I do.  I finish off the coil and remove it from the knitter.

Measure Size

To make my pumpkin, I start making a round shape starting with the end of the orange part of the coil. I fold the edge over maybe ¾” and start stitching at the fold.  I do use a pin to hold the fold together and once I have it stitched, I remove the pin.

Start pumpkin

You can sew the coil together with the yarn you used or regular sewing thread that matches the color of the yarn.  For me the thread is easier to control and if it matches the color, it will blend in with the yarn. (For these pictures I am going to use a darker thread so you can see how I stitch it.) 

I don’t sew right along the edge but try to hide my stitches in the area between coils.  As I stitch I just keep rolling the coil in shape until I get a nice round shape.

Close up of start

Make sure your needle goes through both sides of the area being sewn.  In other words catch with the needle the coil already sewn in the shape you are making and then in the coil being added to the shape.

close up of stitch

Another close up of stitch

Continue sewing until you come to the end of the orange part of the knitted cord.  The green part I started with will be the stem of the pumpkin so that won’t be sewn down as with the orange.  This needs to stick up.  If for some reason the stem doesn’t stay up, you can sew a couple of tack stitches right at the base of the stem to stabilize it (right where the pin is.) But remember not all pumpkin stems are straight. J 

Finished Pumpkin

So here is our finished pumpkin.  It is about 5” wide by 5”  high (6 ½” if you include the stem. It can be used as a coaster or just a table decoration or string some yarn though the stem and hang it from a Halloween tree (if you do that) or on the wall.

©2016. 2018 Cheryl Fillion