Crochet Pumpkin - Mammy Made

Hi everyone. I'm Adele and I live in England with my two gorgeous babies, Leyla who is 4 and Naomie who is 2. I am so excited to be contributing to Inspiration Cafe again today!

I usually blog over at Mammy Made. I like to write about crafting, cooking and homeschooling, although I am only homeschooling part time at the minute. I have tons of tutorials on there so come by and say hi, I’d love to see you!

This month I would like to share the pattern for some cute pumpkins I made last year. They made up really quickly and are so easy to make. Give them a try!

I used 100% wool for mine but really, you can use anything that takes your fancy. I was going to go for a cheap acrylic DK but I couldn't find an orange that I liked, then I saw this purple, green, yellow and orange wool and thought it would be perfect! All 3 of them took a full 50g skein. I used a 4mm crochet hook.

Pumpkin:

 1. make a magic ring, there's a good tutorial here.
2. ch1, then work 6 scs in the magic ring, join with slst to 1st sc (6)
3. ch1, turn, 2scs in each st around, join with slst to 1st sc (12)
4. ch1, turn, *sc in 1st, 2sc in next st* rep around, join with sl st to 1st sc (18)
5. ch1, turn, *sc in 2sts, 2sc in next st* rep around, join with sl st to 1st sc (24)
6. ch1, turn, *sc in 3sts, 2sc in next st* rep around, join with sl st to 1st sc (30)
7. ch1, turn, *sc in 4sts, 2sc in next st* rep around, join with sl st to 1st sc (36)
8. ch1, turn, *sc in 5sts, 2sc in next st* rep around, join with sl st to 1st sc (42)
9. ch1, turn, *sc in 6sts, 2sc in next st* rep around, join with sl st to 1st sc (48) 
10-22. ch1, turn, sc around, join with slst to 1st sc (48)
23. ch1, turn, *sc in 5sts, sc2tog* rep around, sc in last st, join with sl st to 1st sc (42)
24. ch1, turn, *sc in 4sts, sc2tog* rep around, join with sl st to 1st sc (35)
25. ch1, turn, *sc in 3sts, sc2tog* rep around, join with sl st to 1st sc (28)
25. ch1, turn, *sc in 2sts, sc2tog* rep around, sc in last st, join with sl st to 1st sc (21)  
25. ch1, turn, *sc in 1st, sc2tog* rep around, sc in last st, join with sl st to 1st sc (14) 
26. stuff the pumpkin as much as you can, I used cut up old vests that my babies have outgrown but use whatever you fancy
27. ch1, turn, sc2tog around, join with slst to 1st sc (7)
28. ch1, turn, sc2tog around, sc in last st, join with slst to 1st sc (4)
29. bind off, leaving a 45" tail

Stalk:

1.  crochet an icord, there's a ton of tutorials already on the internet so I won't do one, this is the one I used, make it about 5 rows long then bind off, leaving a long enough tail to stitch it to the pumpkin
2. using a wool needle, stitch the stalk onto the pumpkin, I stitched it to the bottom, when it's secure, weave in the two ends on the bottom and the one end on the icord

Finishing off:

 1. using the long tail you left when binding off the pumpkin, wind the yarn from the bottom to the top of the pumpkin, on the outside, stitch it underneath the icord so it comes out on the other side, then stitch again underneath the pumpkin, repeat all around, pulling the yarn tightly, until you have 8 sections, this makes it look more pumpkin-y
2. stitch a button onto the bottom to hide your stitching, weave ends in
3 you're done :)

This pattern is for the biggest pumpkin which measures about 3" not including stalk. To make the middle sized pumpkin, only increase up to 36 stitches and work 10 rows instead of 13. You could also make the icord one row shorter. To make the small pumpkin, only increase up to 24 stitches and work 7 rows. 

I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial. Thank you so much to everyone behind Inspiration Cafe for letting me contribute again. It's been fun.

Happy Halloween everyone!