These are extremely quick- and easy!- knitted pumpkins that you can easily knit in an easily make in a couple of hours. I was aiming to design a knitting pattern that would be great for stashbusting AND be very easy/beginner-friendly, and I think I got exactly what I was aiming for. You can use fingering or DK weight yarn, and it takes very small amounts- less than 50 yards per pumpkin, depending on how big you make it.
As you can tell from the photos above, it’s basically a very short knitted tube. There’s no shaping, and then you use the yarn to create a drawstring around the top and bottom to pull it all together. This is part of my regular series The Stitch in Taddle Creek magazine, where I share an essay on my current thoughts on the seasons, and a quick craft idea. You can read the latest essay and find the free mini pumpkin pattern right here.
The pumpkin will be bigger the longer you knit (so the taller the band of fabric), but the shorter the fabric is, the cuter and tinier they are! These were SO FUN to knit. I highly recommend!
A Note about Stashbusting and Recycling Materials
On top of using up small bits of leftover yarn in seasonal colours (although this white one above is my fave – so fuzzy!), I stuffed them with poly fill from an old pillow I was going to get rid of. I washed and dried the pillow, then cut it open to reuse the stuffing in side. It was pristine! I highly recommend if you have a lot of old pillows, instead of buying new poly fill. Leftover yarn scraps would also be great, since these are nice and small.
Happy knitting!
xo Julie
