A scarry little Great Pumpkin knitting pattern – the perfect Halloween decoration
Halloween is nigh and, of course, I had to knit a little something to decorate my home. As I already made a pumpkin patch and an egg cozy, so it only felt logical to add a knitted Great Pumpkin Monster. I’ve always been a great fan of “The Peanuts”.
This design is only a very small variation of my basic pumpkin with a bit of embroidery for the face. So, I didn’t feel it’s necessary to compile a whole new pattern. Instead, I’ll list the additions I did here and urge to download the rest before you start.
The pattern will already give you detailed step-by-step written instructions for the head and the leaves. The only thing you will need to add is the body. It’s basically just an i-cord I increased a bit and then joined in the round. And after that, I attached i-cords for the arms and hands and supported them with bonsai wire.
Materials you will need:
- 20 grams of the Wollmeise Twin (in the colors Good morning, Pistazie and Bärenstark) or any other fingering sock yarn scraps for needles size 2.5 – 3.00 mm. And some scraps in black yarn to embroider the face.
- Double-Pointed Knitting needles 2.5 mm. Frequent readers probably already know that I am a huge fan of the Knitter’s Pride Karbonz because they are the only ones that don’t end up crooked after 5 minutes.
- A tapestry needle and scissors.
- Stitch markers (optional)
- Thin wire and a wire plier
. And I am using this Bonsai wire
for support.
- Toy stuffing
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Instructions for the body
Cast on 4 stitches in green
- Row 1-8: Knit an i-cord
- Row 9: K1, KLL, KRL, K2, KLL, KRL, K1 (8 stitches)
- Round 10: join in the round and knit across
- Round 11: *K1, KLL, KRL, K1* (16 stitches)
- Round 12: knit
- Round 13: *K3, KRL, K2, KLL, K3* (20 stitches)
- Continue knitting for around 2cm and then change the color. If you want, you can insert two decreases on one side for a little belly
- Round 25: Knit (in brown)
- Round 26: Purl
- Round 27-29: Knit
- Round 30: *K3, K2tog, SSK, K3* (16 stitches)
- Round 31: Knit
- Round 32: *K2, K2tog, SSK, K2* (12 stitches)
- Round 33: Knit
- Round 32: *K1, K2tog, SSK, K1* (8 stitches)
Pick up a tapestry needle and thread it through the last 8 stitches. Then use some toy stuffing and fill the body lightly.
Next, pick up 4 stitches from the torso to knit an i-cord for the arms in the green yarn however long you want them to be, and finish with a leaf (see pattern instructions). I skipped lines 15-18 because I wanted the hands to be smaller.
Do the same for the feet with the brown yarn. I decided on gnarly feet that look a bit like chicken legs. So, I knit a longer i-cord and picked up 2 very small i-cords right at the “ankles” so I got three toes. But you could possibly also knit a leave here.
Once you are finished weaving in all the tails, you can use a thin bonsai wire and thread it through the i-cords all the way through the neck and stick the pumpkin head on it. Do the same for the arms. I mounted my Great pumpkin on a little piece of wood where I drilled two holes in.
I know these instructions sound a bit sketchy, but if you download the full pdf, it will make a lot more sense as there are tons of pictures and text to explain the basic shaping of the pumpkins. It’s more or less just arranging the vines of the patch in a different order and embroidering a face.
You could possibly even buy some of these amigurumi eyes. I’m sure that could look amazing. What I’m trying to say is: No need to copy my embroidery face. Instead, get creative and lend this Great Pumpkin the face you want it to have and have fun! From really scary, to really cute – Halloween is how you want it to be, eh?
I do not find any option to download this pattern. This is a very confusing site.
There is no option to download this pattern. YOu have to buy the pumpkin patch pattern as a basis, and then the instructions are only here on my blog.
Norman, what a cute pattern! I have the pumpkin pattern too, so I am ready to make this. But how do you connect the pumpkin head to the i-cord neck? Thanks!
Hey Mae…well, there’s going to be a long piece of wire sticking out of the body, so you can basically just put the head on. BUt a few stitches at the bottom will secure it! 🙂