How I Make a Knit Pumpkin

A knitting machine pattern

Re-posted from my original post 2 September, 2021

A Pattern by Savlabot Handmade Crafts

*This pattern and the pictures are property of Savlabot and may not be shared or sold. You are welcome to sell finished products that are made using this pattern, but please link pattern/blog post to Savlabot as the author or the pattern link in your description and use pictures you have taken yourself if posting in an online marketplace such as Etsy. If you share on social media please tag me with @savlabot and use #Savlabot  Thank you.

Your cooperation is appreciated, 

Savlabot

Every year I am asked how I make my knitting machine pumpkins and I thought I would share on my blog just how I make them. I use a very similar technique to the one found on the Yarn Punk Blog, just with a few different tweaks. I do a few different row counts for mine as I make 3 different size pumpkins. I will share those here as well as my favorite yarns for pumpkins.

I use a knitting machine to make my pumpkins. When I first started making them I mostly used my 40 pin machine but have found that I really like using my 22 pin to make tiny pumpkins with. A few years ago I made the staff at my sons school pumpkins and the tiny ones seemed to go faster than the larger ones, I think the tiny size is a perfect desk decoration!

My favorite yarns for pumpkins are wool or wool blend yarns, I like the natural look that they give. This year I dyed my own yarns for my pumpkins and I am super happy with how they turned out. I decided to use a cake dyeing method where I wound a very lose yarn cake and submerged it into a dye bath, then after that dye was absorbed into the yarn I re-wound the yarn and dyed it again using another shade of orange. These were just experiments so I didn’t take detailed notes of what I did, I used Wilton Orange and Wilton Copper gel dyes. I followed some tips from Chemknits video tutorials, I watched a lot of her videos and then sort of did a combination of a few of her techniques.

Suggested Yarns

Lion Brand Yarns Fisherman’s Wool – great for dying with food coloring!

Lion Brand Yarns Wool-Ease

Lion Brand Heartland

Craftsmart – Micheals brand

Big Twist Value – Joann brand

All of the above yarns work really well on all 3 of my knitting machines, I use a Sentro 48 pin, Jamit 40 pin and an Addi 22 pin.

The below recipes are all written if using Lion Brand Yarns Fisherman’s Wool

Machines – 22 pin, 40 pin, 46 or 48 pin.

Poly-Fil or something to stuff the pumpkins with

Yarn Needle (for the larger sized pumpkins you may need a long plastic needle)

Tension 

Tight for all pumpkins.

On my Addi machines I do use my Tension Fork to keep the tension even. On the other two machines I use the tensioner that came with the machine. Tight tension is the first hole closest to machine using a Savlabot Tension Fork and on the yarn tensioner for Sentro/Jamit machines.

Small Pumpkin – 22 pin, Tight Tension, 43-45 rows.

Medium Pumpkin – 40 pin, Tight Tension, 55-60 rows.

Large Pumpkin – 46/48 pin, Tight Tension, 65-70 rows.

I use the same method to shape my pumpkins but I leave all of my yarn tails so that I can add my stem and leaf.

Video Tutorial for Shaping the Pumpkin

The below recipes are all written using an acrylic worsted weight yarn.

Machine – Addi 22 pin

Tension – TIGHT

On my Addi 22 pin I do use my Tension Fork to keep the tension even.

Small 2.5″ pumpkin – 26 rows

Medium 3″ pumpkin – 43 rows

Large 4″ pumpkin – 60 rows

I use the same method to shape my pumpkins but I leave all of my yarn tails so that I can add my stem and leaf.

Video Tutorial for Shaping the Pumpkin

Now that the pumpkins are made it is time to add some finishing touches.

I love adding a fabric leaf and faux suede pumpkin stem to my pumpkins, they are so cute and make it easy to package and send them in the mail. I also like packaging them as 2 different sets of 3. One set will have 3 small pumpkins and the other set will have 3 pumpkins, one in each size.

I recently added wooden fall saying charms to my shop that are perfect for knit and crochet pumpkins. You can find them in my Etsy Shop.

I will be adding another post soon with some different stem option for handmade pumpkins, be on the look out for that post soon!

If you have the time I would appreciate it if you would visit my Etsy Shop, sales on tags and other products such as the pumpkin leaves you see in this post help me out a lot so that I can keep up with this blog. I choose to not have pop up ads, I love not having ads all over my site, I don’t want to add ads other than a few affiliate links here and there to my posts as I think ads really ruin the viewing experience. I am hoping if I can continue to make sales in my Etsy Shop to help me with my finances I can continue to add freebies to my site.

Follow the links below to find all the finishing touches you need for your handmade pumpkins!

Vegan Suede Pumpkin Stems Pumpkin Leaves Wooden Fall Saying Charms Printable Pumpkin Tags Free Handmade Pumpkin Tag Bulb Safety Pins