Here’s a great way to use up scrap yarn and create fun little colorful decor for the fall season – simple yarn pumpkins.
Creating yarn pumpkins is simple – the activity is suitable for ages 10-100+. Use them as mantle, table, or shelf decorations or give them as gifts for the season along with my free Halloween Crochet Printable Care Cards.
Supplies:
- Scrap yarn in your favorite colors (it doesn’t have to be fall colors – have fun with it!)
- Cardboard
- Scissors
- Brown Paper (or see twig alternatives)
- hot glue gun
- Optional decor (see optional decor)
Yarn Pumpkin Video Tutorial
How to Create the Yarn Pumpkin
Take a 2″ piece of cardboard and wrap yarn around it to your desired thickness. The more yarn, the thicker pumpkin you’ll have. After playing around with it a few times, you’ll determine your desired number of wraps.
Take a strand of yarn and thread it around the top of the yarn wrapping and tie tight (like you would to create a tassle)
Do the same thing with the bottom of the pumpkin and trim the extra off of the knot
Slide the yarn wrapping off of the cardboard and fluff gently with your hands (it just needs a little smoosh – the imperfections is what makes this such a fun craft).
How to Create the Yarn Pumpkins Stem
Take a 1/4″ slip of brown or kraft cardstock and roll it up, adding hot glue intermittently to keep everything together
Add glue to the top of your pumpkin and attach the stem
Stem Alternatives:
If you want to add a dash more interest to your project (or you don’t happen to have brown or kraft cardstock laying around) you could use one of these alternatives:
- Glitter paper
- cinnamon stick
- twig from your lawn
- dowel rod (painted or not)
- chenille stem
Embellishing your Yarn Pumpkin
If you’re going for something a little more, you could embellish your yarn pumpkin to create a work of art (or a jackolantern) – some ideas are:
- Paper rose
- wiggly eyes
- felt face cut outs
- plastic spiders
- gemstones
If you’re interested in making more pumpkins from yarn, check out the pom pumpkins tutorial and the Loom knit pumpkins tutorial.