How to Make Wool Pumpkins

A few years ago I learned a craft project and  How to Make Wool Pumpkins quickly became one of my favorites.

There are a few things I am clever at but sewing and working with wool are not some of them.

I think that is why this project made me so happy. It made me feel like I was more talented than I really am in both of these areas.

How to Make Wool Pumpkins

First, you will need a bag of rusty-colored orange wool. Check with local alpaca owners, fairs, and craft or sewing stores. No measurements are needed. See? It’s easy already.

Next, you’ll just want to use up that pair of nylons with the run in them.

Cut the nylons into about 6-inch strips. They need to be long enough to tie a tight knot in each end and fit a ball of wool in the middle.

Grab a large handful of wool and push it into the stocking. Various sizes are a good thing. Have fun with it. I shall call him Carrot Top and he will grow muscles and scare innocent people in Vegas.

Push the wool inside and shape it into a ball that is a little larger than a tennis ball. Tie the top of the stocking tight around the ball of wool so that they look like this.

Repeat until you use up all of your wool or all of your nylons with runs in them – whichever comes first. I believe I calculated about one pumpkin per ounce of wool.

Toss all of your pumpkin wannabes into the washing machine. Just turn washer onto the hottest water temp and allow to go through an average wash cycle.

After the orange balls are finished being washed, place them into the dryer until dry. After they are dry, remove them from the nylons. The wool balls should hold together well and be mostly firm.

Pick up a very large, heavy-duty needle from the craft supply store. With a massive amount of dark brown thread, thread the needle and add a knot, in the end, to help it stay at the bottom of the ball when you pull it through. It won’t stay perfect, so I use my finger to help hold it as I make the curves of the pumpkin, pulling the needle through the middle, around the pumpkin, and back through the middle until each curve looks the way you want it to. I make 7 thread marks on large ones and 5 on the small ones.

Here’s what the orange balls will look like with their pumpkin curves.

I asked my dad to cut a branch I found into twenty-four 1/2-inch pieces. A branch of wired pip berries that looked like they would compliment my pumpkins as vines worked great. I cut the pip berries into about 3-inch strips and bent them into spirally vines, two per pumpkin. I hot glued them on, arranging them to my pleasing, and then hot glued the pip berries.

These sweetie sugar pumpkins are the perfect combination of country and cute! Your girlfriends will love them and men will never understand them.