A Cuddly Crochet Jack-o'-lantern

Worried about a pumpkin price hike for this year's Jack-o'-lantern? Hate the mess of carving an actual pumpkin? Do you just crave another seasonal cuddly dust collector? If you nodded to any of those questions let me take you along for a spooky session of crocheting!

A crochet hook and an orange yarn are self explanatory, but you will also need some green yarn for the pumpkin's stem, and some black yarn for the mouth and the eyes. Some stuffing material is optional but highly recommended.

Want more details? I used a 3 mm yarn and a corresponding crochet hook.

Furthermore I will be using some standard abbreviations for stitches:

• SC - Single Crochet
• HDC - Half Double Crochet
• DC - Double Crochet

Let's start off slow. Chain 20 + 1 stitches, chain 1, turn your work around, and move on to the next step.

Next we will form the first of many pumpkin's ribs.

1. slip stitch
2. 2x SC
3. HDC
4. 12x DC
5. HDC
6. 2X SC
7. slip stitch
8. chain 1 & turn your work around

Do this three times to make a single rib.

To make ribs as pronounced as possible, we have to make creases very sharp.

1. 20 slip stitches (red yarn)
2. chain 1 & turn your work around
3. 20 slip stitches pulling the yarn from the opposite side (green yarn)
4. chain 1 & turn your work around

Repeat stitches from Step 2 to make another rib.

Stitches form row 2 are somewhat unusual. They might be difficult before you get used to them.

Since ribs are made of three rows, pattern repeats every two ribs. Here is how to make the second crease:

1. 20 slip stitches pulling the yarn from the opposite side (green yarn)
2. chain 1 & turn your work around
3. 20 slip stitches (red yarn)
4. chain 1 & turn your work around

Repeat stitches from Step 2, but the first row is crochet pulling the yarn from the opposite side (first orange row after red one in the photos). Note that you have to yarn over the crochet hook in a counter clockwise direction.

Repeat steps 3 through 4 until you are happy with how big your pumpkin is. You can stop at anytime after you finish steps 3 or 4. I opted to go with ten ribs, which means I stopped after finishing the fifth Step 3.

Before I show you how to turn what you see on the photo above into a pumpkin, let's talk about Jack-o'-lantern's face.

I think this goes without saying, but use black yarn for eyes. I only used brown because my lighting and camera setup wouldn't let me take nice photos if I used black yarn.

1. 6x SC in a magic ring
2. SC, chain 2, SC; all in the same stitch (in an odd stitch of the previous round)
3. slip stitch (in an even stitch of the previous round)
4. repeat 2 & 3 two more times to get a triangle

Pull up the loop and sew the yarn as shown in the last photo and congratulations! One eye done, one more to go.

Eyes were very simple to make, mouth comes with longer set of instructions.

1. chain 21+1
2. 2x slip stitch (starting with the second chain from the hook)
3. SC
4. DC, chain 2, imitating HDC (as seen on photo 4; instead of yarning over, put crochet hook through the bottom loop of previous DC and through the same chain you used for DC in 4.; after pulling up the yarn, you end up with three loops on your hook as seen on photo 5; yarn over and pull through all three loops) [this forms a downwards zig-zag]
5. SC
6. HDC (pull the yarn through first and fourth chain (photo 6) so that you end up with four loops on your hook (photo 11), pull through all)
7. repeat 3 through 6 once
8. repeat 3 through 5
9. 2x slip stitch

And so we find ourselves in much the same situation as the famous dr. Frankenstein did. We have multiple body parts that have to be stitched together.

Place eyes and mouth wherever you think they'll look nice and sew them on. How? Doesn't matter. Unlike in dr. Frankenstein's case, our creation won't come to life. Surgical precision is optional.

Pro tip: temporarily sew corners of eyes and mouth to make the actual sewing easier. This also lets you visualize how the final face will look like.

And here we go. How to crochet the pumpkin together.

Start by wrapping the pumpkin peal so that it's inside out.

Pull the loop from last "chain 1" through a side loop at the foundation row (from Step 1). Insert your crochet hook through foundation's top chain and through top chain of the last row (photo 4). Make 20 slip stitches, pulling the yarn from the opposite side and through all top chains as shown in photos above.

This is the recipe if you stop after Step 3. If you stopped after Step 4, you have to do the same thing but mirrored.

So basically you crochet the pumpkin together with slip stitches, number of ribs dictate which side you have to pull the yarn from.

Time to close the cylinder, starting with the top side.

With the pumpkin still inside-out, thread the yarn through middle sections of ribs (green yarn on the second photo). When done, flip the pumpkin outside-out (is a non native speaker allowed to invent new English words?), tighten the loop and tie it up. Up next: the stem.

Time to make a stem. To resemble a real one, it hast to have a stub and zigzagged base. Ideally it will have as many spikes as your pumpkin has ribs. Ten in my example.

1. 5x SC in a magic ring
2. 5x SC increase (two SC in the same stitch)
3. 10x SC in a back loop
4. 4 rounds of 10x SC
5. 10x SC increase in a front loop
6. SC, chain 2, SC (in an odd stitches)[all in the same stitch], slip stitch (in an even stitches); repeat ten times (until the end of the round)

After finishing each round, loops have to be joined. To do so, use a crochet to pull the last loop through the first loop of the round (as seen on photo 4).

Much like sewing face onto the pumpkin's skin, there is no special sauce for sewing stem onto the pumpkin. All you need to do is to align the stem such that stem's spikes mate up with pumpkin's creases, and sew as you see fit.

In preparation for stuffing a turkey for thanksgiving, thread yarn for closing the loop (as discussed in Step 10). Now grab a fist full of stuffing material and pack it into the pumpkin. Stuff it as hard as you want. In theory, stuffing it too much will smooth out the ribs. That would be a shame, since we worked so hard on making them as pronounced as possible. In practice this doesn't seem to be a problem since the pattern I created produces very pronounced creases.

When satisfied, tighten the bottom loop and tie it up.

And we're done!

In spite of what the title suggests, don't try to put a candle inside or anywhere near a crochet Jack-o'-lantern. Yarn is quite flammable and doesn't smell nice when lit. How about you put your new fuzzy buddy on a side of your office desk to light up the mood instead.

I hope you liked this instructable. Please like, comment, share, subscribe and make your own cuddly lantern.

Until next time, cheers!