Crochet candy corn owl beanie free pattern

Just in time for looking cute on crisp autumn days, this is a messy-bun version of Sarah Zimmerman's Candy Corn Hat, free pattern on Sarah's blog Repeat Crafter Me at this link. 

I didn't have any yellow worsted or aran weight yarn in my stash, so I used some yellow Fixler Brothers Quick Knit sport weight held double, and it turned out just fine. You can read the details about the other yarns I used at my Ravelry project page.

The pattern didn't say what size of safety eyes to use for the owl's pupils, so I used 25mm (1 inch) black buttons instead, from a set I found on Amazon at this link.

My favorite resource for buying safety eyes is 6060 on Etsy, but in the case of this hat project, it was easier for me to use buttons.

A housewarming gift

I had a hank of some old, heavy worsted weight green yarn that either came from my mother's stash or else the big bag of random yarn balls that Mika gave me when she and her wife moved to Wisconsin.

Now that Mika and Emmy are buying their first house, I wanted to make them something as a housewarming gift. Since green and black are colors they are planning to utilize in their decor, the idea for this knitted pumpkin/floral display started to form in my mind.

The yarn was too heavy to run through my Sentro machine, so I tried it on the Addi instead, and, of course, the Addi was able to handle it just fine. (Addi only grumbled a tiny bit about how heavy the yarn was.)

There was enough yarn in the hank to get a tube of 114 rows, plus leaving a long tail (about 3 yards long) for finishing and sewing the pumpkin's sections.

Fold the tube inside itself in half, as for making a double-thick beanie. Cinch and secure the ends. Stuff the interior. Then using the long tail, wrap around the outside and through the center to create "sections" of the pumpkin. As you create the sections, the bottom will cinch itself closed. You can secure the bottom with a few extra stitches, if needed.

I cinched the ends while keeping a finger in the top hole so it would remain open after assembling the pumpkin. Leaving the hole slightly open this way will allow me to use the pumpkin as a "vase" for holding some silk flowers, which I think will make a lovely display. 

I also cut a stem from piece of black faux leather, making it about 6 inches long by 3/4-inch wide. I used a yarn needle to punch 2 holes near the stem ends, and used those holes to sew the yarns ends through after tying down the pumpkin's sections. Having a stem there means the pumpkin could also be displayed plain, without flowers.

The flowers I'm using are in autumn colors, but Mika and Emmy should be able to switch out the flowers throughout the years to match the changing seasons, if they wish. I cut the flower stems at about 4-5 inches long and bent them to help the flowers curve toward the pumpkin after inserting the stems into the hole at the top and working around the leather stem.

Sparkle Pumpkin

The Taylor Lynn YouTube tutorial at this link suggests 45 rows for pumpkins made on the Sentro 40, but I made this one 52 rows tall because that was how many rows it took to use up the small hank of this yarn I had on hand. I mean, after all, real pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes, so why not add a few extra rows to this one? 😉

I wasn't sure how this metallic yarn would work in my machine (wasn't sure if the metallic filament would get separated/tangled in the needles, etc.), but the yarn ran through perfectly smoothly. In fact, I'm used to having to constantly monitor the stitches on my machine to make sure none has dropped (because my machine ALWAYS drops at least one stitch during every project), but this yarn ran through without one single stitch dropping. Amazing!

Finished it off with half of a cinnamon stick for a stem. I think the green color will make a nice contrast to more traditional color pumpkins in my fall display.

Update 10/20/2022: Two years later and I'm still tinkering with this pumpkin. 😊 I decided to crochet a stem to replace the cinnamon stick, figuring that the crocheted stem would fit the scale of the pumpkin better and also be child-friendly. The stem is made with a small amount of Big Twist yarn in the Taupe colorway. And then I went on and added some curly vines, one in Taupe, one in Red Heart Super Saver in Saffron, and one in a double strand of Fixler Brothers Quick Knit Sport in 018 (yellow). How you like me NOW?!? 😂

Little Rustic Pumpkin

Took me a while to get around to it, but I finally added the vines and stem. Pumpkin portion of pattern works up super quickly. This will be a lovely addition to fall decor around the house.

This is based on the free Little Rustic Pumpkin pattern by Rebecca Langford of Yarn and Chai. 

For the stem, using the green yarn, I FSC'd 22 then worked in continuous decreasing rounds (alternating SC, SC2tog) until 5 stitches were left. Then I SC'd in continuous 5-stitch rounds until stem was about the same length as a 12-inch pipe cleaner. I twisted two brown craft pipe cleaners together and threaded them into the slim cylinder of stitches to give coil-able structure to the pumpkin stem. I stitched the end of the stem closed then joined the yarn again at the base and worked some points onto the circle around the base of the stem. Stitched the triangle end of the stem to the top of the pumpkin and finished off. Voila!

 

Before adding stem