Sally Stitches Pumpkin

Many years ago, as I was first learning about how to work with circular knitting machines, I used a small scrap of Red Heart Ombre yarn in the True Blue colorway to make a quick, single-layer pumpkin.

After finishing it, I decided later that circular-knitted pumpkins definitely look better when they're made double-layered. But I had this single-layer blue pumpkin sitting there wondering how it might fit into my seasonal decorating for one of my favorite holidays: Halloween.

Inspo photo from Disney's Emoji Blitz game

My poor blue pumpkin actually sat for a long, long time (more than five years!) waiting for its chance to become something more. I didn't want to just rip it apart and start over, using the materials for something else.

I would pull it out of a yarn bin every so often and ponder it. I'm not sure exactly when it finally occurred to me that the light blue yarn kind of resembled the skin tone of Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. But once I got that idea in my head, I was determined to transform my blue pumpkin into a Sally character pumpkin.

Another inspo photo found online

Sally's most distinctive features are her blue skin, her cherry-red hair, her big white eyes with little black pupils, and, of course, the black stitches all over her skin. (Her colorful patchwork dress is also distinctive, but for this project, I was going to focus just on Sally's face.)

Another inspo photo found online

For the eyes, I followed this tutorial by Harriet's Crochet on YouTube. I made the eyes with fingering weight cotton yarn in black and white and a 2.25 mm crochet hook. I used white instead of the iris color shown in the tutorial, and also added an extra round of white to get them to the finished size I wanted.

Top view after adding hair and eyes

For the hair, using the cherry-red yarn and a 5 mm hook, I crocheted a foundation SC chain until it was long enough to reach vertically from pole to pole on the pumpkin, which ended up being 28 stitches long. The remaining rows are worked in YOslst in the back loop to give a texture that resembles her strands of hair. The finished rectangle is about 14 inches long and covers about 2/3 of the pumpkin (leaving the other 1/3 of the pumpkin open for her face). I gathered the top and bottom edges and wrapped them around the pumpkin and tied everything together to secure.

Then I crocheted a vine-like stem similar to the one I added to my crocheted Little Rustic Pumpkin back in 2019. To make the vine, I crocheted 6 SC in a magic circle, then kept crocheting the 6 stitches in a continuous spiral until the length was long enough to cover a 12-inch pipe cleaner. (I actually twisted together two pipe cleaners.) After inserting the pipe cleaners, I started increasing each round of SC until the circle had 42 stitches (to provide a secure base for the vine, and to cover the "bald spot" at the top of Sally's head where I wasn't able to cinch the top of her red hair any tighter).

Bottom view

Sewing on her eyes was probably the scariest step for me, because I didn't want to have them end up looking wonky. But I just worked slowly and carefully, and they ended up looking pretty good. 😊 I intentionally did NOT stitch her eyes down tightly where they cross the creases between the pumpkin segments. 

Using the fingering-weight black yarn, I embroidered a kind of stem stitch to line the top edge of her eyes and then continued sewing her eyelashes in little V's back across the line across the top of her eyes.

Then, in black, I embroidered Sally's distinctive slash that crosses her face near her right eye. And then I embroidered the stitches that extend across her cheeks on either side of her lips.

The final touch was to embroider her lips using a sort of puffy satin stitch using a bit of the same yarn as her hair. You can find more info about the yarns I used on my Ravelry project page.

I think my Sally Stitches Pumpkin turned out great, and she looks so happy sitting there on my hearth beside her "Jack Skellington."

Feet up to relax after a job well done

I love Sally's character, and I have even dressed up as her for my friend Kim's Halloween party!

Sally's Song

I sense there's something in the wind
That feels like tragedy's at hand
And though I'd like to stand by him
Can't shake this feeling that I have
The worst is just around the bend
And does he notice my feelings for him?
And will he see how much he means to me?
I think it's not to be

 

What will become of my dear friend?
Where will his actions lead us then?
Although I'd like to join the crowd
In their enthusiastic cloud
Try as I may, it doesn't last
And will we ever end up together?
No, I think not, it's never to become
For I am not the one

 

Skeleton Doll

This is a fun, easy, and quick-to-make pattern by Ashley of A Crafty Concept for an adorably spooky little crochet skeleton doll, a perfect addition for everyone's handmade Halloween decor!

The written pattern is free on her blog, and she also provides a video tutorial.

Work in progress - paint drying

He reminds me of a simplified version of Jack Skellington, so I have set him on my hearth beside his adoring Sally in pumpkin form. Maybe I can give him a tuxedo coat and bat bow tie later for a little more authenticity (Disney-thentic, ha).

Jack's Lament

There are few who'd deny, at what I do I am the best
For my talents are renowned far and wide
When it comes to surprises in the moonlit night
I excel without ever even trying
With the slightest little effort of my ghostlike charms
I have seen grown men give out a shriek
With the wave of my hand and a well placed moan
I have swept the very bravest off their feet

Yet year after year, it's the same routine
And I grow so weary of the sound of screams
And I, Jack, the Pumpkin King
Have grown so tired of the same old thing

Oh, somewhere deep inside of these bones
An emptiness began to grow
There's something out there, far from my home
A longing that I've never known

I'm the master of fright, and a demon of light
And I'll scare you right out of your pants
To a guy in Kentucky, I'm Mister Unlucky
And I'm known throughout England and France

And since I am dead, I can take off my head
To recite Shakespearean quotations
No animal nor man can scream like I can
With the fury of my recitations

But who here would ever understand
That the Pumpkin King with the skeleton grin
Would tire of his crown, if they only understood
He'd give it all up if he only could

Oh, there's an empty place in my bones
That calls out for something unknown
The fame and praise come year after year
Does nothing for these empty tears 

 

Luna Triangle Cowl

I really like pullover triangle cowls. They look amazing, they are so easy to wear, and they keep your neck, shoulders, and chest nice and cozy. So when I saw the super cute Luna Triangle Cowl paid pattern by Deni Sharpe, I knew I wanted to make one for myself.

I deviated from the pattern in a few ways. First, the pattern is written for bulky (size 5) yarn using an 8mm hook, but I made mine in aran weight (since that's what I had in my stash) with a 6.5mm hook. I also opted to hand knit the ribbed top of the cowl instead of working it in crochet.

The knitted part I did in a lofty and reversible fisherman's rib worked in the round over 80 stitches. I followed the tutorial for this technique at this link. Then I picked up the stitches for the first row of crochet to begin the triangle portion of the cowl. Since I was starting with a different number of stitches for the bottom part of the cowl than was listed in the pattern, I had to adjust the stitch counts for the triangle part of the work.

Cookie Monster costume hat

Cookie Monster is my all-time favorite Muppet, so I wanted to make a messy-bun-style hat of this character. I started mine too late to wear it for Halloween this year, but I'll totally be ready next year!

I used a variation of the Loopy Chemo Cap pattern from my free Chemo Cap Bundle. Instead of starting at the very top of the hat, I started with 40 foundation HDCs (the equivalent of round 4) and then continued to work the pattern as written from there.

I used the Addi Pro 22-needle knitting machine to make the white part of Cookie Monster's eyeballs. My first attempt turned out looking super lumpy and squished, which led me to conclude that the eyes needed a bit of polyfil stuffing to help them hold their round shape.

To make the eyeballs: Cast on with white yarn and knit for 19 rows. Cut a long tail and use a bent-tip needle to cast the stitches off the machine. Gently stretch the knitted piece, and then gently cinch the ends. Fold one end inside the other (same as when you're making a beanie). Pull the yarn tails through the "top" of the cinched ends and knot securely. (This cinched end will be the front of the eyeball; you will later cover this cinched end with a crocheted black pupil.) Thread one tail onto a yarn needle. Grab one handful of polyfil and poke the needle through the center of the polyfil, then slide the polyfil down the yarn tail until it's sitting inside the "cup" of the eyeball. Using the tail on the yarn needle, pick up the bar in the middle of every third stitch along the top of the folded edge (these stitches will be used to cinch closed what is currently the folded end of the eyeball). Gently pull on the yarn tail to cinch the folded end closed, then stitch across the cinched opening to secure. Thread the other yarn tail onto the needle and poke it through the center of the eyeball and out the other side that you just cinched closed. Being careful not to pull too hard and squish/flatten the eyeball, knot the yarn tails together again several times to secure. Leave the long white tails for now so you can use them later to sew the eyeball onto the hat.

Using black yarn, crochet a small "pupil" for each eyeball by working 6 SC into a magic circle. Use the invisible joining technique to finish the outer edge. Tightly cinch the center of each pupil and knot to secure. Leave a long tail to sew each pupil onto the front of each eyeball, centered over the front cinched end. Knot to secure and hide black yarn tails inside the center of the eyeball.

Using the long white yarn tails, attach the eyeballs to the hat and knot several times to secure. Weave in ends and wear your Cookie Monster hat with pride!

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?!? 😂