Crochet a Modern Farmhouse Pumpkin: All Experience Levels Welcome!

1. Intro: Farmhouse Pumpkin: Hello, I'm Jessica and I'm here for another exciting crochet class. I'm the owner and maker behind, but first crochet, kinda like but first coffee only for yarn. But first crochet is a brand that focuses on beginner friendly, simple crochet with an emphasis on kids and babies and even more specifically, preemies. In today's class, we'll be making a modern farmhouse pumpkin. This class is great for all experience levels including beginners. We will dive into how to crochet with chunky yarn. I love crocheting with chunky yarn because you can see your progress very quickly, which is satisfying when you're short on time or just learning to crochet. We will learn foundational crochet techniques, which include getting started, changing half double crochet, finishing and assembling your finished piece. I hope you consider learning how to crochet. Crocheting is a skill. You don't have to be born with a fancy creative gene to do this craft, all you need is practice and patients. I'm here to make crochet simple so you can join the fabulous maker community that I love being a part of. For this class, you'll need a few materials. You'll need a small amount of chunky yarn. You'll need a nine millimeter crochet hook, some scissors. You'll need a yarn needle and something for stuffing. And a Stan, I used a cinnamon stick. You could use a wine cork, a stick from a tree in your yard, a leather tag, get creative. And then some optional twine or strain just for acute finishing touch. By the end of the course, you will know how to make the half double crochet stitch and you will have completed a trendy modern farmhouse pumpkin for fall. And the best part, when people ask where you got it, you can say I made it. So please hit enroll and let's get started by first, be sure to follow me on Skillshare for all the latest simple crochet classes and on Instagram or I love featuring my students projects you can find me at. But first crochet, I hope you're just as excited as I am to work through the class together. So let's jump straight into the first lesson. 2. Materials: Farmhouse Pumpkin: All right, We're gonna get started on our modern farmhouse pumpkin. Here is a finished one. So Q. Quick and easy to make. Great beginner project, perfect for your fall decor. For materials you are going to need some super bulky yarn. I used the cream color here. This is bullies that can quick by a lion brand. You can find this at I got mine at Joanne's, but I think most craft craft stores or online at Lion Brand.com, you can find this super chunky arm. I'm going to make my second pumpkin in this sage color, which is by big twist. I found this edge o ands, and it is a super bulky 6 weight yarn. This is the color sage. The next thing you will need is an M 9 millimeter crochet hook. Some scissors, a yarn needle. Make sure you have a one with a large opening so you can fit your thick yarn through the n there. A cinnamon stick. I use that for the stem. There's lots of different options, but I'm going to use a cinnamon stick for this example. And finally, a little piece of twine. And this is just a little extra, you don't have to have this. And not pictured here is some stuffing. I'll use poly fills stuffing. And we are going to get started. 3. HDC: Farmhouse Pumpkin: To get started, find the end of your yarn. And you're going to want to start with a long tale, about a foot and a half or so, 12, 12 to 24 inches, better to have too much than not enough. Form your slip knot. Make a little loop there. Pull the end through, pull that tight. There's your slip knot. Place your hook in the slipknot and tighten it not too tight. Make sure your hook can still move freely up and down your crochet hook. I like to hold my hook with what we call the knife hold. You could use a pencil hold, play around with whatever grip feels most comfortable for you. I'm going to hold my yarn between my index finger and my middle finger. This helps control tension. We're going to start chaining. We're going to chain 11. So yarn over, pull through your loop. That's one. Yarn over, pull through, two. Yarn over, pull through. 34567891011. Next we're going to have double crochet in the second chain from the hook. So you should have 11 chains here. Here is the chain on your hook. The first chain and the second chain. We are going to make our first stitch in the second chain from the hook. Yarn over. Insert your hook into the second chain. Yarn over, pull through one loop. Three loops remain on your hook. Yarn over and pull through the remaining three loops. You've just made 1.5 double crochet, continue half double crochet chain all the way down the chain. Insert your hook into the next stage. Yarn over, pull up a loop. Yarn over, pull through all three loops. Again. Yarn over, insert your hook. Pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through all three. All right, and we're coming up on our last chain. Should be the chain connected to your slip knot. And we should have 10 half double crochet is we chained 11, and that is for our turning chain. So there should be 10 here. The next step is to chain one and turn your work. So flip it like a page in a book. And we're going to work on the backside. And now we are going to be working in what we call the third loop. So that is right here. There's your back, your front back loop is here. Front loop is here. And the third loop is in the front. Yarn over. Insert your hook into the third loop, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through all three loops. So you're still half double crocheting only you're placing your hook in the third loop in the front. And this helps give that nice ribbed look. Yarn over, insert through the third loop, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through all three, and continue this all the way down. For 10 stitches. The 10th stitch is a little tricky to find. It's going to be right on the very end, so it's really easy to miss. So make sure you keep count that you have 10 stitches at all times. So I have two left. So I'll be my ninth. And then my tenth stitch is going to go right on the very edge here through this loop. Yarn over, insert your hook. Yarn over, pull up a loop. Yarn over, pull through all three. And you finished row 2. And you should still have 10 stitches. I like short rows so you can double-check easily and correct any mistakes. Chain one, turn your work. Now we're going to repeat what we just did. Row 2, half double crochet in the third loop until we make 17 rows. So this is row 3. We're going to repeat the same process, half double crochet in each third loop across first 17 rows. All right, so we're nearing the end of this row and I want to show you one more time or that last stitch goes. It's really easy to miss again, it's hanging out on the end. Yarn over and pull through all three. And then again, just double-check that you've got your 10 stitches. Chain one, turn. You can see the ribbing that starting to appear and that gives the pumpkin some really nice texture. Keep going until you get 17 rows or approximately, it doesn't have to be exact, but I did 17 rows. Here we are at the end of row 17. Nice texture, half double crochet and the third loop. The next step we are going to, oops, I already changed one. All right. There is our work. We are going to chain one at the end of the row in turn, bring the bottom up and folded together. And we are going to slip stitch these two pieces together. So you're going to insert your hook through both thicknesses and make a slip stitch. You're going to yarn over and pull through all the way through all of the loops. You'll do that in each row. So you should have 10 slip stitches. Insert your hook through both thicknesses in through the loop on the hook. And repeat. If you're not comfortable slip stitching This piece together. By all means, you can stitch it together with your yarn needle. Doesn't have to be slips stitched. I am just better at crocheting than I am at sewing. So I have preferred a slip stitch, but you can see much shut with a needle and do your yarn almost to the end here. Now for the last slip stitch in through both thicknesses, pull through, pull through. And we have connected this together. We're going to finish it off. Make sure you leave a long tail, probably a good 24 inches. Chain one to fasten off. Don't forget to make the long tail. And just snip your end. B and pull your hooks are able to secure. 4. Assembly: Farmhouse Pumpkin: Now take your yarn needle and pick a side and thread your needle. We're going to close one side here. And to do that we're going to make a running stitch all the way around the top. You're just going to go in and out, in and out, all the way around. Then we'll pull it tight like a drawstring and that will close this bottom up. So I'm gonna take my arm and back out. The placement doesn't really matter. So don't get too hung up on that. Just go in and out, in and out evenly across all the way around. You'll see it's starting to central little bit as you tug on your tail. Pull that tight. Put it in a few more stitches here. This should be back at the beginning. Since that closed kind of looks like a little hat. Now we are going to take off our needle and flip this so our seams are on the inside. So flip. And there is the bottom of our pumpkin closed up. Just let that tail hanging off to the side. Next you're going to grab some stuffing, about two handfuls. You don't need a lot. Lightly stuff your pumpkin thread the other side. And we're going to do the same thing. We're going to create a running stitch all the way around. And we're gonna synch this top closed as well, just like we did the bottom thread, your yarn in and out, in and out, all the way around. We're almost back around. Keep going with your running stage until you've completed a full circle and pull that tight. Pull it all the way tight. Leave your yarn needle attached to that side, but grab the other end and just make a simple knot to secure these ends together. Gonna pull that tight and double knot it one more time. You can leave your pumpkin like this if you want. But I like to add some ribbing. It gives it a more defined, pumped guinea gourd look. But if you wanted to stop here, you totally could and put in your, your stem. But we're gonna keep going with this long tail that we created. Take your needle and go back through the center and come through the other side. Pull that yarn all the way through. And just think about four different quadrants. You're going to make o loop over here, here, here. Here. So what like 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock to give us those little bumps. So pull your yarn over and we're going to come through the center of the bottom and back out through the top. Pull your yarn through and pull it tight so it makes a crease. Same thing right underneath there. At about six o'clock. We appear are never come through the bottom again. Stick your needle right through the center and come back out through the top. Pull your yarn through and pull it tight to make another crease. Can I do this four times? You could do more. You can do less. It's really how you want. It doesn't have to be perfectly even either because real life pumpkins aren't perfectly symmetrical. So have fun with it, get creative with it. I just think for looks nice. One more time. Insert my needle through the bottom, back out the top, pull it tight to make the crease. And then take my tail that's on the bottom and I'm going to bring it back through the top to meet my other end so I can tie them together to secure my ends. So insert through the bottom and come back out the top to join with the other end. And I'm going to do another double knot to secure these ends together. There's one not gonna do that one more time. Now I'm just going to hide my tails inside the pumpkin. So just insert your needle through the center and pull out anywhere. Just pull out one of the sides. Take off your needle and snip the end in the end will go right back into the pumpkin. It should hide in there. No one will ever see it. This end still kinda long. So I'm going to trim it a little bit just to make life easier. Insert your needle and then pull it out anywhere along the side. Take your scissors snip off the end and it'll go back in there. If not, just give it a little poke to hide back inside the pumpkin. In while Locke shape it up a little bit. Both the top and the bottom look pretty similar. So find the side that has more of a indent to put your stick. Using a cinnamon stick. I've seen people use leather tags. Sticks from the yard. Wine corks mean anything goes. You can add a little glue to secure that if you want to, especially if you're going to be shipping them, but if you're just displaying them in your home and you don't have if they're not going to be messed with, you don't even need to glue it. Add your little piece of twine. And you're a little pumpkins are finished. I love cinnamon, I love the smell of cinnamon, the tastes of cinnamon, so that doesn't bug me, but like I said, you can use all kinds of different options for your stem. And I hope you enjoyed making your modern farmhouse pumpkin. And I will see you in the next class. Bye.