Pumpkin Garland

 Halloween is a mere three weeks away, and I wanted to do something a bit different for a Halloween-related post this year. For the last couple of years Tom and I have bought a pumpkin each and spent an evening carving it, but you know what? [Don't hate me here] I find carving pumpkins tiresome, icky, and what is up with that smell? It's great if you love it and if you're like Picasso with the knife, but I think because it was never really a big thing that I did as a child, I don't have that nostalgia surrounding carving pumpkins. I thought I'd make this pumpkin garland as a way to still honour the Halloween pumpkin, but without the ickiness. 

You will need:

Orange wool/yarn

Green pipe cleaners

Twine

Start by wrapping the wool around three fingers repeatedly to create a ball until you're happy with the amount of wool - obviously the more you wrap the bigger the pumpkin will be! As a rough amount you would want it wrapped round at least 100 times but when you've made a couple you'll be able to tell when it's enough. I found it easier to wrap the wool straight from the original ball rather than try to cut off a specific amount and then get it all tangled.

When you've wrapped it around enough times cut the wool from the original ball. Cut a separate piece of wool - about 10 inches - and put this through the centre of the ball that you've made (it's easier if you can put this through whilst it's still wrapped round your fingers) and then tie this in a loose knot before pulling the ball off your fingers and tightening the knot. I would then tie another knot to ensure that it's secure. 

Once you've tied your knot your wool ball will have started to resemble a pumpkin. Taking a piece of pipe cleaner, thread this under the knot you've made, twist the cleaner together so that you have a stalk, and cut to size. You will now have a pumpkin! If you find that the ball is too oblong, you can play about with pushing bits of wool into the middle until you are happy with the shape.

Using the strands of wool from the knot you made previously, you can tie this around the twine and cut off the excess wool to create the garland. Repeat this process until it is the length you want!

I enjoyed making these pumpkins a lot more than trying to carve out a real pumpkin, and as always let me know if you recreate this. I hope that you have a fab time however you choose to celebrate Halloween, whether that's just having one of those Smarties pumpkins, or if you go all out with the decorations, the costume, and the face paint!

Jess x