These loom knit pumpkins are such a fun way to turn a few simple stitches into cozy fall decor! With their chunky texture, plump shape, and little knit stems and vines, these plush pumpkins look adorable tucked onto a shelf, mantel, or fall table.

We made three different pumpkin patterns, each with its own textured design, so you can choose your favourite or knit the whole set. They’re all made on a round knitting loom and shaped into those classic pumpkin sections after the knitting is finished. Change up the yarn colours to make traditional orange pumpkins, soft neutral pumpkins, or warm mustard-coloured pumpkins for the perfect handmade autumn display.

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How to Loom Knit a Pumpkin

Follow these simple steps to make an adorable loom knit pumpkin, the perfect knitting craft for fall, Thanksgiving, and Halloween. This plush decoration is easy to make for loom knitting beginners, and there are 3 different stitch patterns to use.

Author: Debbie Chapman

Materials:

Equipment:

See the craft in action:

Looking for more loom knitting crafts? Here’s a few of our favourites:

Loom Knit Cat

Loom Knit Scrunchie

How to Loom Knit a Hat

Instructions:

Find what you need:

Gather your supplies and materials
To make our pumpkins we’re using a 36 peg loom. We’ve placed stitch markers on every 6th peg to indicate where the purl stitches will be made.
You can use fancy stitch markers, or just use small elastic hair bands like we have.

Drawstring cast-on:

Begin by making a slip knot and attaching it to the anchor peg. Then use a drawstring cast-on to attach the yarn.
To do this, go behind the first peg, in front of the second, behind the third, etc. Finish by bringing the yarn behind the first peg again (if your loom has an even number of pegs).
Complete the cast-on by bringing the working yarn in front of the pegs again. You’ll see that some pegs have 2 loops in front (like peg 2) and some have 1 loop in front (like peg 3).
Grab the bottom loop with your hook and lift it over the peg to the back. Repeat on the next peg with 2 loops, and continue this process until you’ve made it back to peg 1. This completes the cast-on.

How to u-knit:

To make our pumpkin we’ll be starting with 5 u-knit stitches. For peg 1 in this first round we’re just going to bring the yarn across the peg and start by knitting off peg 2.
To make a u-knit wrap the yarn half-way around the peg, placing it above the existing loop. Just hold the working yarn loosely at the back with your non-dominant hand.
There will be 2 loops on the peg. Use your loom hook to lift the bottom loop over the top and to the back of the peg.

How to purl:

On every 6th peg around the loom you’ll make a purl stitch. The stitch markers are an easy way to remember this pattern without counting.
Begin by holding the working yarn below the existing loop. Insert your hook into the top loop from above. Grab the working yarn with the hook and pull it up through the existing loop.
Pull the existing loop off the peg and place the new loop back on. Pull the working yarn to tighten the stitch.

Knit the pumpkin:

Round 1: To make the pumpkin follow this pattern around: u-knit 5, purl 1.
Remove the slip-knot from the anchor peg after completing the first row.
Rounds 2–30: Repeat this simple pattern (u-knit 5, purl 1) around for 30 rows total.

Gather bind-off:

Wrap the working yarn around the loom 3 times and cut from the ball.
For a normal gather bind-off you can wrap around twice, but we’re going to use the extra-long tail to shape the pumpkin.
Thread the tail onto a yarn needle and insert the needle up through the loop on peg 1.
Pull the yarn all the way through and then remove the loop from the first peg.
Repeat around until your work is removed from the loom.

Pumpkin stem:

To make the pumpkin stem (and vine) we’re using an 8-peg knitting spool. Since it doesn’t have an anchor peg we’ve marked peg 1 with another “stitch marker”.
Begin by attaching brown yarn with a drawstring cast-on.
Rounds 1–2: U-knit around.
Round 3: Purl around.
Rounds 4–10: U-knit around.
Finish with a basic bind-off. Begin by knitting pegs 1 and 2 like normal. Then take the loop from peg 2 and place it on peg 1.
Knit off peg 1. Then take the loop from peg 1 and place it on peg 2. Peg 1 will be empty now.
Repeat this process around (knit the second peg, move the loop to the first peg, knit off, move the loop back) until you reach the last peg.
Cut a long tail and pull the yarn through the loop on the last peg before removing it from the loom.
To form the top of the stem pull the tail from the gather cast-on. This will bring the top of the stem together, while the purl round naturally forms the top edge of the stem.
Thread the short tail onto the yarn needle and weave in the end to secure the gathering.

Pumpkin vine:

Make a slip-knot with green yarn and attach it to 1 peg on the spool. (It doesn’t matter which one. We’re only going to use 2 pegs.)
Wrap pegs 1 and 2 in a figure 8 pattern. Basically, bring the working yarn behind peg 2 and back around it, to back of peg 1 and around to the front.
Wrap peg 2 again, starting from behind the peg and ending by holding the working yarn at the center of the loom. There should be 2 loops on each peg.
Knit off both pegs.
Now we’re going to e-wrap knit peg 1 three times (3 knits in a row on the one peg).
Figure 8 wrap and knit off both pegs again.
Repeat those steps (knit peg 1 three times, figure 8 wrap and knit-off) until you’re happy with the length of the vine. We repeated 13 times total.
To cast-off bring the loop from peg 1 over to peg 2 and knit-off.
Cut the yarn and bring it up through the last loop to secure the end. Remove it from the loom.
Then weave in 1 end and cut off the excess tail. Keep 1 long tail for attaching.

Assemble the pumpkin:

Pull the cast-on tail to gather the pumpkin together. Do this slowly to arrange the stitches so they’re fairly even around.
Thread the yarn onto a yarn needle and go around through some of the first stitches again to tighten the gather.
Weave back and forth through a few stitches and then secure the gathering by making a knot on the inside.
Cut off the excess tail.
Add poly-fil stuffing into the pumpkin until you’re happy with the firmness.
Pull the tail to gather the top of the pumpkin. Leave a small gap to make it easy to sew the stem on.
Sew back and forth through a couple stitches to secure the gathering in place.

Shape the pumpkin:

To shape our pumpkin we’re going to be separating it into 6 sections.
You can see that our purl stitches have done that for us, creating rows that are a bit recessed compared to the knit stitches.
Bring the yarn from the center and place it so it goes down along the purls.
Insert the yarn needle near the bottom center of the pumpkin and pull the yarn through.
Then when you pull on the tail you can see the ridge of the pumpkin being formed.
Repeat this process around until you have 6 distinct sections on the pumpkin.
Finish by sewing through a few stitches at the top opening and making a knot before cutting off the excess tail.

Attach the stem and vine:

Add a bit of stuffing into the stem.
Then sew the stem to the top center of the pumpkin. Begin by attaching the tail to the pumpkin, then sewing into the bottom edge of the stem. Repeat around.
Finish off the tail by inserting the needle close to the stem and coming out near the middle of the pumpkin. Cut off the excess yarn close to the pumpkin body.
Sew the vine to the side of the pumpkin near the stem. Finish off the tail in the same way.
Your loom knit pumpkin is complete!
Make pumpkins in different colours or use different stitch patterns. Find details about the other patterns below!

Helpful Tips:

Try different stitch patterns: Experiment with different combinations of knit and purl stitches to create different textures. Just make sure the pattern can be divided evenly into 6 sections so you can shape the pumpkin when it’s finished.
Choose your preferred knit stitch: We like to use the U-knit stitch for these pumpkins, but you can also use the e-wrap knit or flat knit stitch. Keep in mind that the stitch you choose may slightly change the size and texture of the finished pumpkin.
Have fun with the colours: Stick with realistic pumpkin colours like orange, cream, and golden yellow, or try other fall shades like teal, sage green, burgundy, or mulberry.

Loom knit pumpkin made with a basket weave stitch pattern

What type of yarn should I use to make a loom knit pumpkin?

Bulky or super bulky yarn works well for these loom knit pumpkins. You can also hold 2 strands of worsted weight yarn together to create a similar thickness.

We used three different yarn weights for our pumpkins:

Orange pumpkin: size 6 super bulky yarn
Flecked oatmeal pumpkin: size 5 bulky yarn
Goldenrod pumpkin: 2 strands of worsted weight yarn held together

What size knit pumpkin does this pattern make?

These knitted pumpkins are about 6 to 7 inches wide and about 4 inches tall.

The exact finished size will vary depending on the yarn weight, the stitch pattern you use, and your knitting tension. A thicker yarn will generally make a larger, fuller pumpkin, while a slightly thinner yarn will create a smaller pumpkin.

All three of our pumpkins were made on a 36-peg loom, but their finished sizes vary slightly because we used different yarn weights and stitch patterns.

Can I make different sizes of loom knit pumpkins?

Definitely! Changing the yarn weight is the easiest way to adjust the finished size, but you can also use a loom with more or fewer pegs.

For a smaller pumpkin, try a 24-peg loom and use a repeating Knit 3, Purl 1 pattern for the basic ribbed pumpkin. For a larger pumpkin, use a 41-peg loom and repeat Knit 6, Purl 1 around until the last section (which will be Knit 5, Purl 1).

The important part is choosing a loom and a stitch repeat that divides the loom into 6 equal sections, since those sections become the pumpkin’s ridges. You can play around with the counts (such as in the 41-peg loom example above), but it’s definitely easiest when you keep the pattern consistent.

How do I make the other loom knit pumpkin patterns?

All three pumpkins are made using the same basic process. The main difference is the combination of knit and purl stitches used to create the texture.

Flecked oatmeal pumpkin — Broken rib stitch

Round 1: Knit around.
Round 2: Knit 1, Purl 1. Rep around.
Rounds 3–30: Rep Rounds 1–2.

This creates a subtle, nubby texture while still giving the pumpkin clearly defined sections once it’s shaped.

Goldenrod pumpkin — Basket weave stitch

Rounds 1–3: Knit 3, Purl 3. Repeat around.
Rounds 4–6: Purl 3, Knit 3. Repeat around.
Rounds 7–30: Continue alternating between the two 3-round sections.

Switching between the sections every 3 rounds creates the chunky basket weave texture.

These loom knit pumpkins are such a cozy way to decorate for fall, and it’s fun to see how much the look changes just by switching up the yarn colour or stitch pattern. Make one pumpkin on its own, or knit all three patterns to create a textured little pumpkin patch for your fall decor!

Here’s even more pumpkin craft ideas:

Pumpkin String Art

Crochet Pumpkin

Felt Pumpkin Pattern

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