Fiber Monday 23

This pumpkin, guys.

This thing is kicking my butt.

I've run out of the newer skein of orange and now I have to hunt around the effluvia of my room to find a close match to this shade or the original. So far I've found neon orange and dusty orange - neither of which will work.

I do, however, get to tell you how we're going to finish the pumpkin!

Here's are finished circumference

It's seven braids high (left - right) and 108 stitches across (vertical)

I'm not 100% sure what this picture's for... was I trying to show where the seam would go?
At any rate, I folded it in half and sewed up the left and right sides.

There you have it: our seam. Our blurry, blurry seam.
Also, the pink and blue bits on either side are stitch markers so that I know where the first and last stitch of the rows are!
And why do I need to know that?

So that I can reduce the size of the pumpkin as we go!
Here I'm demonstrating how to half-double-crochet two stitches together (upside-down)
First: you start making an hdc in your chosen stitch, but you stop after you pull through the first two.

Like so - we've started our first hdc, but we haven't pulled through...

Here, we've pulled through the first two stitches and are setting up the second hdc without finishing the first.
That's how you make them stick together.

I've begun my second hdc in the next stitch, and I'll then pull through all of those loops

Boom: we've now reduced the overall stitches by one.
Do that 9 more times on this row.

And here's what one row of reduction looks like.
The pumpkin is inside out so that I can just leave the tails hanging around without them being ugly.
I'm closing in the top, here. I'll do the bottom later.

Oops. Ran out of yarn again!
I'm nearly done with the reductions, too!

It's a talll pumpkin!

Like, really tall!

So, if I were to write out what I did to reduce along the top, here, this is what I'd write:

Reduction Round 1) *hdc 5, hdc 2 tog, hdc 5; repeat from * to end, do not chain - continue in continuous rounds! (90 hdc, 9 hdc 2 tog)

RR 2) *hdc 2 tog, hdc9; repeat from * 8 more times. (81 hdc, 9 hdc 2 tog)

RR 3) *hdc 4, hdc 2 tog, hdc 4; repeat from * 8 more times (72 hdc, 9 hdc 2 tog)

RR 4) *hdc 2 tog, hdc 7; repeat from * 8 more times (63 hdc, 9 hdc 2 tog)

RR 5) *hdc 3, hdc 2, hdc 3; repeat from * 8 more times (54 hdc, 9 hdc 2 tog)

RR 6) *hdc 2 tog, hdc 5; repeat from * 8 more times (45 hdc, 9 hdc 2 tog)

RR 7) *hdc 2, hdc 2 tog, hdc 2; repeat from * 8 more times (36 hdc, 9 hdc 2 tog)

RR 8) *hdc 2 tog, hdc 3; repeat from * 8 more times (27 hdc, 9 hdc 2 tog)

I had to stop here because I'm temporarily out of orange, but I'll find more and continue!

RR 9) *hdc, hdc 2 tog, hdc; repeat from * 8 more times (18 hdc, 9 hdc 2 tog)

RR 10) *hdc 2 tog, hdc; repeat from * 8 more times (9 hdc, 9 hdc 2 tog)

RR 11) hdc 2 tog to end (9 hdc 2 tog)

This gives you 9 stitches remaining. On the top, that's the perfect place to leave it and move on to the bottom.

The bottom will be exactly the same, except that you'll hdc 3 together all the way around on RR 12, closing the bottom hole in with either stitches or a piece of felt you sew on. Then you flip it right-side out, fill it (from the 9-stitch opening in the top) and finish!

For finishing, I think I have enough brown yarn to make a pretty neat stem on top! If I can, I'll also make a disc of brown yarn to put on the bottom.

We'll see how botchy it gets ;)

Pro Tip: Always make sure you have enough of the same shade of yarn for a one-color project!

That's all from me today.

Go Enjoy Something!!!
FC