Crochet Pumpkin Votive from Newspaper Bag

I come from a long line of creative and crafty women so I was brought up to always think 'outside-the-box' and look at things in a unique way - and that includes what went through my mind when I saw this on our doorstep each rainy Sunday:  This could make a neat crochet project!

I had made "plarn" (yarn made with strips of plastic bags) before and experimented a little.  I have not done much since it seemed to take so much longer to make the plarn then it did to actually crochet something.  But I have still been on the lookout for colored plastic bags to use.  . . . They are hard to come by until you have a rainy Sunday when the newspaper is delivered!

First, I gathered several of the orange plastic bags and cut them into strips using a cutting pattern that keeps each bag all one length.  (I cut off the bottom of every bag  - this created a tube open on both ends - and then cut down the tube lengthwise - this created one large rectangle as seen in photo above). I rolled the strips into a ball as I went and soon was ready to crochet.

(Glass Votive - 3" diameter across bottom, 3 1/2" across opening on top and 15 1/4" around widest part)

I used a J hook and worked as if I was making a baby hat.  I started with an adjustable ring so there is no hole on top.  From there I simply single crocheted around increasing as I needed to up to the widest point of the votive. (To check, I slid the project over the votive and then slid off to continue.)  After passing the widest part of the votive, I then decreased gradually until my stitches completely covered the glass. (You can use a simple pattern for a newborn hat to get the basic shape.)

To finish I added green pipe cleaners (that had been twisted around a pencil) and a felt leaf. (I found a pumpkin leaf template on-line.)

The plastic is stretchy and fits nicely to the shape of the votive.  Use ONLY battery-powered tea lights to illuminate your pumpkin!  (You can also use those short strands of battery-powered LED lights - they are much brighter than a tea light).You may also want to secure the bottom of the pumpkin edges with twist ties - this keeps it snug on the votive but also allows you to undo it to replace or remove the tea light.

Happy Thanksgiving!








(I used the glass votive with the open end on top because the shape seems more pumpkin-like. But . . . if you flipped over the glass holder so the open end was on the bottom, it would be very quick and easy to add a tea light and/or turn it off and on!)