Secret the Pumpkitten is a cute pumpkin with a kitten poking her head out of the pumpkin top. Use this adorable plushie as Halloween home decor, DIY fall decorations, or for gifting. Customize the cat to any color fur you want, or to match your own kitty at home!
Secret the Pumpkitten Free Pattern
Secret the Pumpkitten—an amigurumi cat in a pumpkin—is my newest Halloween-themed free crochet pattern!
Read on to learn more about my design process and inspiration, or scroll to the end to get the free pattern. If you’re in a hurry and need to take this pattern offline, grab the beautifully formatted, ad-free, PDF pattern from Etsy here.
The easiest pumpkin ever!
Secret the Pumpkitten began with my desire to make some cute fall or Halloween themed decoration. Pumpkins are really popular this time of year, and what with the endless deluge of them I was seeing on social media, I really wanted to try to make my own.
Long story short, I tried a few patterns, and miserably failed at making my pumpkin. After a while, I decided that I would try on my own to design a pattern that was more approachable for me, and ended up with the pumpkin base that you see here! This pumpkin pattern is truly simple and is created from a sphere shape. As long as you can make a ball, then you can make this pumpkin! After that, the way to create those signature pumpkin grooves is just some easy stitching that pulls the sides of the sphere tight.
Secret the pumpkin cat
I loved the pumpkin that I came up with, but I wanted to add something extra. My sister has the most adorable gray Siberian cat named Secret, and she insisted that I include her in the pattern somehow. Secret is gray with the cutest white tufts of fur, and here are a few pictures from her last outing! She will reluctantly take walks on a leash (read: sit down while you insistently tug on the leash and then inevitably give up).
For my amigurumi, I decided on a cute pose of Secret’s head poking out the top of the pumpkin, complete with tiny paws and the pumpkin top sitting on her head.
The final result is super cute and very on theme for Halloween given the prevalence of cats and pumpkins around this holiday! If you’re also a cat lover, you could definitely change the color of the fur to match your own feline, or any imaginary cat color you wish. I can also imagine this amigurumi sticking around past Halloween, since fall and pumpkins mesh together quite well!
Related projects:
- Secret the Fluffy Cat Free Pattern
- Bear Basket Free Crochet Pattern For Beginners
- Louis the Royal Lion Free Crochet Pattern
- Waffle the Chubby Bear Free Crochet Pattern
- Ice Cream Bear Free Crochet Pattern
The Pattern
- If you want to take this pattern offline, grab the beautifully formatted, ad-free, PDF pattern from Etsy here!
- Pin this pattern to your Pinterest boards here:
Description
Secret the Pumpkitten is a cute pumpkin with a kitten poking her head out of the pumpkin top. Use this adorable plushie as Halloween home decor, DIY fall decorations, or for gifting. Customize the cat to any color fur you want, or to match your own kitty at home!
Yarn
- Red Heart Super Saver
- <1 skein of Burnt Orange (worsted weight)
- Hobbii Tivoli
- <1 skein of Gray (sport weight)
- <1 skein of Green (sport weight)
- Lion Brand DIYarn
- <1 skein of Brown (worsted weight)
Notions
- Size C (2.5 mm) Clover Amour crochet hook
- Size E (3.5 mm) Clover Amour crochet hook
- 4.0 mm safety eyes
- tapestry needle
- polyester fiberfill
- stitch markers
- black embroidery thread
- pink embroidery thread
Abbreviations (US)
- MR: Magic ring
- Sc: Single crochet
- Ch: Chain
- Sl st: Slip stitch
- Yo: Yarn over
- Hdc: Half double crochet
- Dc: Double crochet
- Inc: Increase
- Dec: Decrease
- Sts: Stitches
- FO: Fasten off
- (…) x: repeat stitches within parentheses x times
- Sk: skip one stitch
- FSC: foundation single crochet (tutorial here)
Technical Notes:
- Crochet in continuous rounds unless otherwise specified
- When filling with polyester stuffing, pull apart each large chunk into many smaller chunks. This ensures an even distribution of firmness.
- To avoid large holes in the crochet fabric, increase tension until the holes cannot be seen, or choose a crochet hook a size down.
- Stuff the head and the body firmly at the openings so that the neck is stable upon completion.
Pumpkin (orange worsted weight yarn and 3.5mm hook)
- Round 1 sc6 in MR (6 sts)
- Round 2 inc x6 (12 sts)
- Round 3 (sc, inc) x6 (18 sts)
- Round 4 (sc2, inc) x6 (24 sts)
- Round 5 (sc3, inc) x6 (30 sts)
- Round 6 (sc4, inc) x6 (36 sts)
- Round 7 (sc5, inc) x6 (42 sts)
- Round 8 (sc6, inc) x6 (48 sts)
- Round 9 (sc7, inc) x6 (54 sts)
- Round 10 (sc8, inc) x6 (60 sts)
- Round 11-19 (9 rnds) sc all around (60 sts)
- Round 20 (sc8, dec) x6 (54 sts)
- Round 21 (sc7, dec) x6 (48 sts)
- Round 22 (sc6, dec) x6 (42 sts)
- Round 23 (sc5, dec) x6 (36 sts)
- Round 24 (sc4, dec) x6 (30 sts)
- Round 25 (sc3, dec) x6 (24 sts)
- Round 26 (sc2, dec) x6 (18 sts)
- Stuff.
- Round 27 (sc, dec) x6 (12 sts)
- Invisible finish off, leaving a tail of around 2 feet. There will be a gap in the middle. Make a well in the center of the pumpkin by pushing your finger all the way to the bottom.
- (Watch a video tutorial for this step here!) Using a tapestry needle, push the needle through the center of the pumpkin and out the bottom. Then, draw the needle up and over the outside of the pumpkin and push it through the middle again tightly, create a groove in the side of the pumpkin. Repeat 5 more times evenly around the pumpkin for a total of six grooves, or six stitches around the side. FO.
Cat Head (in gray sport weight yarn, using a 2.5mm hook. Note that thicker yarn will result in a larger cat head)
- Round 1 sc6 in MR (6 sts)
- Round 2 inc x6 (12 sts)
- Round 3 (sc, inc) x6 (18 sts)
- Round 4 (sc2, inc) x6 (24 sts)
- Round 5 (sc3, inc) x6 (30 sts)
- Round 6 (sc4, inc) x6 (36 sts)
- Round 7 (sc5, inc) x6 (42 sts)
- Round 8 (sc6, inc) x6 (48 sts)
- Round 9-19 (11 rnds) sc all around (48 sts)
- Insert 4.0mm safety eyes between the 15th and 16th rounds, 6 stitches apart.
- Round 20 (sc6, dec) x6 (42 sts)
- Round 21 (sc5, dec) x6 (36 sts)
- Round 22 (sc4, dec) x6 (30 sts)
- Round 23 (sc3, dec) x6 (24 sts)
- Begin stuffing.
- Round 24 (sc2, dec) x6 (18 sts)
- Round 25 (sc, dec) x6 (12 sts)
- Finish stuffing.
- Round 26 dec x6 (6 sts)
- Finish off, leaving a short tail for sewing.
Ears (in gray sport weight yarn, using a 2.5mm hook)
- Round 1 sc6 in MR (6 sts)
- Round 2 (sc2, inc) x2 (8 sts)
- Round 3 (sc3, inc) x2 (10 sts)
- Round 4 (sc4, inc) x2 (12 sts)
- Round 5 (sc5, inc) x2 (14 sts)
- Do not stuff. Sew across the opening to seam closed, and leave a short tail for sewing.
Cat Paws (in gray sport weight yarn, using a 2.5mm hook)
- Round 1 sc6 in MR (6 sts)
- Round 2 inc x6 (12 sts)
- Round 3 (sc2, inc) x4 (16 sts)
- Round 4-5 (2 rnds) sc all around (16 sts)
- Round 6 (sc2, dec) x4 (12 sts)
- Stuff lightly, and invisible finish off, leaving a short tail for sewing.
Pumpkin Top (in orange worsted weight yarn, using a 3.5mm hook)
- Round 1 sc6 in MR (6 sts)
- Round 2 inc x6 (12 sts)
- Round 3 (sc, inc) x6 (18 sts)
- Invisible finish off, leaving a short tail for sewing.
Pumpkin Stem (in brown worsted weight yarn, using a 3.5mm hook)
- Round 1 sc 6 in MR (6 sts)
- Round 2-3 (2 rnds) sc all around (6 sts)
- Stuff lightly. Finish off, leaving a short tail for sewing.
Pumpkin Leaf (in green sport weight yarn, using a 2.5mm hook)
Chain 6, then beginning from the second chain from the hook, sc, hdc, dc2, then dc6 in the last chain. On the way back, dc2, hdc, and sc. Finish off, leaving a short tail for sewing.
Assembly
1. Embroider a triangular nose on the muzzle using pink embroidery thread between rounds 16-17 (counting from the top). Begin from the bottom round and outline out a small pie slice shape extending one rounds using vertical stitches. Fill in the outline and make one single horizontal stitch across the top for a cleaner look.
2. Place eyes just above the nose between the 15th and 16th rounds (counting from the top), with 6 stitches between them.
3. Embroider two whiskers on each side of the head using black embroidery thread. The top whiskers begin on round 17 (counting from the top) and are 3 stitches long, ending on round 15, while the bottom whiskers begin on round 18 and are 3 stitches long, ending on round 19.
4. Sew the ears between the 5th and 9th rounds (counting from the top), off to the left and right.
5.Sew the cat head onto the middle of the pumpkin.
6.Sew the cat paws directly in front of the cat head, with each one resting in a pumpkin groove.
7.Sew the stem onto the middle of the pumpkin top, and then sew the leaf to
the left of the stem. Sew the pumpkin top onto the cat’s head.
I hope you enjoyed making Secret the Pumpkitten! If you run into any problems feel free to ask me a question in the comments section below or through email at littleworldofwhimsy@gmail.com.
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Hi, I LOVE your Secret the Pumpkitten pattern and have already started it, my only question is that you have FSC: foundation single crochet in your abbreviation list but is never used in this pattern and throughout your pattern you have MR (which I know means magic ring) but it not listed in your abbreviation list. I quickly looked over the entire pattern before beginning my pumpkin and am not sure if FSC was ever meant to be used in this pattern or not, can you let me know please and thanks.
Hi Ingrid, thanks so much for your thoughtful comment. You’re correct, FSCs are not used in this pattern—I just use it very frequently so I include it on all my abbreviation lists. I should definitely have MR in my abbreviations, and have just corrected it! I really appreciate your taking the time to leave me a note.
Julia
Hi, I am sorry for asking what is probably a very dumb question, but I am just learning to read patterns and your is written slightly differently from any others I have tried. I am good until round 3 and then I can’t figure out how to get the same stitch count as you from there on out. If I have 12 stitches in round 2, where do I do the 6 stitches for increase? The only way I know to increase is to SC into the same stitch the indicated number of times but if I Increase each stitch in round two, then I would have 24 stitches in round 3. I am just confused about what I am supposed to do here. (The problem is most definitely with me and not you, but I will never learn if I don’t try and I have to ask questions when things don’t make sense to me. I truly appreciate this pattern; it is so cute! I also appreciate you being patient with my dumb questions!
Hi Beverly, thanks so much for taking the time to ask such a great question. There are no dumb questions in crochet, especially since we all start out as beginners! Let me see if I can clear this up for you. The instructions for round 3 read: (sc, inc) x6 (18 sts). You are totally correct in that an increase is crocheting two single crochet stitches in the same stitch. The parentheses around the (sc, inc) mean that you have to repeat the stitches inside the parentheses as many times as it says (in this case, 6x). This means that you will single crochet in one stitch, then increase in the next stitch, and the repeat this sequence six times. If I were to write it out, then it would look like this: Round 3: sc, inc, sc, inc, sc, inc, sc, inc, sc, inc, sc, inc (18 sts). However, I’ve just used the parentheses and the “x6” to write this out more concisely.
I use the parentheses notation throughout my pattern, and whenever you see it it just means “repeat the stuff inside the parentheses as many times as it says to,” and you should arrive at the correct stitch count. If you are still having problems, I suggest you reference this article, or send me an email and I’ll make a video explaining it!
Hope this helps 🙂
Julia
Thanks for the quick response! After I asked the question, I thought about it for a while and decided that I was supposed to do exactly what you said in your reply. My brain just was not wrapping itself around the instructions at first.
I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my question.
Of course! I’m glad that you were able to work it out on your own. As a further note, I do include the notation “(..) x” in my Abbreviations (as all patterns should do), so if you come across strange notation or different ways of writing things, I definitely suggest taking a look at the Abbreviations list at the beginning of the pattern to see whether it’s cleared up there. That being said, sometimes the short description might not be that helpful so it’s always a good idea to ask!
Best wishes,
Julia
Hi Sarah,
Sorry for the late reply — unfortunately, this pattern is no longer available for free (sorry for the confusion, I’m updating my website slowly so many pieces are in different states of finalization). It’s only available as a paid pattern on my Etsy shop. Thanks!
With love,
Julia
ok, thank you for your reply!
Hello!
Thank you SO much for offering this pattern to us! I am almost done with mine but I’m having issues figuring out the best way to attach the head to the pumpkin. Any suggestions?
Hi Barbara! I’m so excited for you 🙂 Sewing the head to the pumpkin can be tough — I recommend pinning it down in place first, and then weaving the tapestry needle under the top of the pumpkin and then under the bottom of the head. This can be tough to do to make sure that the stitches don’t show, but if you pull really tight then the head will lie flush with the top of the pumpkin and the stitches will be hidden. The easier method is to use glue if you prefer 😉
I have a blog post all about sewing amigurumi pieces together — maybe it will help though this exact situation isn’t shown.
Best of luck!!!