Felted Pumpkin and Paper Treats

I have had this pattern for a knitted and felted pumpkin on my to-do list for a while, and when I joined a Halloween Goodie Bag swap on MJF it seemed like the perfect addition. While the knitting went easy peasy, I had a bit of difficulty with the felting. I didn't feel like paying my landlord for several loads of wash to get it all felted, and so I thought I'd do it by hand. Mph! The stitching all stretched out the second it hit the first batch of water. I sort of had a hard time keeping the shaping as it began to felt, though the Lion brand yarn I used did felt well. But the plastic bags called for to stuff the pumpkin while felting blobbed about, misshaping the pumpkin, and the yarn that was supposed to define the sections sort of drifted. I was none too happy!! I finally just took the stuffing out and finished felting empty. Then when it was dry (several days later, sheesh!), I took a matching color thread and wrapped it around the section divisions. I think the final effect is good but I really wonder if the machine felting works better. Still, what a cute little felted joy:



Besides the banner I previously posted and the felted pumpkin, I also made a few candy containers out of cardstock using my cricut and Make The Cut. The felted pumpkin was tucked snug in a felt bag from the dollar store, and a store bought metal Halloween ornament was placed in a cute witch box I got last year on clearance. A haunted house card topped it all off: