Punch it Up: Fall Forage Pattern

A Garland of Punched Acorns and Mushrooms

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY UNA WALKER

Fall Forage Garland, wool yarn on wool fabric. Designed and punched by Una Walker, La Grande, Oregon, 2026.

When my “kids,” now in their 40s, were in grade school, their school had a fabulous tradition. In the fall, “gnomes” would leave the children golden walnuts to let them know that even though they were headed under-ground for the winter, they would still be nearby and ready to help. Needle punching a walnut seemed like a crazy idea, so I changed it up to a golden acorn!

I had really wanted to make a fall garland, since I had already made one for winter and summer. To go with the acorns on the garland, I revisited my mushrooms (“Festive Fungi” in the November/December issue of RHM), but this time, I created a slightly different shape for the mushroom cap by putting in darts. For symmetry, I went with four acorns and three mushrooms, but you can create any combination you choose.

For both the acorns and mushrooms, I used some hand-spun yarn that was thick and thin and variegated in fiber content. Not only does this type of yarn lend a unique look to the project, but it also allows me to discuss how to work around thickness variation when punching!

Constructing the Garland

To hide the clothesline, you are going to wrap it with the rug yarn. Taper one end of the clothesline by cutting it at a slight angle. Use some glue on the tapered end to prevent the rope from unwinding (or you can melt the cut end if it is synthetic). Mark the clothesline with a Sharpie at both one inch and four inches from the tapered end. Start by putting a thin line of glue along the end of the clothesline from the one-inch mark back to the tip. Place the cut end of the yarn on the one-inch mark and press the yarn into the glue, moving out to the end of the clothesline. Use a  couple of clips to hold the yarn in place until it dries.  This will allow you to hide the end of the yarn when you start wrapping.

Once the glue is dry, start wrapping the yarn tightly around the clothesline by first running a thin bead of glue and then wrapping the yarn along the rope about an inch at a time. Keep the wraps tight and close together. You can use clips as you go to hold everything in place. It is okay if a bit of the clothesline is showing at the very end, since it will be covered in the next step. You don’t need to glue all around the rope; just a thin line along one side is sufficient. Continue gluing and wrapping until you reach the four-inch mark.

MATERIALS & SUPPLIES

The Garland

• 84″ of clothesline
• 11 strips of green wool fabric, 1-1/2″ x 28″ (They can be shorter, but you’ll need more of them.)
• 40″ of rug yarn close to the same color as the green wool fabric
• Scissors
• White glue
• 3-4 quilting clips, clothespins, or bulldog clips

The Acorns and Mushrooms

• Oxford punch needles: #10 fine and #13 fine
• Gripper frame
• Sewing needle (on the longer side) and heavy thread
• Stuffing (I prefer Crafter’s Choice Dry Polyester Fiberfill, as it’s not as slippery as regular fiber fill.)
• Sharpie pen
• Patterns cut out of thin cardboard such as a cereal box
• 2″ disc of cardboard

For Each Acorn

• Backing Fabric: Wool fabric dyed any shade of brown/green/khaki you choose. Each acorn is made up of two pieces, the top and the body. The pattern for the top is 4″ in diameter, and the pattern for the body is 7-1/2″ x 4-1/2″ (including the necessary seam allowances). You can either punch the acorns individually on a small frame or hoop, or punch multiples on a larger frame. Ultimately, you will need approximately a half yard of fabric for four acorns.
• Yarn:
  • 10 yards brown variegated yarn; 40 yards total for 4 acorns (I used a hand-spun yarn that was a bit thick and thin and also had some white slubs.)
  • 15 yards Wooly Worsted yarn in Honey; 60 yards for 4 acorns

For Each Mushroom

• Backing Fabric: Again, wool fabric dyed any shade of brown/green/khaki you choose. The pattern for the mushroom tops is a 3-1/2″ circle, and like the acorns, you can punch them individually or in multiples on a larger frame. For three mushrooms, you will need approximately a 15″ square piece of fabric. You will also need three 2″ x 2-1/2″ pieces of wool fabric for the mushroom stems in the same or a complementary color.
• Yarn:
  • 4 yards hand-spun yarn; 12 yards for 3 mushrooms
  • 5 yards Wooly Worsted yarn in Bark; 15 yards for 3 mushrooms

You will now create a loop by bending the end you have covered back onto itself so that the tapered end

is half an inch beyond the four-inch mark where you stopped wrapping.

Then continue gluing and wrapping, securing the cov-ered end until you have wrapped a full half-inch beyond the tip. Cut the yarn and glue and clip the end in place until dry. Repeat with the other end of the clothesline.

To make the garland fringe, make 1¼-inch-deep cuts spaced one-quarter inch apart into a long edge of the wool strips. These fringed strips will be used to wrap the rest of the clothesline.

Start by gluing the end of one of the strips around one end of the clothesline, covering about an inch of  the wrapped yarn. You want the fringe facing the loop as shown.

Continue gluing a length of the clothesline and  wrapping the fringe around it, overlapping each wrap a bit to hide the clothesline.

Use clips to hold things in place as you go. Continue gluing and wrapping, adding additional fringed strips as needed, until you reach the other looped end. Glue and clip the end of the wool strip to secure it.

Creating the Acorns

Acorn Body

Transfer the design to a piece of thin cardboard and  cut it out. Stretch the wool fabric onto your frame and then trace the pattern onto the wool using the cutout  of the design.

Punch the body of the acorn with the #13 fine-point needle using a single strand of Honey yarn. When com-pleted, trim the tails and steam iron the piece as needed.

Trim to a half-inch seam allowance around the entire acorn but DO NOT cut out the dart (the space between the two halves).

Now, to sew the seam, first fold the wrong sides of the body together. Then, push the fabric from the dart to the inside of the fold. With your sewing needle loaded with doubled, heavy-duty thread with a good-size knot at the end, come up through the back at the top of the dart.

Sew back and forth, catching both fabric and a bit of yarn, tucking in the extra fabric as you go. Continue  sewing all the way along the seam. When you reach the top of the acorn, bring your needle to the inside and knot off the thread, but leave the needle attached. If you don’t have a length of thread still available, cut it off and  rethread the needle.

Bring the needle back to the front and create a basting stitch one quarter-inch away from the punching all the way around the top. Do not knot off, and again, leave the needle attached.

Stuff the body of the acorn until stiff. Now, pull the basting thread to tighten the top, pushing in more fiber fill as needed to keep the shape, and knot off and trim the thread. There may be a small opening, but that’s okay, since the acorn top will cover it.

Acorn Top

Stretch the wool fabric and then transfer the design to the wool using a cutout of the pattern.

Punch the top using the Oxford #10 fine-point needle and the hand-spun variegated brown yarn. Using the #10 will give you a fuller top and a nice contrast with the body of the acorn.

Working with thick-and-thin hand-spun yarn is do-able! To make sure you have the right thickness of yarn for your needle, the easiest first step is to hold the yarn next to the shaft of the needle. If it is of equal width, test to see if it glides through the needle without getting stuck. With thick-and-thin yarn, the thin parts may be perfect, but the thick sections don’t always glide through. In that case, when the yarn gets stuck, use your hand to pull the troublesome part through the needle to the front and then continue punching.

Finally, clip off the big loop as if it were a tail. If it’s too big to even pull through the needle, it’s easier to sim-ply stop, clip the section out, and start again. When you are done, trim your tails and steam iron as needed.

Create a hanging loop by taking an eight-inch piece of matching yarn, folding it in half, and tying an over-hand knot about an inch from the folded end. Thread the ends into a big-eye tapestry needle and then thread them through the middle of the acorn top (so that the hanging loop is on the front side). Remove the needle and knot the yarn ends together close to the back of the punching to secure the loop. Trim off the excess yarn.

Trim the seam allowance around the acorn top to half an inch. Using a double-knotted thread, create a basting stitch all the way around the top an eighth-inch from the punching. Pull the basting thread, tucking the extra fabric inside and slightly stuffing the acorn top.

Place the top over the body of the acorn and tighten the basting thread as needed to fit it on the body. Secure the basting stitch with a knot.

Now, sew the top onto the body. I found it helpful to put a few pins into the top while I stitched. Either use the end of the basting thread or rethread a double strand. Sew from the acorn body up to the wool fabric close to the first row of punching on the top. You may need to push the first row of punching out of the way in order to find it! The stitches do not need to be very close together—about a half-inch is sufficient. When you are about one inch from closing up the acorn, stuff in a little more fiber fill to plump up the top. Knot off and hide your thread by putting your needle in close to the knot and back out a needle length away. Give your thread a tug and cut it close, and it will be hidden!

Make three or more acorns!

Creating the Mushrooms

Stretch the wool fabric, then transfer the mushroom-cap design to the wool using a cutout of the pattern.

 

Use the Oxford #10 fine-point needle and the hand-spun variegated yarn to punch the dots on the mush-room cap. Deal with any thickness issues as you did

on the acorn top. Now, use the Oxford #13 fine-point needle with Bark to fill in the rest of the cap.

Create a hanging thread the same way as for the acorns using an eight-inch piece of matching yarn. Thread the ends into a big-eye tapestry needle and thread them through the middle of the mushroom cap; remove the needle and knot the yarn ends together to se-cure the loop. Trim the tails, park your loops, and steam iron as needed. Trim the wool fabric to one inch from the punching, but do not cut the darts.

As you did with the acorn body, using a double thread and working from the outside, bring your knotted thread up from the back to the front at the top of the dart. The fabric of the dart should be pushed to the inside, making sure the punched loops at the edge of the mushroom cap are even. Ladder stitch by going back and forth into the wool near the punched loops. Work your way to the base of the dart, bring the needle to the inside, and knot off. Repeat for the other two darts.

With a new thread, use a basting stitch an eighth-inch away from the edge of the fabric. Tighten it a little to start the gathering and stuff firmly with fiber fill.

Push in the two-inch disc of cardboard and tug on the basting thread to enclose. Run the thread through the folds to tighten it up. You should have a half-inch open-ing in which to place the stem. Leave the thread attached at this point.

For the stem, match and sew up the two-inch sides using a quarter-inch seam allowance, either by machine or by hand, and turn right side out. Stuff very firmly.

Place one end of the stem into the half-inch opening of the cap. With the thread that is still attached, sew the stem to the top and knot it off. Close the bottom of the stem by running some stitches around the edge and drawing it closed. Knot off the thread and hide the tails as you did for the acorns. Make two or more mushrooms.

Assembling the Garland

Using the one-inch strips of fabric or ribbon, tie the acorns and mushrooms to the garland, alternating them, starting with the acorns. Hang your garland in a window or door-way, sit back, and enjoy!

There are lots of ways to change up the garland. For winter, use wooden beads in foot-long stretches between red-and-white mushrooms. You could also hang woolen pinecones from it. Change the thickness of the garland by cutting the wool strips wider. I have also done the same garland technique on a metal macrame ring to create a wreath. I do have an idea for spring, but you’ll have to wait and be surprised. As always, I can’t wait to see what you create! WLRH

NOTE: The Fall Forage Garland  pattern is in the pattern section at the end of the magazine.