11 Halloween Crochet Projects to Make With Yarn: Pumpkins, Bats, Spiders, and Dog Costumes, and Stories That Warm the Heart

Mum crocheted Halloween ornaments every year. After she passed away I tried making pumpkins and yarn bats for my siblings. My sister knocked them over and said, “Stop trying to be Mum. You’ll never be that good!” I felt awful.
Hours later, I smelled fumes and rushed outside. My knees weakened at what I saw. My siblings had set up a little Halloween evening with a fire, hot chocolate, and all my crochet ornaments arranged around the yard.
My sister looked at me and quietly said, “I’m sorry. I miss Mum too.” We sat together that night, drinking hot chocolate and sharing our favorite memories of her. I honestly thought I was the only one struggling.

This isn’t my proudest moment, but here goes. A few years ago at a yarn swap, I snapped at a woman who reached for the same skein of glow-in-the-dark yarn I wanted for a Halloween project. I’d had a terrible week, which isn’t an excuse. She just let go of it and walked away, so I left with the skein and a knot in my stomach.
It turned out she’d brought a basket of small crocheted spiders to hand out as a thank-you to the swap organizers and volunteers, and a few were made from glow yarn. On my way out, she caught up with me, handed me one, and said I looked like I needed it more. I apologized in the parking lot, bright red in the face.
We went for coffee, and she’s now one of my closest crafting friends. She also taught me that glow yarn is stiff and splits easily, so she goes up a hook size, works slowly, and charges the finished piece under a bright lamp before dark, and every October since, she’s given me a new spider.

My first Halloween abroad was as an exchange student, and Halloween is barely a thing where I’m from, so I was completely lost. By early October, everyone at school was talking about costume plans and parties, and I didn’t understand half of what was going on.
My host family’s grandmother had moved over from Poland decades earlier, and she noticed I was hiding in my room and waved me into the kitchen, where she was making decorations. Her English was limited, and mine fell apart whenever I was nervous, so she taught me to crochet mostly by guiding my hands.
We started with chains and slip stitches, then small orange granny squares, and over three Sundays I made six of them and sewed them into a stuffed cube pumpkin. I finished it two days before Halloween, lopsided, and she put it on the windowsill anyway, right next to hers.
We kept crocheting every Sunday for the rest of my year there. I’m back home now, and each October I still make one pumpkin and send her a photo.