I may be a hobby dabbler with a constant impulse to try new DIY projects, more than I can chew, but I found my craft niche with crochet a couple of years ago.

I actually learned the basic stitches as a child around the age of nine because I saw someone doing it and asked if she'd teach me. (Side note, pre-adolescence is a great time to teach kids skills!)

Well after years of not crocheting, I picked up a hook and some yarn one day and tried out some patterns. Following patterns was a new skill and at first, I was clumsy. There isn't much to master but I ignored the details and had loose work, mismatched booties, oversized flowers, and so on.

Later I tried again because I wanted western style BOOTies for my baby and I invested in a $5 pattern from The Lovely Crow who, like me, is a military wife/entrepreneur. She includes these amazing video tutorials and I started paying attention to details like hook size and yarn weight. Well, guess what?

After that crocheting was EASY and I became ADDICTED! Now the beginning of fall is when I collect my project ideas and start making gifts and props for the season; which brings me to Halloween.

So without further ado, here are some great crochet patterns for projects you can start NOW to use for Halloween!

1. Trick or Treat Bags

These are so adorable and the patterns are free on the website or you can buy a clean ad-free PDF for $1.99 from blogger Ashleigh at www.sewrella.com!

2. Dia De Los Muertos

I don't actually celebrate Dia De Los Muertos nor did I grow up with creepy decorations in our home BUT, sometimes I think Day of the Dead skulls are kinda pretty (call me crazy, I'll own it).

My little one associates skulls with pirates which she calls "Yo-hos!" (Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirates life for me!) So I might just make a Yo-ho for her!

3. Pumpkins!

Another great post from Sewrella (I love that blog name) and she says the pumpkins are cute and easy. Pumpkins are great because not only are the well-suited Halloween, but for the rest of fall! You can't go wrong with pumpkins in my humble opinion!

4. A Candy Corn Hat

While there is no pattern listed for this one, when you get proficient in crocheting this is easy to figure out. It's so cute too!

5. Newborn Pumpkin

If only I had found this Etsy listing when my little one was a newborn! Hey if you don't crochet, you can always support crafters who do right?

6. Character Hats

Repeat after me, REPEAT CRAFTER ME! She is one of my all-time favorite bloggers who specializes in crafting, crocheting, and crock-potting (which makes me want to be her new best friend).

I can't create a post about crocheting without mentioning this blog. She has simple crochet projects for virtually everything and many of her projects are animal and character hats. It would be super easy and inexpensive to put together a kid's costume with a crochet hat and simple clothes.

7. Halloween Cozies

Last but not least, mug cozies are probably among the shortest and easiest projects to do for Halloween. They are great confidence boosters for beginners and quickies for novices.

Plus they are cute!

So if you'd like to learn how to crochet, check out some of these free patterns and hop on some youtube tutorials to get started. If you are already an enthusiast, these are great projects to get going on NOW for Halloween.

Personally, I think fall is for crafting and you might like it too!