Brenda K.B. Anderson’s pattern book, Beastly Crochet, wasn’t specifically intended to be a book of Halloween crochet patterns. However, if you celebrate Halloween, October is a great time for crocheting the patterns in the book. That’s because this pattern collection is all Halloween friendly.
Beastly Crochet Book by Brenda K.B. Anderson, Published by Interweave
For example, let’s take the critters on the Beastly Crochet book cover (pictured.) If you look closely at their mouths, you’ll see these little monsters are stuffed with candy. They’re the perfect storage units for all the Halloween candy your little trick-or-treaters or party-goers might collect on Halloween night.
Cute, aren’t they?
You can crochet and felt them using the pattern and instructions given in this book.
If you want to make Halloween costumes for yourself or a child you know, this book has patterns you could use. There’s a super cute pattern for Sasquatch Slippers and Mittens, which I think might also work as bear claws. So you could dress up as a sasquatch or a bear if you make these. There’s also a vampire hat which could be the basis for an interesting Halloween costume.
The sweet skull hairpins are totally Halloween friendly. If those aren’t quite what you had in mind, you can check out bunches more knit and crochet skull patterns here at this website. The link takes you to a list that’s mostly free patterns aside from the ones included in this book and a couple of others that are worth paying for (in my opinion). Beastly Crochet also includes a sugar skull bag pattern, which I think is a little creepy — but I guess that’s the idea, right?
One of the fantastic things about this book is that the patterns are great for Halloween, but you can also use them at other times too. That translates to a great value for the time and money you spend on both the book and the projects. A big thumbs up to that!
Overall I really enjoyed this book, which tells you a lot since I am not someone who ordinarily enjoys crocheting skulls or creepy projects.
Mother’s Day is coming up soon. This year, in the USA, Mother’s Day will occur on Sunday, May 12, 2024. As of right now, you still have plenty of time to make or buy Mother’s Day cards and gifts for all the mother figures in your life.
If you love and adore making pretty things for the people you love, there are zillions of possible things you could make for your mom, grandmas, mother-in-law and / or stepmom. If you aren’t sure what to make, bead crafts offer you a fantastic starting point to consider because beads are beautiful, popular, readily available, reasonably affordable and really easy to work with.
If your mom and other gift recipients enjoy wearing jewelry, there are many pretty beaded baubles you could be making for them.
Furthermore, if you wear beaded jewelry yourself, and you’re taking any of the moms in your life out to Mother’s Day breakfast, lunch, brunch or dinner, you might also want to make something pretty for yourself to wear when you go out. Why not?
Beautiful Beaded Jewelry for Mother’s Day
Beaded Lace Crochet Choker Necklace Pattern
This pretty beaded choker is easy and inexpensive to make, but it turns out stunning if you do a careful job of crocheting it. It’s also really easy to personalize, because you can easily make it exactly the right length for its intended wearer. Beyond that, you can choose just about any color and shape of small beads for embellishing it, and pretty much any fine yarn or crochet thread for working it. The crochet pattern for making it is available on this website for free, and the materials for making it can be reasonably affordable if you choose inexpensive beads, crochet thread and findings; it’s also possible to splurge on precious metals and other exquisite materials to make the finished project truly, luxuriously spectacular. So if you’re thinking of making a choker-style necklace for your mom, this one gets my vote as one that’s ideal for most crafters to try. You can get the free crochet choker pattern HERE.
The only exception: This really isn’t a fantastic choice if you’ve never crocheted anything before, ever; in that case, I recommend taking a look at this list of crochet projects for total beginners and choosing an item from that list to make first. Then after you’ve made an item or two to get comfortable with crocheting, you’d be better equipped to succeed at making this project. But if you’ve already made a few crochet projects before, I’m positive that you could handle making this beaded choker necklace easily.
If your mom carries a cell phone, camera, or other similar small gadget, this pretty beaded gadget cozy might be a useful gift for her. Alternatively, this little pouch could be a pretty way to giftwrap a small gift.
These ideas only just scratch the surface of what is possible to make for Mother’s Day using beads. Want even more ideas? Check these out:
Are you interested in finding creative, fun, useful, unique, interesting and engaging craft ideas for the month of April?
Whether you enjoy needlecrafts,paper crafts, or some other sorts of crafts, you’ll find many possibilities for lovely things you could be creating. I’ve rounded up a bunch of project ideas and suggestions for April craft ideas you can use this month. If you have other suggestions to add to this list, I invite you to post a comment at the end letting me and the other readers here know about them.
April Holiday Crafts
Earth Day Crafts
Fabric Crochet Tote Bag: Free Crochet Pattern
Earth Day is coming up soon. This year, Earth Day will happen on Tuesday, April 22, 2025.
I have a huge list of recycled crafts and upcycled crafts you might want to check out if you’re interested in making crafting a part of your Earth Day (or everyday!) celebrations.
One possible idea is to upcycle old sheets or garments and transform them into useful projects like the fabric crochet tote bag pictured above. If you’d like to make a bag like this one for yourself, you’re welcome to use the free pattern posted here at this website. I also have bunches of other rag crochet patterns available for you to use.
If you maintain a physical planner, junk journal, scrapbook, or art journal, you might want to decorate your April calendar pages, journal pages or scrapbooking layouts with seasonal stamped images or embellishments. I invite you to check out the following pages for ideas:
Garden Journal Pages: This page has information on how to put together April garden journal pages plus additional pages for the other months besides just April.
Get Your Spring Cleaning On! You Can Make Yourself a Puff Lace Crochet Dishcloth or Washcloth With This Free Crochet Pattern.
Spring has already sprung; the first day of spring this year was Thursday, March 20, 2025. I hope your spring got off to an enjoyable start.
Are you ready to get your spring cleaning on? If so, I offer you bunches of free patterns to use for making your cleaning supplies. Check out earth-friendly upcycled scrubbies HERE, and make yourself some irresistibly pretty spring dishcloths with these crochet dishcloth patterns.
The projects posted above are just a small sampling of the ideas posted on this website. I’ve put together a list of spring crafts that are seasonally appropriate for April crafting in many regions of the Western hemisphere. Of course, if the weather in your neighborhood is still wintery, please feel free to continue using this list of winter craft ideas instead.
For even more ideas, you’re invited to check out our main index of craft project ideas. Happy crafting!!
If you found this page helpful, I invite you to return to this site often for more craft tutorials, project ideas and inspiration! You can make sure you keep this site on your radar by signing up for my newsletter and community at Substack. .
Basic subscriptions are free; I send out regular newsletters to let my subscribers know about new craft articles and tutorials as they are posted. I also share details about the craft projects I’m working on, and invite my readers to share their projects, too. So there is no need to feel like it’s just you, crafting all alone at home. I’d love to have you join us! You’re invited!!
Amy Solovay is a real, live, human content creator and educator who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Sweet Briar College; she has also earned a separate Associate of Arts degree in textile design from FIDM LA (The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, Los Angeles). She is NOT a robot and does not use artificial intelligence (AI) to write book reviews or articles for this website.
Amy learned to craft, and she still enjoys crafting techniques all these years later.
As an educator, Amy Solovay used to teach in-person college courses in trend forecasting, marketing and surface design at California Design College in Los Angeles. Nowadays she uses online platforms for sharing her knowledge about textiles, crafts, current color trends and current design trends.
Update 2-15-2024: I originally shared this blog post on February 24, 2010. I hadn’t thought about it in years, but I am thinking about it today because I just received some new Valentines that need a “home”. I thought I’d bump up this post and remind y’all about this pattern in case it would be useful for you to make some of these for storing your own Valentines this year.
Valentine’s Day was fun, and I enjoyed receiving letters, cards and notes from my loved ones. Now that February is drawing to a close, it’s time for me to figure out what to do with all these treasures — they’ve been proudly displayed on my fridge, but I can’t keep them there indefinitely.
Enter the “love note keeper.”
I’ve been working on some ideas for making love note keepers using decorated crocheted hearts. The plan is to stitch two hearts together, leaving an opening up one side for inserting the notes. I’ll be adding a button and button loop for a closure. The top heart will be decorated and embellished, and I might also add some sort of pretty strap for hanging.
I haven’t actually finished my love note keeper quite yet, because I got sort of distracted by all the possibilities for decorating it. I came up with so many ideas I like that I am thinking I might end up making several of them.
The photo you see above is just one idea; I’ve posted a couple more, and I have even more photos that haven’t been uploaded yet. So, please check back soon to see even more ideas!
