You don’t have to wear a costume everywhere to be festive on Halloween. Some of the best ways to celebrate the season are to make your own decorations. For all you crocheters, it’s time to pick up your hook, small bundles of brown, white, orange and yellow yarn and start crocheting. For something you can carry everywhere that’s easy to make, keychains are the best approach.
If you’re stumped on what to start with, look no further than the iconic Halloween staples: pumpkins, candy corn and ghosts. These are just three examples of what they could look like, but don’t be afraid to let your creativity flow. Now that you’ve seen these classic designs,here are some tips for making your own versions!
Start smaller than you think
Remember that keychains move around, so it’s best to keep crochet keychains compact. As a guide, to achieve the scale of the examples, keep the width no more than seven single chains at most.
Keep colors to a minimum
It’s tempting to want to make something colorful that pops even from far away, but things can get muddled fast with limited stitches to work with. Switching colors, even if done subtly, leaves little marks. But as you can see, the candy corn features three colors. That’s because it’s easier to switch between rows than between stitches. To keep it seamless, loop your hook around the stitch under it instead of working into chains like normal.
Beginner tip
If you only know how to make chains or rows, the next step is learning how to make the magic circle. While a new technique can seem challenging, the magic circle can be broken into simple steps.
Start by draping the yarn thread around two fingers, with the end facing you. Then loop again to make an ‘X,’ making sure to end on the left side of the first string. Once you have an ‘X,’ flip to the other side of your fingers, pull the thread farthest from your nails from under the other and make a chain. From there, you work twelve double or six single stitches and pull the free end of the yarn to close the circle. With this technique, you could make anything from ghosts to candy corn.
