I know, I know — real spiders are not for everyone. But a crochet spider is a completely different creature: soft, squishy, faintly ridiculous, and welcome on every mantel, bookshelf and coffee table in my house. Every October my home fills up with them — plush spiders with embroidered smiles, lacy webs stretched across doorways, and web coasters appearing under every mug.
So I have gathered twenty of my favourite spider makes for you, and I have been honest about what each one actually is: six friendly amigurumi spiders to hug, five webs and webby decorations (a web is not a spider, and I will not pretend otherwise), three coasters, three appliqués, and three bigger pieces for your table and your wardrobe. Every pattern below is genuinely free at its link, and where a designer offers an optional paid PDF or asks you to keep a design for personal use, I have said so in the notes. Pick your favourite eight-legged friend, and let's get hooking.
1. Webigail, the No-Sew Spider in Two Sizes
Ashley Parker's Webigail might be the cleverest spider on this list, because there is not a single seam in her: the legs are crocheted in as you go, sprouting from the body rounds exactly where they belong. The pattern gives you two sizes — a large spider in bulky yarn, about five and a quarter inches long, and a mini in worsted weight at just over three inches — both at an easy skill level with safety eyes and a sweet embroidered glint added to each eye. Make her in classic black for Halloween, or in brown, grey or even pink for a spider with personality. One honest note: the pattern itself is for personal use only, although Ashley happily lets you sell finished spiders as long as you credit her as the designer. An optional paid ad-free PDF exists too, but the complete written pattern is free on The Loopy Lamb blog.
Pattern: Webigail No-Sew Spider by Ashley Parker at The Loopy Lamb — Get the free pattern
2. The Spider Pocket Pet with Four Eyes
Virkadia's Spider Pocket Pet is the spider for people who like their Halloween makes a little more characterful: it has four safety eyes — two big, two small — and a pair of tiny pincers sewn beneath them, just like a real spider's face. It is rated intermediate and finishes about four and a half inches tall in worsted yarn on a 5 mm hook, and the sample colours are a swampy tea-leaf green and a moody charcoal rather than plain black, which I love. The head, legs and body are made separately and assembled with clear photo guidance at every step. It belongs to a five-piece Halloween Pocket Pets collection, so beware — you may end up making the whole set. The full written pattern is free on the Virkadia site; an ad-free PDF is sold on Etsy for anyone who wants one, but you do not need it.
Pattern: Spider Pocket Pet by Virkadia — Get the free pattern
3. Sharlotte, the Tiny Spider with Lashes
Sharlotte is the smallest spider in this collection, and possibly the sweetest: worked in worsted yarn she stands only about two inches tall, with embroidered eyes and long embroidered lashes instead of plastic safety eyes, which also makes her a safer make for little ones. Yarn Society rates the pattern beginner level, and she is worked in continuous spirals with plenty of photos to help you along. Her official likes, according to her designer, are classical music and making yarn-shaped webs, which tells you everything about her personality. Because she uses so little yarn, she is a perfect scrap-buster — make a whole family in an evening and perch them along a windowsill. Finished Sharlotte spiders may be sold too, as long as it is not mass production. The complete pattern is free on the Yarn Society site.
Pattern: Sharlotte the Spider by Yarn Society — Get the free pattern
4. The Big-Eyed Spider with Long Legs
Melissa at Lovable Loops has given her spider the full cartoon treatment: two enormous white crocheted eyes sewn onto a round stuffed body, and eight long legs that dangle beautifully when you hang her up. It is an advanced-beginner pattern in worsted weight yarn with a 5 mm hook, using half double and double crochet in joined rounds, with stitch counts at the end of every round so you cannot drift. The eyes, body and legs are crocheted separately and sewn together at the end, which makes each part pleasantly mindless on its own. She would look wonderful in a trick-or-treat basket, strung over a party table, or sitting on a porch pumpkin. There is a video on the page too if you like one, but the written pattern is complete and free right there on the blog — no sign-up, no catch.
Pattern: Crochet Spider by Melissa at Lovable Loops — Get the free pattern
5. The One-Piece Spider with a Popcorn Head
Krazy Kabbage set herself a challenge — a spider made entirely in one piece, with no sewing at all — and the result is this dinky little creature whose head is formed by a single inverted popcorn stitch. Everything happens in eight rounds on a 5 mm hook: the legs are chained and slip-stitched into place during round five, then you simply decrease, stuff and close. They are small and quick, so the real fun is making lots of them — a row of black ones marching along a shelf, or a colourful set in purple, orange and green. Add a thread loop and they become hanging decorations, or sew one onto a hat for instant costume energy. The written pattern is free on her blog; she also sells a small-fee PDF on Ravelry that bundles the spider with a matching spiral beanie, which is entirely optional.
Pattern: Amigurumi Spider by Krazy Kabbage — Get the free pattern
6. Spooky Spider Bro and His Baby Brother
Crafty Bunny Bun calls this her easiest and quickest pattern, and I believe her: Spider Bro's body is a stuffed rounded cube, and his eight legs are crocheted directly into the sides of that cube, so there is practically no sewing. Glue his googly eyes on low, near the front, and he instantly looks like he is peeking at you. The instructions cover two sizes — a regular Bro in DK yarn with a 3 mm hook, and a tiny baby spider in fine yarn with a 2 mm hook — and there is even an optional chain worked into the top of the body so you can hang him from a web in a doorway. This is the spider to make in multiples on a cosy evening with a film on. The full written pattern, with photo references for leg placement, is free on the Crafty Bunny Bun site.
Pattern: Spooky Spider Bro by Crafty Bunny Bun — Get the free pattern
7. Miss Spider's House — the Big DROPS Web
Full honesty first: this one is the web, not the spider — but what a web. Miss Spider's House from DROPS Design stretches about forty centimetres from tip to tip once it is slightly stretched, worked in DROPS Paris cotton with a 4 mm hook, in crisp white or dramatic black from a single 50 g ball. Rather than rows of text, the design is given as crochet charts with a short written overview explaining the order of work, so this is one for chart-comfortable crocheters — DROPS patterns are always free, and the chart is complete on the page. Six long chain cords finish the tips, ready to tie across a window, a bookshelf or a porch corner. Pair it with the little lady in the very next idea and you have a complete scene.
Pattern: Miss Spider’s House (DROPS Extra 0-1426) by DROPS Design — Get the free pattern
8. Miss Spider Herself, in Mustard Yellow
And here is the resident for that web: Miss Spider, the companion design from DROPS, a flat little spider worked in one piece from a chart, with a body just five and a half centimetres long. The sample is crocheted in mustard-yellow DROPS Paris, which is a delightful change from the usual black, and the beginning strand is deliberately left long so you can hang her from her own thread, mid-web or mid-doorway. Like her house, she is chart-based with a brief written overview and a symbol key, so treat this as a small project for chart readers — the pattern is, as always with DROPS, completely free. The designer even suggests dipping the finished spider in sugared water to stiffen her so she holds her shape. Hang a whole drift of them at different heights for maximum effect.
Pattern: Miss Spider (DROPS Extra 0-1427) by DROPS Design — Get the free pattern
9. The Creativebug Web — Plus a Half-Web for Corners
This web-only design from the Creativebug blog is the one that looks most like the real thing, because its spokes are worked in stitches that grow taller every round — double crochet, then treble, then stitches with four and five yarn-overs — so the web ripples outward just like silk. Blocked, the sample measures about ten inches across, and the pattern also includes a half-web version that sits perfectly in room corners and window frames. The sample uses sock-weight yarn with a 3.75 mm hook, but any yarn works: thread for a lacy web, chunky yarn for a bold outdoor one. Blocking under tension is essential here, and the page walks you through it with photos. Leave long strings on the spokes and you can tie your web anywhere. The complete written pattern is free on the post.
Pattern: Crochet Spider Web by Creativebug — Get the free pattern
10. The Vintage Spider Web Doily, Pattern #761
For the thread-crochet lovers, here is a piece of history: Spider Web Doily #761 is a vintage J. & P. Coats design, first published in a 1940s pattern booklet and now hosted free by Free Vintage Crochet. Twelve rounds of steadily widening chain spaces build the web — six rounds of pure web, then rounds that fill and firm the edge so the doily lies flat and behaves like a proper table piece. The original calls for crochet cord and a small steel hook, and the sample colour was a haunting Crystal Blue, though white or black thread looks suitably spooky too. It is a web rather than a spider, so picture it under a glass pumpkin, a candle jar or a bowl of Halloween sweets. Vintage patterns assume a little confidence, but the full row-by-row text is right there on the page.
Pattern: Spider Web Doily Pattern #761 by Free Vintage Crochet — Get the free pattern
11. Spiderweb Bunting — Webs and Spiders Together
The Fairy Thorn's design gives you both halves of the scene in a single pattern: five fan-shaped corner webs worked in rows of V-stitch, and five flat spiders with curly legs and embroidered eyes to hang beneath them, joined into bunting about 175 centimetres long. The webs are worked in worsted cotton with a 4.5 mm hook, and the sample mixes black, purple and orange webs, which looks wonderfully festive against a mantel. The pattern is written out twice, once in UK terms and once in US terms, with every stitch written in full words rather than abbreviations, which makes it unusually accessible. The spiders' legs are worked as increasing chains, so they curl on their own without any wire. Make the full string for a fireplace, or single web-and-spider pairs for doors and windows. The complete pattern is free on The Fairy Thorn blog.
Pattern: Spooky Spiderweb Decorations by The Fairy Thorn — Get the free pattern
12. The Web of Stitches Coaster
Sunflower Cottage Crochet's web coaster gets its realistic web texture from front post double crochet spokes radiating through six quick rounds — that raised-post trick makes this a lovely first front-post project for a confident beginner. The finished coaster is roughly square at four and a half to five inches, uses only about twenty-five yards of worsted cotton on a 4 mm hook, and begs to be made in colour combinations: the samples use red with black, orange and purple. Being a web design, there is no spider on this one — pop one of the amigurumi spiders from earlier in this list on top and your table is dressed. The complete written pattern is free on the blog post; a printable ad-free PDF is available to buy if you like collecting PDFs, but it is purely optional.
Pattern: Web of Stitches Coaster by Sunflower Cottage Crochet — Get the free pattern
13. Triangle Spiderweb Coasters for Garlands
Heather Corinne has cleverly reimagined the web as a triangle: you crochet a simple decreasing triangle in single crochet, add a border, and then the webbing itself is surface slip stitch and a few wide stitched Vs worked with a needle — no complicated stitch geometry at all. Each web measures about four and a half inches tall in worsted yarn on a 4 mm hook, and the triangle shape is made for corners, which is why these double so beautifully as garland pieces strung over a buffet or mantel, as well as coasters. Two honest notes from the designer: the pattern is marked personal use only — though you are welcome to sell finished pieces if you credit her and link back — and a paid printable PDF exists too; the written pattern on the page is complete and free.
Pattern: Crochet Spiderweb Coasters by Heather Corinne — Get the free pattern
14. The Flat Spider Coasters for Party Tables
This time the coaster is the spider herself: a flat round body worked in joined rounds, a little shaped head at the front, and eight slip-stitched legs in graduated lengths, four to a side. Across the body she measures about five to six inches in worsted cotton on a 5 mm hook, and the pattern gives you three ways to finish her eyes — glued craft eyes, embroidered French knots (the child-safe choice), or tiny crocheted circles. A light block keeps her lying flat, and a mist of fabric stiffener turns her into party decor that survives the season. The Craft Gossip team suggests scattering a set across the Halloween table among the pumpkins and candy bowls, and honestly, yes. The full written pattern is free on the Crochet Craft Gossip page, and it is a proper stash-buster — one spider takes only scraps of black yarn.
Pattern: Halloween Spider Coasters by Crochet Craft Gossip — Get the free pattern
15. Spider Appliqué on a Granny Square
Maria's Blue Crayon designed this spider as part of her Halloween Blanket crochet-along, and the construction is pure fun: the spider's body is a single round of mixed half double and double crochet, and each of its eight legs is simply a chain worked from the body with a tail left for sewing. The spider is then stitched onto a six-and-a-half-inch granny square — the blanket uses grey squares for the spiders, four of them, among its other Halloween motifs. On its own, one square makes a cheerful potholder, wall hanging or the start of a cushion front. The spider takes a 4 mm hook, the square a 6 mm hook, and both are worked in ordinary worsted scraps. Quick, flat and unmistakably spider — exactly what an appliqué should be. Both written patterns are free on her blog post.
Pattern: Halloween Spider Applique and Granny Square by Maria’s Blue Crayon — Get the free pattern
16. The Cute Spider Appliqué with Giant Eyes
If your Halloween style leans cute rather than creepy, Hookfully's flat spider is your appliqué: she is a generous nineteen centimetres wide, with two giant eyes, pink cheeks and a little stitched smile, worked in worsted yarn on a 4 mm hook in under an hour. The body grows in double crochet rounds, and all eight legs are shaped individually right off the final round, so no sewing pieces together until you attach the eyes. Sew her onto tote bags, blankets, hats and hoodies, or make several and string them into a garland for a child's room — she is friendly enough for babies and toddlers. The complete written pattern is free on the page; Hookfully also offers a paid PDF that adds extra progress photos — an optional extra.
Pattern: Cute Spider Applique by Hookfully — Get the free pattern
17. The Tiny Spider Motif from Fingering Scraps
Lynne Rowe's little motif is the tiniest spider here: about four and a half centimetres from head to body and nine to ten centimetres across the legs, made from mere scraps of 4-ply cotton on a 3 mm hook in fifteen to twenty minutes. The head and all eight forward-pointing legs are worked into the final round of the body, and the pattern is given in full in both US and UK terms on the same page. Two seed beads make the eyes — or use French knots if the motif is destined for a small child. Lynne suggests wreaths, card toppers, journal pages, hair clips and bunting, and a light spray of starch keeps the legs behaving. One honest condition to respect: this design is for personal use only — charity fundraising sales are fine, but selling for profit needs her permission first. The pattern itself is completely free on the Knit Crochet Create blog, no sign-up needed.
Pattern: Crochet Spider Appliqué by Lynne Rowe at Knit Crochet Create — Get the free pattern
18. The Spider Placemat for a Spooky Table
Jessie Rayot's placemat is the Halloween table piece that makes guests look twice: a worsted-cotton placemat, twelve by eighteen inches, with a big black spider sitting right in the middle of it — a flat crocheted disc for the body, sewn down, with legs added in surface crochet so they crawl out across the mat. Jessie's samples use tangerine orange with a black spider, but she points out a whole set looks brilliant with a different background colour under each spider. It is an easy-level pattern worked mostly in single crochet with a 4.5 mm hook, and one skein of the main colour makes each mat. Set these under dinner plates at a Halloween supper and the table is decorated before you have cooked a thing. The complete written pattern, including her surface crochet explanation, is free on the Jessie At Home site.
Pattern: Spider Placemat by Jessie Rayot at Jessie At Home — Get the free pattern
19. The Spider Web Bandana You Can Wear
The only wearable web in this collection, Wooly Mama's bandana turns the classic corner-web shape into a lacy triangle headscarf: you work outward from the centre with ever-lengthening chain spaces, finish with a picot edge and two ties, and then sew on the little round spider appliqué that is included in the same pattern. It is graded for adults but the rows make it easy to adjust, and you can use almost any yarn — her samples are a white worsted acrylic and a blue DK wool she made for her toddler. A 5 mm hook keeps it quick and airy, and blocking transforms it, so do not skip that step. Wear it with a black dress for a costume that is mostly just a really good accessory. The full written pattern is free on her blog; an inexpensive ad-free PDF is on Etsy if you prefer, but entirely optional.
Pattern: Spider Web Bandana by Wooly Mama Crochet — Get the free pattern
20. The Speedy Spider Beanie with Bendy Legs
We finish with the fastest costume on the list: Heidi Yates' spider beanie in super bulky yarn, which she says whips up in about an hour on a K hook. The plain black beanie is sized for everyone from toddlers to large adults, then the magic happens — two white crocheted eyes with black buttons are sewn on the front, and the legs are pipe cleaners crocheted over and pushed through the sides, so each of the four pipe cleaners becomes two bendy legs you can pose. Heidi's favourite alternative use is slipping the finished hat over a can or a small pumpkin as a decoration, which I find unreasonably charming. Finished beanies may be sold, with a link back to Snappy Tots requested. The complete written pattern is free on her site — last-minute Halloween, sorted.
Pattern: Speedy Spider Beanie by Heidi Yates at Snappy Tots — Get the free pattern
Conclusion
And that is twenty spiders — well, fourteen spiders and six glorious webs, which feels like the right ratio for a house that wants to look haunted but friendly. If you are short on time, the one-piece Krazy Kabbage spider, Spider Bro and the tiny Knit Crochet Create motif all work up in well under an hour, and the two DROPS pieces together give you a complete web-and-spider scene from two balls of cotton. Mix amigurumi with webs for the full effect: a plush spider sitting in a crocheted web is the decoration nobody walks past without smiling.
Now tell me — are you team cute spider or team realistic web, and which of these twenty is going on your hook first? I read every comment, and I cannot wait to see your eight-legged makes!
