This is a two-piece ArachnaDaemon costume. The oversized spider head hood is inspired by the costume-style hats and hoods by Crochetverse and Twisted Hatter.
Originally, I planned to wear the hood with a spider web "blouse" layered over a black T-shirt, but I was bogging down on doing the spider web sleeves, so I decided to change gears and instead of a spider web blouse, I would wear a spider web shawl layered over the dark shirt.
Spider web blouse: The white spider web blouse was made with a 4mm hook and Red Heart Super Saver yarn in the Soft White colorway and was based on the YouTube tutorial by A Perpetual Mess. I worked my panels to the 41 chain spaces size. But when I got to the point of doing the sleeves, I got about halfway done with the first sleeve and then just ran out of energy to keep going.
In all the history of knitting and crocheting, I wonder how many projects have been abandoned at the point of doing the sleeves. 😂 Because that's what happened to me here, and I'm sure I'm not alone.
 |
| Shawl worked to 20 rounds |
Spider web shawl: The white spider web shawl is made with a 5mm hook and the soft white yarn. It's based on the design Spooky Spider Web Shawl by Melly-CrochetGirl of Little Bit of Foolishness. 🕸 I rejoined the circle at the end of round 15 and worked to a total of 20 rounds.
Hood: The long pixie hood in gray is made with a 6.5mm hook and has "evil" purple and green eyes plus spider fangs added. The brim of the hood is lined in purple. I used the Pixie Slouch pattern by Brenda Smith and the Short Pointed Pixie Hood pattern by Earth Tricks for inspiration for the hood's shape.
Head "bump": I wanted a dense fabric for this (to hide the fiberfill stuffing behind it), so I used a 5mm hook with the gray yarn and followed this tutorial on YouTube by For The Frills to make a large oval. My oval has 7 rounds, whereas the one in the video stops at 5 rounds.
 |
| Hood, liner, and all the pieces |
Main eyes: I used a 5.5mm hook and two strands of Ice Yarns Rock Star yarn in the Purple colorway and followed this tutorial for the Jack Skellington eyes by Sigoni Macaroni, except I wanted my eyes to be a bit larger, so I added one more row.
Using a single strand of Ice Yarns Rock Star in the Red Black colorway and a 5mm hook, I crocheted 8 SC into a magic loop to make the pupils and sewed them to the center of the purple eyes. Then using a single strand of Ice Yarns Rock Star in the Emerald Green Black colorway threaded onto a needle, I added a few contrasting stitches around the pupil.
Minor eyes: For each I used a 5mm hook and crocheted a 12 DC circle in gray for the base, then used a 6.5mm hook and a double strand of the purple yarn to make an 8 DC circle (which puffed up when cinched). Then I stitched the purple eyes onto the gray circle bases. I had to incorporate an 8-stitch *something* into this design, because it's a spider, after all. 🕷
Fangs: Using the gray yarn and a 5mm hook, I followed this YouTube tutorial by Meldy Crochet for her curved devil horns but made them a bit larger/longer to represent my spider daemon's fangs.
Hood lining: I started with 58-stitch DC foundation row using a double strand of the purple with a 6.5mm hook and worked increasing rows to correspond with the front part of the gray hood. I stitched the lining to the underside of the gray hood using a round of SC in gray around the entire opening with and also some running stitches in gray to "quilt" the large pieces together.
Hood pom: Using the white yarn and a 4mm hook, I made a crochet chain pom similar to what's described in this Chain Loop Yarn Pom tutorial by A Crocheted Simplicity. I made my pom with chain loops of 20 chains. The pom dangles from another long chain (26 chains) to represent the spider's silk in the process of being spun. These shapes are intended to echo the completed spider web of the shawl.
I started my costume too late to finish in time for Halloween 2023, and I had hoped to have it ready to go the following year, but it was actually not until November 2026 that I finished making the final piece (the spider web shawl)!! Sometimes, we just gotta be patient with ourselves. But now I'm ready for Halloween 2027!!! 😅
The finishing touch is these spider pins from Amazon, which were suggested by the Spider Web Shawl designer, Melly-CrochetGirl of Little Bit of Foolishness.