Boo! Wheelchair Spoke Covers

If you know me, you know I just had to do it.

As I said in the narrative of my earlier project for the first set of wheelchair spoke covers I made, having a set of these in Boo! by Marsha Glassner is an absolute MUST for Halloween, because if you know me, you know that I ADORE Halloween. (The cutesy-creepy Halloween stuff, that is, not so much the gory-horrific stuff.)

Finished set

Boo! is designed to be an adorable doily crocheted with No. 10 crochet thread. To make the same design large enough to work as a set of wheelchair spoke covers, it's necessary to use heavier yarn (both for size and durability) and a larger hook. I used Red Heart Super Saver in the colorway Soft White and a 4 mm hook.

I had seen pictures and videos where other crocheters had made these sized as wheelchair spoke covers, but I wasn't able to find where anyone blogged about how they did it, so I basically had to start my project from scratch and use the trial-and-error method to figure out how to make it work.

The first set of wheelchair spoke covers I made previously was done with Red Heart yarn and a 5 mm hook, and those covers were the right size to fit my wheelchair's wheels after crocheting 16 rounds. The pattern for Boo! is 23 rounds to the top of the ghosts' heads, so I knew I was going to have to make some adjustments to be able to get the design to fit the wheels of my wheelchair.

First attempt overlaid a previously made working spoke cover

I am not including all the details here of how I made the flexible hoops for the spoke covers, which is how they are mounted inside the wheels' hand rails, because you can find that info by viewing my previous spoke cover project. I used the same process for this set.

1st attempt (L), 2nd attempt started (R)

For my first attempt here, I decided to use a 4 mm hook to crochet the pattern as written (I found it easier to follow the chart rather than the written instructions) just to see the size it would make that way, and then use that to figure out how much I was going to need to change it to fit. I stopped on round 22 (which eliminated the last round at the top of the ghosts' heads). You can see in my photo of the first attempt overlaid on one of my previously made spoke covers that it was going to need to be smaller by at least three rounds. 

2nd attempt attached to hoop

For my second attempt, knowing that I needed to make the design at least three rounds shorter, I decided to try skipping rounds 2, 4, and 6. Doing that meant that I had to change the increases on rounds 3, 5, and 7 to keep the stitch counts the same. And, again, I stopped the pattern after crocheting round 22. Making the pattern that way eliminated three rounds, but you can see in my photo of the second attempt after I attached it to the hoop frame that the fit was still too loose, so I knew that for my third attempt I was either going to have to eliminate more rounds from the pattern or else come up with a different solution.

2nd attempt (L), 3rd attempt (R)

I was feeling somewhat stumped at this point, because I was worried that eliminating more rounds from the pattern would be detrimental to the ghosts' appearance. I was clicking around, still trying to come up with a better solution, when I came across this video of a livestream by TheCraftyCub on YouTube of them crocheting Boo! on camera. Near the beginning of the video, where they are describing the pattern for their followers, they talk about the stitches used in the design, and they mentioned half-double crochets. I had already crocheted the pattern twice by the time I watched this video, and (I intend no offense to TheCraftyCub, but) I was pretty sure that there were no half-double crochet stitches anywhere in the Boo! chart.

Third attempt

But then the lightbulb went on over my head. 💡

I paused the video to think: What if I tried crocheting Boo! using half-double crochet stitches everywhere the pattern used double crochets?

Well, I didn't know for sure how it would turn out, but I decided to try crocheting the pattern that way for my third attempt. And, as you can see in my photos of the finished spoke covers, using half-double crochets throughout worked and resulted in the perfect size I needed for my wheels, AND I was able to follow the pattern chart all the way through round 23, so my ghosties are fully complete (according to the pattern).

To store the wheelchair spoke covers, I'm using a cable keychain loop that can open/close, similar to these found on Amazon. It's easy to thread one of these kechain loops inside the flexible hoops of a set of wheelchair spoke covers, and then hang the keychain loop from a hanger in the closet. The spoke covers take up very little room stored that way, and they are easy to access whenever I want to switch out the spoke covers on my wheelchair.

Quick and easy Halloween decor craft

With Halloween less than a week away, here's a super easy decoration idea that you can use to decorate your front porch or anywhere you need a bit of spooky ambience.

All you need to make these adorable little ghosts is a printer, some paper for the printer, and some scissors. You can even let your littles color a sheet of ghosts for some extra fun.

Click here to download the printable PDF. 

 

Join the free Halloween CAL

Melanie Grobler of M and M Crochet Designs is hosting a free Halloween Crochet Along (CAL) on her blog and Facebook group. This was a lovely and fun CAL to be a part of, where we were creating two of Melanie's Melly Teddy Ragdolls: Gabby Ghost and Bobby Bat. If you would like to be part of it, too, head on over to her sites and check out the patterns. If you start now, there is still time for you to finish one or both of the ragdolls by Halloween!

My dolls differ from Melanie's written pattern in a few ways: My Gabby Ghost has no nose or mouth. (I like her face with just the eyes, eyelashes, and cheeks.) My Bobby Bat is mostly purple but with black wings and some other different color choices. On both dolls I opted not to stuff the hands or feet. (Again, just a personal preference for the ragdoll aesthetic.) And my dolls both have 12mm button eyes instead of safety eyes. If you want more details about my yarn choices, check out my Ravelry project page.

I made these using a 4mm crochet hook, but my hands would have been more comfortable if I had used a 4.5mm hook. I do own a hook that size, but the set it's part of has been missing since we moved two years ago, and I'm just stubborn enough not to buy another one because I know the set will turn up again once I'm able to fully unpack my craft room boxes. So, in the meantime, I'm making do with a different set of hooks that used to be my traveling set. Le sigh!!😉

Gabby's pumpkin is crocheted from the CAL pattern, but I made the pumpkin accompanying Bobby on my 22-needle Addi Pro circular knitting machine. I crocheted the stem and vines according to the CAL pattern, which worked out fine.

Join the free Halloween 2022 Crochet-A-Long at the following links:

Introduction

Shortcut to Part 1

Shortcut to Part 2

Shortcut to Part 3

Shortcut to Part 4

Shortcut to Part 5

Shortcut to Part 6

Happy Halloweeeeen!

Heidi Yates of Snappy Tots has generously shared the pattern of her Frankenlight design for free on her blog. Go check it out! Her pattern makes a decorative cozy that fits over a pint- or quart-size canning jar and results in a super-cool decoration to add to your Halloween display.

I crochet a lot tighter than Heidi does, so I had to go up a few hook sizes to get a Franken-cozy size that would fit over a quart-size canning jar. 😊 But it worked out fine for me to follow the rest of the pattern as written (same stitch counts and row counts).

I love the technique Heidi uses to make Frankie's hair; it's much faster and easier than bobble stitch (in my opinion) and gives terrific texture. I used 9mm ball buttons for Frankie's freaky pupils, and I used this waterproof solar LED light string/lid/hanger for the top of the jar.

I think Frankenstein is the OG zombie, so I love this idea to make him into a hanging solar luminary as part of my Halloween holiday decor. (I've always preferred The Munsters to The Addams Family, bah-ha-ha.)

This turned out so cute that I had to make a few more of these in other characters to add to my Halloween display.

Next up I made this jack-o-lantern based on the same concept of Heidi's pattern. After completing the bottom rounds I worked the sides in a standard granny stitch for 11 rounds, then switched to the green and the smaller hook for the top edging. I added a curly green vine and the traditional black "cutouts" for the eyes and mouth, with some embroidered "teeth."

Finally, I based this ghost luminary on the same concept of Heidi's pattern. After completing the bottom rounds I worked the sides in a standard DC-ch 1 mesh for 11 rounds, plus a couple of rounds of SC for the top edging.

I deviated from Heidi's pattern for the base on all my Halloween luminaries, because I wanted the crochet to be open to allow light to shine through the bottom when these are hanging up. On this white one, I like the way the base of my ghost cozy resembles a spider's web. Maybe I could make another one of these in white and trim it with a plastic spider?!

For the ghost face and arms, I turned to the Emojipedia's Ghost Emoji page for inspiration, thinking it would be cute if I could make my ghost resemble the emoji.