Giant Jumping Spider
My youngest saw this African Flower Jumping Spider pattern by LarriecraftsNL and immediately started "bugging" me to make him one. I grabbed the pattern immediately because I LOVE making things for my boys - especially since they are older and don't request much anymore.
When I saw the pattern, I knew it would be fun as it incorporates one of my favorite granny square motifs: The African Flower.
Of course, if you've known me for long, you know I always think, "Bigger IS Better!"
Instead of using the fingering weight yarn and 2.5mm hook that the pattern calls for, I immediately dug into my stash of Bernat Blanket Yarn and found my 8mm hook. I was set!
As always, I make the face first. I like to make the face/head because once those eyes are peeping at you, you feel guilty if you don't finish the project. It's also fun to hide the heads in the fridge to see if you can get the boys or hubby to shriek. After the head was done, hubby and I had some fun playing around.
Once the head was done, it was time to move onto the body. That worked up very quickly and I enjoyed snuggling with it. This was also my chance to see how big it really was going to be.
I sat the body and head aside (and started working on the grannies that would make up the legs. There were A LOT of those. Once I started shaping them to get them prepared for connecting, they looked a lot like tacos. Our cat thought the tacos were for sleeping. I started joining those 1 million grannies (a small exaggeration) and make 8 gigantic legs.
The last pieces to prep were the pedipalps. I did these last so that I could adjust the colors based on how much yarn I had left. Now it was time to have some photo fun again.
Finally, time to join everything together. When I tell you it was a workout I’m not exaggerating. I ended up working on the kitchen counter and had legs wrapped around my next while sewing them to the body. It looked like a horror movie. But once it was done it was well worth it.
If you’d like to give this a try, here are the supplies I used:
Pattern Link: African Flower Jumping Spider pattern
Hook: 8mm Crochet Hook
Stuffing: My New Favorite Stuffing – Note: I tried this out because my “go to” brand was out of stock. I really like how thick it is and it felt like I could better manipulate the shaping while using less.
Yarn: Bernat Blanket Yarn in Busy Blue (Four 300g skeins), Bernart Blanket Yarn in Olive (Two 300 g skeins), Bernat Blanket Yarn in Vintage White (Four 300g skeins); Bernat Blanket Yarn in Dark Gray (Two 300g skeins).
Want to try some giant crochet yourself? Check out my patterns:
