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Worked in rounds like any other amigurumi but shaped into something architectural, which means the walls have to hold their form without a frame doing the work. Compact and seasonal. Sits well on a shelf.

Countdown

• One house, start to finish: 8 to 12 hours for a maker who is comfortable with HDC, DC, and front post stitches. The wall texture section alone runs 18 rounds, and the roof involves colour changes and a widening cone worked in DC throughout. This is not a fast make.
• A batch of two: 18 to 22 hours. There are very few shortcuts available on this one since the texture is worked into every other round rather than added at the end.
• Latest safe start: two weeks out for a single house, especially if the spider web embroidery and optional candy container interior are part of the plan. If you are skipping the optional details and moving briskly, eight days is workable.
• Finished size at a 2.5 mm hook with fine weight yarn: approximately 4 to 5 inches tall for the base, plus 3 to 4 inches for the roof cone. [CHECK — final dimensions not stated in source]

What Makes This One Different

Most Halloween amigurumi this time of year are either a soft pumpkin, a sphere ghost, or a face with features sewn on. This is a building. That distinction shows up in the construction almost immediately, because the base is not a sphere at all — it is a joined-round cylinder built from HDC with a BLO pivot row and a textured wall pattern running front post stitches against plain sc rows. The wall texture is what takes the longest and delivers the most, creating a stone or brick reading from the side that genuinely looks worked rather than printed. The roof is a separate piece entirely, a witch hat cone crocheted in purple and finished with a two-colour DC brim, and it sits on top of the base like a lid rather than being sewn flush. That is deliberate: the source design includes the option for a candy container interior, where treats go into the hollow base and the hat lifts off.

The two windows are flat panels worked in rows, bordered in black, and the door is the single most satisfying piece in the whole build — an arched HDC shape with a curved top formed by six increases into one chain stitch, then bordered in two colours to separate the upper arch from the flat lower panel. The detail is small enough that it could have been embroidered, but having it as a sewn-on panel means the arch holds its shape rather than collapsing the way embroidery does at this scale.

Pieces at a Glance

• House base, worked in grey with a textured wall pattern: make 1
• Roof / witch hat cone, worked in purple with colour work brim: make 1
• Windows: make 2
• Door: make 1
• Optional mini spider for the hat tip: make 1 (see the spider in the previous post in this series)

What You Need

• Fine weight yarn in grey for the house base, roughly 80 yards
• Fine weight yarn in purple for the roof and door, roughly 50 yards
• Fine weight yarn in yellow for the windows and door accent, roughly 15 yards
• Fine weight yarn in black for window and door borders and embroidery, roughly 10 yards
• Optional: orange or another accent for the spider web demonstration colour
• 2.5 mm crochet hook
• Darning needle
• Scissors
• Fibrefill or a small container if using the candy box interior

Abbreviations used here:

• sc = single crochet
• hdc = half double crochet
• dc = double crochet
• inc = 2 stitches worked into one
• sl st = slip stitch
• ch = chain
• BLO = back loops only
• FLO = front loops only
• FPDC = front post double crochet

This design uses joined rounds throughout the base and roof. At the end of each round, join with a sl st to the first stitch, then chain up as indicated before working the next round. This is different from the continuous spiral used in most amigurumi, and it produces a more architectural look with cleaner vertical lines.

The Pattern

House Base

Worked in grey throughout, using joined rounds.

• Make a MR, ch 2 (does not count as a stitch), 12 hdc into the ring, sl st to the first hdc (12)
• Round 2: ch 2, inc in each stitch around, sl st to first hdc (24)
• Round 3: ch 2, [inc, 1 hdc] around, sl st to first hdc (36)
• Round 4: ch 2, [inc, 2 hdc] around, sl st to first hdc (48)
• Round 5: ch 2, [inc, 3 hdc] around, sl st to first hdc (60). Fasten off and weave in the magic ring tail now, before the wall rounds begin.
• Round 6, worked in BLO: ch 1, 1 sc in the BLO of each stitch around, sl st to first sc (60). This pivot row is what turns the flat base into a wall.
• Round 7: ch 2, 1 dc in each stitch around, sl st to first dc (60)
• Round 8: ch 1, [3 sc, 3 FPDC] around, sl st to first sc (60). This is the first texture round.
• Round 9: ch 1, 1 sc in each stitch around, sl st to first sc (60)
• Rounds 10 to 23: alternate Round 8 and Round 9 consecutively. Round 10 is the texture round, Round 11 is plain sc, and so on through Round 23.
• Round 24: ch 1, 1 sc in each stitch around, sl st to first sc. Fasten off and weave in ends.

Shape check. After Round 5 you should have a flat circular disc, about 3.5 to 4 inches across at fine weight. If it is cupping upward rather than lying flat, your tension is too tight; if it is ruffling and not staying flat, it is too loose. Round 6 is the structural pivot: after working it in BLO, the piece should pop upward into a shallow bowl as the free front loops from Round 5 form a visible ridge line at the base. This ridge is the floor line of the building and it should be clean and continuous. After Round 7 the wall should stand fairly upright. The FPDC columns in Round 8 will lean slightly if your dc row in Round 7 is uneven; work the dc loosely so the posts have something to grip.

After Round 13 the wall texture should be clearly visible as vertical columns of raised stitches alternating with flat sc sections. If the FPDC is lying flat rather than standing forward, you have worked them into the stitch rather than around the post. A FPDC goes around the body of the stitch from the previous dc round, not into the top loops.

Roof / Witch Hat Cone

Worked in purple in continuous rounds from tip to brim, then switching to dc with colour work for the brim.

• Round 1: 6 sc into a MR (6)
• Round 2: [1 sc, inc] around (9)
• Round 3: 1 sc in each stitch around (9). Pull the magic ring tail tight and fasten it here, before the cone widens further.
• Round 4: [2 sc, inc] around (12)
• Round 5: 1 sc in each stitch around (12)
• Round 6: [3 sc, inc] around (15)
• Round 7: 1 sc in each stitch around (15)
• Round 8: [4 sc, inc] around (18)
• Round 9: 1 sc in each stitch around (18)
• Round 10: [2 sc, inc] around (24)
• Round 11: 1 sc in each stitch around (24)
• Round 12: [3 sc, inc] around (30)
• Round 13: 1 sc in each stitch around (30)
• Round 14: [4 sc, inc] around (36)
• Round 15: 1 sc in each stitch around (36)
• Round 16, switch to dc: ch 2 (does not count as stitch), [3 dc, inc] around, sl st to first dc [CHECK — count not stated in source; [3 dc, inc] six times from 36 gives 42 if inc = 2 dc, but source pattern has been erratic on dc inc definition. Work evenly and count before proceeding]
• Round 17: ch 2, [3 dc, inc] until the last 5 stitches, then 1 dc in each of the next 4 stitches, 1 inc in the final stitch, sl st [CHECK — partial repeat at end suggests the stitch count does not divide evenly into full repeats at this round; work as many full repeats as possible and fill the remainder as described]
• Round 18, yellow or orange yarn: ch 2, [3 dc, inc] around, sl st
• Round 19, purple yarn: ch 2, [3 dc, inc] until the last 2 stitches, 1 dc in each of the last 2 stitches, sl st [CHECK — same partial-repeat issue as Round 17]
• Round 20, brim: ch 2, [1 hdc, inc] around, sl st. Fasten off and weave in ends.

If you’re still learning how to read crochet patterns, no stress! Follow the video tutorial below and use the written pattern below as you get more comfortable!

Shape check. The cone should be visibly steeper than a standard amigurumi sphere through the sc section, growing slowly and evenly without any flat spots. By Round 14 you want a clearly pointed cone with the tip sitting about 2 to 2.5 inches above the table when the piece is resting on its open end. The switch to dc in Round 16 widens the cone faster and makes the brim section flare outward. The two-colour rounds in 18 and 19 create a single stripe where the brim begins. Round 20 should drape slightly rather than standing perpendicular to the cone; if it is sticking straight outward like a shelf, your hdc tension is too tight.

Windows, Make 2

Worked flat in rows. Yellow base, black border.

• With yellow, ch 8
• Row 1: 1 sc in the 2nd ch from hook, 1 sc in each remaining ch (7 sc)
• Rows 2 to 6: ch 1, turn, 1 sc in each stitch across (7 sc). Five more rows, six total.
• At the end of Row 6, change to black yarn
• Border round: work 1 sc all the way around the outer edge of the rectangular panel, placing 2 sc in each corner stitch to keep the corners square, sl st to join. Fasten off leaving a long tail for sewing.
• Before attaching: use the remaining yellow tail to embroider window pane dividers across the yellow centre — two lines crossing at the centre to suggest four panes.

Shape check. The yellow rectangle should lie completely flat after Row 6. If it is curling at the edges, block it by pinning it damp to a board before adding the border. The black border round is what holds everything flat once it is attached to the house, so the blocking can be minimal; just make sure the corners are not pulling into rounds.

 

Door

Worked in purple with a black border and yellow doorknob embroidery.

• With purple, ch 10
• Work 1 hdc in the 3rd ch from hook, then 1 hdc in each of the next 6 ch (7 hdc along the body)
• In the very last ch stitch, work 6 hdc to form the curved top of the arch
• Working along the underside of the starting chain, work 1 hdc in each of the next 7 ch (7 hdc along the other side of the body)
• Row 2: ch 2, turn. 1 hdc in each of the 7 stitches along one side, then inc in each of the 6 stitches that formed the top curve, then 1 hdc in the remaining 7 stitches. [CHECK — count after inc of the 6 top stitches depends on the original row 1 total, which is 7 + 6 + 7 = 20; Row 2 should give 7 + 12 + 7 = 26 if each top stitch is increased once]
• Flat lower border: ch 1, work 1 sc along the two straight lower edges of the door in purple. Fasten off.
• Arched upper border: attach black yarn and work 1 sc all around the curved upper portion of the door. Fasten off leaving a long tail for sewing.
• Doorknob: thread a short length of yellow yarn onto the needle and embroider a small knot or dot onto the door, positioned to the right of centre on the lower panel.

Shape check. The arch should curve smoothly rather than making a sharp corner where the straight body meets the top curve. The 6 hdc worked into the last chain is what forms the curve, and if they look bunched or angular your starting chain tension was too tight. Block the door piece flat before sewing it on, since the arch naturally wants to cup slightly forward.

Where Makers Usually Go Wrong On This One

• The FPDC wall texture is the first place things go sideways, and it does so in the same way almost every time. A front post stitch goes around the vertical post of the stitch from the row below, not into the top loops. If you work the next stitch’s top loops instead, the result lies flat against the fabric and the texture disappears. At a 2.5 mm hook with fine weight yarn the posts are small enough that it is easy to miss them, particularly in the dc round below which sets the posts up. Work that dc round loosely on purpose.
• The second failure point is the BLO pivot row in Round 6 of the base. Missing the BLO instruction and working both loops means the front loop ridge does not appear and the base-to-wall transition looks unfinished rather than architectural. If you reach Round 7 and there is no visible ridge running around the circumference, go back.
• The roof proportions are the third issue. Because the cone sc rounds alternate even rounds with increase rounds rather than stacking increases continuously, the growth is slow enough that some makers add an extra increase round early, which makes the brim too wide for the base. Trust the slow growth through Round 15 and only switch to dc in Round 16 as written.
• Finally, the door arch. Working 6 hdc into a single chain stitch feels wrong and the stitch always looks overcrowded in that corner until the border round smooths it out. Do not pull any stitches out at that stage. The black border is what resolves the shape.

The Character Dial

This design sits at the theatrical end of Halloween by default, and small changes push it in either direction without touching the construction at all.

Creepier

• Swap the grey body yarn for a very dark slate or charcoal, and the purple roof for an oxblood or near-black. The yellow window interior stays, because a dark house with lit windows reads as occupied in exactly the right way.
• Add one window with the pane stitches offset, so it looks broken or uneven. Two straight French knots on one panel, one diagonal on the other.
• Skip the doorknob. A door with no handle reads as abandoned.
• Embroider the spider web in grey thread rather than black, which makes it look old rather than staged.
• Set the roof slightly off-centre when attaching it, so the hat brim overhangs one side more than the other.
• Extend the wall texture by two extra repeat pairs, making the house taller and narrower than the pattern gives.

Sweeter

• Pale lavender or dusty rose for the house base instead of grey, with a teal or sage roof. Still reads as spooky-adjacent but without the graveyard quality.
• Add a small crocheted wreath on the door, made from a chain joined into a loop and covered in tiny slip stitches, tied with a yellow yarn bow.
• Work a round of sc in yellow around the top of the house base before attaching the roof, which reads as a lit window ledge or a porch light.
• Embroider a small cat face in the left window rather than pane dividers.
• Use a pale gold or cream for the brim stripe instead of orange, which takes the costume edge off the hat.

Safety Notes

• There are no safety eyes in this design. The house has no face, no button features, and no small parts except the embroidered doorknob, which is flush with the surface. That makes it a rare Halloween crochet project that needs almost no modification for display near children. One caveat: the optional spider is a separate piece with a cinched closure and no structural reinforcement, and the legs are loose yarn lengths anchored at a single point. If the spider is part of the finished piece and it will be near young children, omit the legs or secure them with doubled thread knotted inside the body rather than trimmed at the surface.
• If you are stuffing the house base and sealing it, make sure all yarn tails are fully woven in before closing because loose tails inside a stuffed piece have a way of working back out through the seam over time.

Assembly

Pin everything before sewing. The windows and door are small enough that moving them half a stitch changes the whole face of the building.

• Decide on window and door placement while the base is finished but before anything is sewn. Hold each piece against the wall and look at it from a step back. The windows should sit in the upper third of the wall, between Rounds 12 and 20 approximately, and the door at the centre bottom, sitting just above the base ridge.
• Sew windows first, using the black tail. Sew around the full perimeter of each window, not just the corners.
• Sew the door next, using the black tail. The flat lower edge of the door should sit just above the base ridge at the bottom of the wall.
• Embroider spider webs after the windows and door are in place, since they can extend across the wall and onto the window borders.
• The roof sits on top of the base rather than being sewn through. If it needs securing, a few slip stitches around the inside circumference of the brim, catching the top edge of the house wall, are enough.
• Attach the optional spider to the tip of the hat after everything else is done.

Stuffing

The source mentions the option to leave the base hollow and use it as a candy container, with the hat roof lifting off like a lid. If that is the plan, do not stuff the base at all, and do not sew the hat down. If it is purely decorative, a light fill of fibrefill gives the wall enough resistance that it will not dent when handled. The base is worked in hdc and dc with a textured surface, which means the fabric is already denser than standard amigurumi sc, so it holds shape with less stuffing than you might expect.

Over-stuffing shows at the base ridge. If the ridge starts to angle outward rather than sitting flush to the table, there is too much stuffing in the bottom of the cylinder.

Colourways

• Stone and Midnight. Dark slate grey walls, near-black roof, amber windows, charcoal borders. As close to an actual abandoned house as yarn can get.
• Victorian. Sage green walls, deep burgundy roof, cream windows with brown borders. Off-season enough to stay out through November without looking like you forgot to put it away.
• Candy Witch. Pale lilac walls, candy pink roof, white windows, black borders. Leans into the costume rather than the haunted, and photographs very well on a pastel background.
• Fog. Mist grey walls, storm blue roof, yellow windows, charcoal borders. The yellow window interior is doing all the work here, and it is the most atmospheric of the four when photographed in low light.

Display Ideas

The hat-as-lid feature is what separates this from every other Halloween shelf piece. It can be used as a functional object.

• Desk or entry table, candy inside, hat lifted off for trick-or-treaters and set beside it.
• Mantel, centre position, flanked by small unlit candles. The height of the hat makes it the right scale for a mantel focal point.
• Tiered tray, bottom tier only. The hat will protrude above the upper tiers, which is the point.
• Gift box alternative: wrap a small gift in tissue inside the hollow base and present it with the hat on top instead of a bow.
• Garland anchor, tied to a string of felt leaves or orange paper triangles at one end of a mantel garland.

After the Season

The roof and base store separately, which is the actual advantage of the design. Neither piece has anything sticking out that can be crushed, and the hat cone is rigid enough that nothing needs to be stuffed inside it to maintain the shape. Pack them in a ziplock together with the windows and door bundled in tissue, and they will come out the following year in exactly the same condition. The one thing to avoid is storing the base on its side, since the HDC fabric of the lower rounds is slightly heavier than the SC wall texture above and can develop a lean after a season in a bag. Upright, base down, hat beside it.

Quick Answers

Can I use worsted weight instead of fine yarn? Yes, and the finished house will be significantly larger — roughly twice the dimensions at worsted on a 4 mm hook. The wall texture will be more prominent and easier to work, which is actually an advantage. Just note that the windows and door will need to be scaled up proportionally, so add 4 to 6 extra chains to the window base and one extra repeat row.

The FPDC rounds are lying flat and I cannot see any texture. What am I doing wrong? Almost certainly working into the top loops of the stitch below rather than around the post. Insert your hook from front to back around the vertical bar of the dc stitch from the previous dc round, then yarn over and pull up a long loop before completing the dc. The post stitch should sit visibly forward of the fabric surface. If the dc round below is too tight, the posts will be too short to grip.

Do I have to make the spider? No. The hat reads as a witch hat on its own without it. A spider is the most common finishing addition but it is also entirely decorative, and if you are short on time or are giving this to someone who finds spiders unpleasant, the house is complete without one.

My roof brim is sticking straight outward instead of draping. Can I fix it? Block it. Wet the brim thoroughly and shape it downward with your hands, then let it dry pinned to a folded towel with the cone hanging freely below. Acrylic will need steam rather than water to hold the shape; hold a steam iron 5 cm above the brim for a few seconds without touching, then shape and let cool. It will stay where you put it.

Credit

Construction adapted from a two-part video tutorial series. Source videos are available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY72V6bKc58 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnol_Ixk4PQ. The transcript does not name the designer or channel; please check the video pages and credit the creator directly when you publish.