Autumn! It's my favorite time of year. I love the smell of change in the air. My fingers also start itching to get my holiday crocheting started. I love the fall colors and bulkier yarns that become available with the brisk, beautiful autumn season.

The first big holiday of the season gets me stitching right from the start. Halloween. I get my creative juices flowing with some great patterns from several different sites. The best colors come out in the fall, those beautiful browns, oranges, and reds. There are also wonderful textures of the bulky yarns. These create such beautiful designs especially with all the wonderful novelty yarns that are available today. The only limitation is your own imagination.

Crochet Pattern Central has many great patterns. You can use some of the motifs to decorate an afghan and /or a pillow. There are patterns for masks, creepy decorations and more. There are great candy dishes and trick or treat bags. All kinds of things to liven up your festive home during the ghouly holiday.

Lionbrand.com also has pages of free Halloween patterns to choose from. There are several cool wigs and masks here as well. They would be a great finishing touch to any costume. There are several trick or treat bags that would carry all kings of Halloween treats. Plus there are patterns for candy dishes and home décor. This site could keep you busy for several Halloweens.

Allcrafts.net has some wonderful free patterns as well. My favorite one is the Crochet Halloween Afghan. I am working on a variation of this one for this year's holiday. For next year I am planning on doing the Scara-lee Scarecrow. There is lots of fun stuff to do here.

HappyYellowHouse.com has a couple of great patterns as well. The witch doll is a must for any Halloween table. It's also very easy to do the pattern is great even for beginners. There is also an easy scarecrow doll that would be a great addition as well.

All of these great patterns are available free. These patterns will delight any crocheter ready to whip something together for the kiddies out there trick or treating. There are even crocheted items you can give out instead of candy. So during the chilly days and nights coming up why don't you try out a new stitching technique or take a break from that king size afghan and do a small little ghost, goblin, witch, or candy.