Although there are a number of patterns for doilies featuring a skull motif, they all featured small skulls. This pattern features 6 large skulls as the central design, with minimal lace adornments so as not to take away from the central design nor make it busier than needed. It works into a great addition to your Halloween, or year round, decor. The final piece measures about 15 ½“ (40 cm) in diameter.

Materials:
• No. 10 crochet thread, mercerized cotton; 85 grams, approx. 510 yards (466 meters)
• 1.65mm (US steel size 7) hook

Earlier versions of the pattern were done using a size 3 non-mercerized cotton crochet thread and a 2 mm hook and those versions were about 2 ½“ larger in diameter (18” total) and had a softer hand, and so you can adjust the materials to adjust the size and hand as you need. Gauge is not important.

The final piece will need to be blocked!

Update September 2019
The PDF file was updated September 2019. The pattern itself is no different than the previously existing PDF (there were three errors of omission found in the original file, these were noted and fixed shortly after the file was published in September 2018). However I have added some additional notes and instructions to help clear up some confusions that some people experienced when working the pattern. It also includes an additional option for the “tooth” stitch, an alternative that actively didn’t work well for me but did for at least one person who messaged me about it.

Update October 2021
A new version of the pdf was uploaded to correct a few typos and small counting mistakes. Many thanks to the crocheters who pointed out the mistakes to me!
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The overwhelming majority of symbols/abbreviations follow the CYC standards,with the obvious exception of stitches they don’t have abbreviations for. However, the pattern itself is written in a very terse style, to allow the eye to quickly follow from stitch to how many of those stitches are needed, without additional words or clutter. This style of patterning is common in amigurumi, and for that matter also in knitting. However, since this pattern is somewhat complicated, or, more accurately, uses uncommon stitches and stitch patterns, this style of patterning may be difficult to follow at first if you haven’t read such patterns before. It is written this way because this is the style of patterning that I find most useful when I am working on a new project, especially one that is complicated, but I understand that not everyone is the same and this might seem like a head scratcher to some, especially upon first glance. I promise that anyone with familiarity with crochet in general, but not this type of pattern writing, will be able to figure it out, and once you do it is not hard! You can do it!