Crochet/Needle-Felted Peacock Spider Plush (Visual Guide) 🌈💖🌍

Hey all! It's been a while since I've posted anything on this account, but I've recently gotten back into crocheting and wanted to share one of my latest projects! Please note that this is an intermediate pattern, and although it is a visual guide, you must have medium-level crochet experience and at least beginner-level experience in needle felting to complete this pattern (this includes terminology!). I hope you enjoy, and please let me know in the comments if you have any questions, and I'll do my best to answer them all. 💖🌍🕷️

(P.S. If you want to learn about peacock spiders, keep reading!)

"An ant crosses your carpet. A spider weaves a pattern older than mammals beneath your stairs. Just nod, breathe, and think, 'Good, it's all still here. The forest, the mountains, the desert. At home in my home.' The sterile white box is the stranger. Not the ant. Not the spider."

-Jarod K. Anderson

Whether you're a fan of spiders or you can't even fathom the idea of them... you have to admit, the peacock spiders here are cute, right?

What's important to take away from animals we may fear is that there is a whole world of fascination we are missing out on, and through my years as a zoological educator and caretaker, I can tell you that pushing past your animal fears is more than worth it to explore the new and fascinating world that is underappreciated animals (which is my special interest), such as spiders.

To begin this journey, I'd like to introduce you to the amazing "peacock spiders" that are the topic of today's post, and that, I hope, will dance their way into your heart.

Found exclusively in Australia, these specialized versions of the well-known "jumping spiders" are covered in vibrant, almost iridescent colors (although they may be hard to spot at only around 4mm long!) Now, you may be asking yourself, how do they camouflage? That's what most small defenseless animals do to protect themselves, right? Wrong! They actually want to - as much as possible - stand out. This fun animal-form of attention seeking is used to attract mates in a specialized courtship display.

In addition to the fashion show... they dance! (A behavior not often seen in arthropods) With their hind legs up in the air and their rainbow colored extendable flaps on display, they skip back and forth and wiggle their bodies in the hopes of potentially reproducing. As you may know, reproducing in the spider world can be deadly, as the females have no restrictions when it comes to the difference between mates and meals. Females are larger and therefore can easily kill a male. They are also more earth-toned and are much more camouflaged than the males; this difference is very interesting and somewhat common in the animal kingdom. It's known as sexual dimorphism.

My favorite part about this species is that they are so diverse! They come in a range of colors and styles, with around 92 identified species in the genus Maratus. If you look on "iNaturalist," which I have linked under their genus name, you will see how many rainbows are possible in such a small section of the animal world, and in such a miniature version, too. The plates that they display are made of colorful scales somewhat similar to the look of those of butterflies, and will shimmer when they hit bits of light. Because of this colorful nature, and the big eyes and rounded face that they possess, it isn't extremely far-fetched to call them cute to look at. It seems to be their spider relatives we have this issue with. Nonetheless, we have to start somewhere, and this genus, along with the jumping spiders are well regarded as a good ambassador species. Truthfully though, when we learn about them, get down on their level, and acknowledge that their appearances don't have to be "cute" to consider them valuable, interesting, or even cool, we open up a whole new world of possibilities. 🌈💖🕷️🌍

Notes regarding this content and the following: none of my art or written content associated with my page will ever use AI, as it is destructive to the environment.

Let's get into the pattern!

Materials:

1. Wire/Slicker Brush
2. Scissors
3. Felting Needle
4. Acrylic Yarn (In silver/gray, white, red, orange, yellow, green, light blue and dark blue)
5. Jewelry Wire
6. Yarn Needle
7. Felting Pad
8. 3.5mm Crochet Hook
9. Plastic Safety Eyes (With at Least 2 Small Size Variations)
10. Stuffing or Scrap Yarn

Terms Cheat-Sheet:

1. SC - Single Crochet
2. DEC - Decrease
3. INC - Increase
4. MR - Magic Ring
5. STS - Stitches
6. FO - Fasten Off (End)

Cephalothorax (Body/Face): X1

Begin with silver/gray yarn and your 3.5mm hook.

1: 6 Sc in a magic ring (MR)

*Use a stitch marker to mark rows or use a scrap piece of yarn as shown in the photos*

2: *Inc 1* X6 (12 sts)

3: *Sc 1, Inc 1* X6 (18 sts)

4: *Sc 2, Inc 1* X6 (24 sts)

5: *Sc 3, Inc 1* X6 (30 sts)

6-8: Sc 3 rows

*Place the larger safety eyes between rows 4 and 5 and the smaller eyes upwards and outwards from the big eyes 1 row above on either side (as shown in final photo)*

9: *Sc 3, Dec 1* X6 (24 sts)

10: *Sc 2, Dec 1* X6 (18 sts)

*Stuff the piece*

11: *Sc 1, Dec 1* X6 (12 sts)

12: *Dec* X6 (6 sts)

Fasten off and sew in all loose ends.

Chelicerae (Mouth Parts): X2

Begin with silver/gray yarn and your 3.5mm hook.

1: 6 Sc in a magic ring (MR)

2-4: Sc 3 rows

Fasten off and sew in all loose ends.

Legs: X6

Begin with silver/gray yarn and your 3.5mm hook.

1: 6 Sc in a magic ring (MR)

2-12: Sc 11 rows

Fasten off and sew in all loose ends.

Plate/"Flare": X1

Begin with silver/gray yarn and your 3.5mm hook.

1: 6 Sc in a magic ring (MR)

*Use a stitch marker to mark rows or use a scrap piece of yarn*

2: *Sc 1, Inc 1* X3 (9 sts)

3: *Sc 2, Inc 1* X3 (12 sts)

4: *Sc 3, Inc 1* X3 (15 sts)

5: *Sc 4, Inc 1* X3 (18 sts)

6: *Sc 5, Inc 1* X3 (21 sts)

7: *Sc 6, Inc 1* X3 (24 sts)

8: *Sc 7, Inc 1* X3 (27 sts)

9-13: Sc 5 rows

14: *Sc 6, Dec 1* X3 (24 sts)

15: *Sc 5, Dec 1* X3 (21 sts)

16: *Sc 4, Dec 1* X3 (18 sts)

17: *Sc 3, Dec 1* X3 (15 sts)

Fasten off and sew in all loose ends.

"Flare" Legs/ Upwards Hind Legs: X2

Begin with white yarn and your 3.5mm hook.

1: 6 Sc in a magic ring (MR)

2: Sc 1 row

*Change color to silver*

3-13: Sc 11 rows

Fasten off and sew in all loose ends.

This is the final step before sewing things together! This part may be difficult, but that's only because it is a bit abstract in how you decide to follow through with the style. In the first photo, I added what I based my spider on, but as I mentioned before, you can choose any pattern!

All you will need is yarn in the colors of your choosing (If you are copying the style above, the colors are all in the supplies photo) and a slicker/dog brush. There are many ways to make felting material out of acrylic yarn, but what I like to do is make a tassel-like bundle of yarn, and slowly brush it out, starting from the very ends of the yarn (that step is VERY important). This will make a little ball of fuzz that you can use as felt or faux-wool and poke into the crochet pieces you have already made, as shown above.

From there, follow the visual steps in the photos above and make it yours! In the 2nd-to-last photo, I added fuzzies on the outer corner of the flare; this is quite an advanced technique, and because of that, I may suggest gluing those tufts to the outside or skipping that step, as it doesn't take away from the overall look.

Congrats! 🎉

You have reached the last step! In the photos above, you will see several steps and stages of the last part of this project. This step overall is similar to the previous. Most things are up to how you do it, and a lot of it is just copying what you see in the main photo.

To connect the main body to the back plate, it is a pretty simple setup, as you will just join the two pieces together to your liking (or as the 2nd photo above this step shows) and, while pinned, sew them together.

For the legs, however, you will use that aforementioned jewelry wire to brace the legs. I like to do this by bending a ~5" piece in half and threading that through both sides of the body where 1 set of legs would be. After the wire is in place, it's much easier to slip the legs onto the wire and sew it to the base. Since there are 6 of those types of legs (not the flare legs), you will do this process 3 times overall.

Next, you will sew on the chelicerae, which are those mouth parts we made. Those are pretty easy; just place them roughly about 1/4" apart on the front of the face but below the large eyes (as shown above) and sew them on loosely so they are movable. Since they are such small pieces, they should stay in place when posed

The hind/flare legs will be quite similar to the regular legs. Copy what you did with the wire on the normal legs and pull the wire roughly through both sides of the body towards the back of the body near the flare. Then, after sewing the hind/flare legs on, simply pose them upwards, bending the wire.

After these steps, you're all done! Great job! The last photo and cover photo should show loosely what your project will look like in the end. 💖

If you are interested in making more of these types of projects, visit my main Instructables page! I also sell some of my completed plushies on Etsy here, and I donate to a charity that helps animals out in the wild! 🌍