Hi there!! Recently, I have been stash-busting all that weird furry yarn that I have collected!!
Since last year (2021), one of my main goals was to clear out as much of my yarn stash as I possibly could and finally got around to this bin of odd furry, fuzzy, sparkly yarn.
I don’t have time today to make a long blog post, but will be back soon and blog the pattern for the basic shape/kitty.
Update below!
Find a FREE PHOTO TUTORIAL over on MY INSTAGRAM PAGE. It is an abbreviated basic pattern, but the full written tutorial is a beginner friendly and easy pattern with almost no sewing!!
You can read more about the pattern, materials and other stuff HERE ON MY ETSY LISTING. This ETSY LISTING is the full 23-page PDF with all 12 animals.
And I now have the entire collection in ONE E-BOOK in my Ravelry Store.
but when I have time, I will break out each animal and list them as their own pattern.
You can now find each pattern on it’s own in both my Ravelry Store and my Etsy Shop. In my Etsy Shop just visit the PDF/File Pattern Section.
UPDATE: Here is the written-out pattern, but if you need more photo help, see my Instagram Tutorial or visit my Etsy Shop for the PDF. Again, thank you for supporting the crochet bloggers with your purchase.
I also have more hints, tips, and help including stitch chart in the paid PDF.
This is a stripped down free online version.
This pattern is intended for personal use only. This pattern -and all my patterns- are offered for free or a small fee to help support my family so please do not redistribute, sell, copy or use them in any way not in accordance with fairness.
You may sell products made from these patterns, but please give me credit as the designer. Please do not use my photos as your own work, but you may use my photos to reference back to my blog, Etsy, Pinterest, IG or FB, but please link back to me.
If you find any problems with this pattern, please let me know and if you have any problems with any of it feel free to message me and ask for support.
Kristi Bergin-Smith and The Burgundy Basket, 2022. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to me, Kristi Bergin-Smith and The Burgundy Basket with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
This post does contain affiliate links. I will get a small percentage from any purchase made through my page here, but your price remains the same. I appreciate any purchase made through my page as I can continue to offer free patterns here on my blog.
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Most all of my patterns are worked in the CONTINUOUS Round: I do not join and chain, but continue to work in the next stitch. Use a stitch marker for this so you don’t lose your place. I will always note if this is not the case.
Pattern Note: If I write, “sc 2” it means single crochet in the next 2 stitches – whereas, “2sc” means to make 2 single crochet in one stitch.
Pattern Note: (sc, 2sc) repeat around – this is read as you make a single crochet in the next stitch and then 2 sc in the next stitch and repeat this sequence around the entire round. You may also see this something like this (2hdc) 7 (x) – this means make 2hdc 7 times around and the (x) is the number of stitches on that round.
Stitches Guide: *US Terms apply
Chain: Ch
Stitch: St
Single Crochet: Sc
Inc Sc or Inc or 2sc: make two single crochet stitches in the same stitch as indicated
Inv dec: invisible decrease or decrease (I use invisible decrease in amigurumi and it is one of the best things I have ever learned for amigurumi. If you are unsure how to do this, there are many great online/video tutorials.)
hdc: half double crochet
hdc inc or inc hdc: increase hdc
Decrease: Dec or Sc2tog
BLO: back loop only/ FLO: front loop only
Dc: double crochet
Tr: treble crochet
You can assume that I have used my H/5mm for all of these patterns unless it is stated otherwise.
Most of my toy patterns are made with 4-ply worsted weight yarn scraps like Red Heart Super Saver, Caron One Pound and Impeccable Yarn. I will note any differences.
This set of patterns was born because through the years I had obtained a giant storage bin full of “fur” type yarns that I wanted to de-stash. My stash included almost every brand of eyelash/fun fur yarns like Lion Brand Fun Fur, Red Heart Fun Fur, Eyelash Ice Yarn, Bernat Bling Bling, Patons Cha Cha, an unmarked furry ribbon yarn and more. A lot of these were unmarked and I am sure discontinued, but I also worked some of these up with Scrubby Yarn that you can purchase as I write this. You can also use these patterns with some newer yarns currently on the market. This pattern is very adaptable to many types of yarn, and I cover those in each section of the full pattern.
It is also my hope, that by giving you a wide variety of shapes, you are able to mix and match and change colors to use this pattern to make other animals. For example, you could easily use the horse pattern to make a zebra by doing black and white stripes.
No time to start? Here is a pin to save for later.
Materials:
Yarn: As mentioned earlier, this pattern uses a wide variety of yarns and types of yarns. Many of my fur yarns were unlabeled and therefore I have no idea how much I had, but for the bunny pattern I used 142 yds of fur. The bunny probably is the most yarn heavy pattern in this series, so I would suggest having at least 142 yds and to be safe 150 yds per animal. Many patterns here won’t take that much. For example, the chick and duck won’t take that much since they don’t have ears to make. On the chick, I didn’t have a whole skein of Red Heart Scrubby Cotton (145yds) and used all of what I had left.
Another note that might help if you run short on your furry yarn: When I started the pig, I knew I would be short on furry yarn. I started with only 64yds of the light pink eyelash yarn. So, when I got to the top of the head and was running short, I just dropped the fur and didn’t use it when I did my decrease rounds on round 35 and 37 of the head. The furry yarn is very forgiving and covers up the fact that I skipped these rounds with the furry yarn. To do this, just drop the yarn on those rounds and pick it back up when you come around. I also skipped doing the fur on the arms of the pig since I was out.
To give examples with newer yarns currently on the market, I used Bernat Forever Fleece (9.9 oz/280g/194yds/177m) and Red Heart hygge (hoo-gah) (8oz/227g/212yds/194m) and had plenty of both of those left. You can probably get almost 2 animals from one skein of the RH hygge yarn.
To use the furry yarns, I always held a second strand of yarn at the same time. So, you will be holding two strands of yarn together for most of these examples if using a furry yarn. These yarns are almost impossible to crochet with alone.
Hooks: The hooks you will use will vary slightly depending on your yarn. You want to use a hook that will work for your yarn and give a nice animal with no holes when finished. I found that with my tension, I used my size H/5mm for most of the animals. I held one strand of 4-ply worsted weight yarn mentioned above and one strand of whatever novelty yarn that I had for most of this collection. I also used my H/5mm hook for the elephant which is the Red Heart hygge yarn and the hippo which is the Fleece yarn. These two yarns are labeled bulky and super bulky, so if you struggle with that hook and yarn, you may need to bump up one size. I will give more details on the sizes and materials for each animal below.
Additional Materials: You will also need a yarn needle big enough for your yarn, stuffing, and safety eyes if you are using those. The safety eyes that I have used are 14-20mm.
I have written this as a mostly NO SEW pattern. The feet are work and then joined together as you crochet the body and then the head. Only the smaller parts are sewed at the end: arms, ears, muzzle etc.
First leg: Chain 2. Sc 6 in the second chain from the hook and work over your starting tail.
Starting in the first sc make 2 sc in that stitch and in each stitch around. (12) *Still work over the starting tail.
After getting done with all 12 sc for that round, pull the starting tail to cinch up the opening. You can now trim that tail or weave it in or just leave it if it will be on the inside of your work.
You may want to move your stitch marker to the last stitch of each round so you know when you get to the end.
Round 3: (1 sc in next 3 stitches, 2 sc in the next stitch) repeat around (15)
Rounds 4-7: sc in each stitch around (15)(15)(15)(15) – finish off the FIRST LEG with a slip stitch and a tail long enough to sew a small hole closed. I usually leave about 6 inches of tail.
Second leg: Repeat as for first leg above, but DO NOT FINISH OFF YOUR YARN. You will be continuing the crochet around both legs. I suggest using some sort of marker in the last stitch of the 2nd leg. This will help you in your joining.
This will be Round 8:
Holding both legs together: sc in each stitch around the FIRST LEG you made and continue around the SECOND LEG. You should have 30 stitches at the end of Round 8.
Round 9: sc in each stitch around (30)
*Pause and sew up that little hole between the two legs. It will be harder to see with furry yarn, but it is there.
Round 10: (1 sc in next 8 stitches, dec over the next two stitches) repeat around (27) **note here: When using furry yarns, I find that making an invisible decrease is not necessary since you can not see it anyway, but if you are using this pattern and using a yarn like the Forever Fleece or something less furry, you will want to make these decreases invisible decreases.
Rounds 11-12: sc in each stitch around (27)(27)
Round 13: (1 sc in next 7 stitches, dec over the next two stitches) repeat around (24)
Rounds 14-15: sc in each stitch around (24)(24)
You may want to start stuffing those feet.
Round 16: (1 sc in next 6 stitches, dec over the next two stitches) repeat around (21)
Rounds 17-18: sc in each stitch around (21)(21)
Continue to Stuff.
Round 19: (1 sc in next 5 stitches, dec over the next two stitches) repeat around (18)
Rounds 20-21: sc in each stitch around (18)(18)
*Head shaping starts now
Round 22: (1 sc in next 2 stitches, 2 sc in the next stitch) repeat around (24)
Round 23: (1 sc in next 3 stitches, 2 sc in the next stitch) repeat around (30)
Round 24: (1 sc in next 4 stitches, 2 sc in the next stitch) repeat around (36)
Round 25: (1 sc in next 5 stitches, 2 sc in the next stitch) repeat around (42)
Rounds 26-33: sc in each stitch around (this is 336 stitches if you are working in the continuous round)
(42)(42)(42)(42)(42)(42)(42)(42)
Stuff the body.
At this point, I placed my safety eyes between rounds 28-29 with 5 holes between the eyes.
If you are going to embroider a mouth/nose/eyelashes/eyebrows do that here as well. The next rounds are decreasing.
**Again, if you are using furry yarns, feel free to do a regular decrease and not an invisible one on these next rounds**
Round 34: (1 sc in next 5 stitches, inv dec over the next two stitches) repeat around (36)
Round 35: (1 sc in next 4 stitches, inv dec over the next two stitches) repeat around (30)
Stuff and continue to stuff as needed.
Round 36: (1 sc in next 3 stitches, inv dec over the next two stitches) repeat around (24)
Round 37: (1 sc in next 2 stitches, inv dec over the next two stitches) repeat around (18)
Stuff the head really good at this point.
Round 38: (1 sc in next stitch, inv dec over the next two stitches) repeat around (12)
Push more stuffing in before you close to make sure it is stuffed well!
Round 39: (inv dec over the next two stitches) repeat around (6)
Finish off with a length of tail to sew the opening closed and weave the tail inside the head to hide.
Arms: The arms are NOT stuffed.
Chain 2. Sc 6 in the second chain from the hook and work over your starting tail.
Starting in the first sc make 2 sc in that stitch and in each stitch around. (12) *Still work over the starting tail.
After getting done with all 12 sc for that round, pull the starting tail to cinch up the opening. You can now trim that tail or weave it in or just leave it if it will be on the inside of your work.
You may want to move your stitch marker to the last stitch of each round so you know when you get to the end.
Rounds 3-7: sc in each stitch around (12)(12)(12)(12)(12)
Round 8: (1 sc in next 2 stitches, inv dec/dec over the next two stitches) repeat around (9)
Round 9: sc in each stitch around (9)
Finish with a length of tail to sew the arms to the body.
Okay, that is it for the BASIC BODY AND HEAD SHAPE.
In my PDF version, you get the instructions with all the extras and adaptations to make all the animals shown. I have a full version with all 12 animals and also have broken them out into their individual patterns. Here are the links for each animal – just click on the photo for each animal to take you to my Etsy Shop.
There you go! I hope you love these furry little guys as much as I do. These guys work up super quick for me – around 1-2 hours – so they make great gifts and craft market items. Follow my blog for more because I already have ideas for more furry friends!!
Thank you, Kristi
