diy dog

After many requests for this pattern, I am excited to finally present my German Shepherd amigurumi. This is Doerak, a crocheted German Shepherd puppy!

You might be wondering about the name Doerak. It comes from a German Shepherd puppy I fell in love with as a child during a holiday. In Dutch, “Doerak” affectionately means something like “little scoundrel.”

I began this pattern with full confidence but soon realised that deciding on the colouring was quite challenging. What is the most standard German Shepherd coat? I struggled to find a definitive answer because there are so many variations! For my version, cuteness was the key factor, so I experimented with different face colourings and chose the one that looked most like a German Shepherd puppy. Since I made several versions, some of which turned out really nice, I added an extra face option to the pattern. For Doerak, I chose the lighter colour around the eyes, the other version gives a darker appearance, with black around the eyes.

For the body, I used a basic colouring that makes it easier for you to customise it to match your own dog’s coat. I know many people want to create amigurumis of their own or a friend’s dog, and every dog “has its own coat.” My advice for anyone adjusting the colouring is to start with one of the existing versions as your base (you can use leftover yarn for this). Instead of a traditional stitch marker, use a contrasting coloured strand to mark the first stitch of each round, carrying it up with every round. This clearly identifies the first stitch and helps you divide your colour sections accurately. By doing this, you’ll have a clear reference point to customise the colour placement while maintaining the overall structure of the pattern. I also explain this in the pattern.

I’m already quite fond of my little crochet K9, and I hope this pattern inspires many unique dog amigurumis! Below are some more pictures of Doerak, the crocheted German Shepherd, along with all the information you need.

This is an intermediate pattern made with basic stitches. The difficulty lies in attaching the front paws. Instructions for working up the body are well explained.

This crochet dog is made with Istex Lett Lopi— a 100% wool yarn known for its fuzziness. The dog is 5.5 inch /14 cm high sitting. The pattern includes clear and colour-coded instructions on how to crochet and assemble the doll, along with instructional images and notes next to the text. You’ll also find pictures of the finished doll at the end. In the pattern, you’ll discover what materials you need as well as the yarn colour numbers—in short, everything necessary to create your own realistic German Shepherd amigurumi! All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings. You can purchase it in my shop at Ravelry or Etsy.

And heads up! This pattern has a one-dollar release discount until April the 24th. Feel free to let me know if you need any additional information!

After a long break, I’m delighted to publish this new dog pattern! Meet Finnly, the realistic Border Collie, a fabulous amigurumi of one of my favourite dogs!

When I started making dog patterns I really wanted to do a Border Collie, but the long-haired features of this Collie kept me from actually making one. I started with less hairy dogs, and then must have gone mad to make a bearded Schnauzer pattern. That actually was a lot of fun to do, and it gave me much inspiration for how to do the Border Collie and other dogs. For the Schnauzer I had used ‘reversed loop stitches’ to create the bearded face, and I knew those stitches would be very suitable for any kind of hairy dog.

So some time in May I started the Collie design. The head was finished pretty quickly, but then a lot of things happened in my life, good things! We finally could move to a new home, away from that noisy house we tried to make our home for so long. Moving means a lot of things to do, so I put the dog on hold until we had settled down in our new home and I had enough ‘space in my head’ to continue designing.

It felt so good to sit down at my improvised desk with a new view and peace and quiet. I worked my way through the body and back paws and spend a whole afternoon on making the fidgety hairy tail. And now I have this amazingly cute mini Border Collie sitting on my desk, waiting to be made by many other Border Collie fans out there.

This is not a very difficult dog to crochet, the reversed loop stitches take some getting used to, but when you get the hang of it they actually are fun to do.

Here are some more pictures of this adorable crochet dog amigurumi and below them you can find info about and links to buy the pattern.

Info about & links to buy the pattern

This is a moderate pattern to make. Most parts work up pretty easily, but the reversed loop stitches for the head, chest and tail take some extra effort. The Border Collie dog is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. It’s 5.1 inch /13 cm sitting. The pattern contains a clear and colour-coded description of how to crochet and assemble the Collie, with instruction images next to the text and example pictures at the bottom to help you get everything right. In the pattern you can also find out what materials you need, the yarn colour numbers — in short, everything you need to know to make your own adorably mini dog. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings. You can purchase it in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

And heads up! This pattern has a one dollar release discount until October the 20th!

Because I had so much fun designing this hairy dog and because it looks a lot like the wolf I used as an example when I made Woolfie, my next pattern will be a ‘Woolfie advanced’. I think you can imagine how that’ll look! And after that… a realistic otter, I want to make a red cardinal bird, a skunk and a poodle. Oh, there are so many lovely animals to make next, see you soon!