Tag: realistic crochet animals

Patterns

Free Santa hat & mini antlers pattern

Sonja

Look at this happy Christmas duo! Don’t they look adorable wearing their little decorations?!

Long ago I designed the crochet Santa hat pattern and a few years later I added the pattern for the mini antlers. This weekend I had the idea to do a fun photo-shoot with my newest animals wearing them. But oh no! It seemed that I’d lost the Santa hat! I looked everywhere but couldn’t find it. I was almost about to order a skein of yarn to make a new one, when I thought of a last place where it could be and there I found it!

Because I’ll be posting a lot of pictures of animals wearing these lovely items, I decided to refresh both patterns. So here they are! Happy crocheting and dressing up your Popkes with crochet Santa hats and antlers!

Mini Santa hat pattern

For this pattern you need worsted weight yarn and hook E US/ 3,5 mm. I’ve used Lett Lopi yarn; colours white 0051 and dark red 1409. You’ll also need sewing materials and a hard brush to fuzzy up the brim and pompom.

The red part, work in rows

1. magic ring of 6 = 6

2. sc in each around = 6, close with sl st.

3. ch 2, (dc in next 2, 2 dc in next) x 2 = 8, sl st,

4. ch 2, (dc in next 3, 2 dc in next) x 2 = 10, sl st.

5. ch 2, (dc in next 4, 2 dc in next) x 2 = 12, sl st.

6. ch 2, (dc in next 3, 2 dc in next) x 3 = 15, sl st.

7. ch 2, (dc in next 4, 2 dc in next) x 3 = 18, sl st.

8. ch 2, (dc in next 8, 2 dc in next) x 2 = 20, sl st.

9. ch 2, (dc in next 9, 2 dc in next) x 2 = 22, sl st.

10. ch 2, (dc in next 10, 2 dc in next) x 2 = 24, change colour to white in sl st. If you need a bigger mini hat, don’t change to white just yet and continue like above by adding two stitches each round, till your hat is the right size. Keep in mind there will be white folded rounds (three rounds of sc’s) below the red part of the hat.

11. ch 2, (dc in next 11, 2 dc in next) x 2 = 26, sl st.

12. ch 1, sc in each around = 26, sl st.

13. ch 1, sc in each around = 26, sl st.

14. ch 1, sc in each around = 26, sl st in 1st and leave yarn end for sewing.

Now fold the white part upwards, so your hat will have a nice and thick brim. Sew it tight with the yarn end.

Mini antlers pattern

For the antlers you also need the worsted Lett Lopi yarn in the colour brown and any other colour you like and the same hook as above. Pipe-cleaners to make the pieces bendable are optional. I have used them but they are not safe for small children!

The antlers (brown, make two of each piece)

Part 1

1. magic ring of 4 = 4

2 – 6. sc in each around = 4, sl st and leave yarn end

Part 2

1. magic ring of 4 = 4

2 – 4. sc in each around = 4, sl st and leave yarn end

Part 3

1. magic ring of 4 = 4

2 – 3. sc in each around = 4, sl st and leave yarn end

Now you can insert the pipe-cleaners in the longest 4 pieces. Stretch the parts to get the right length and make sure the cleaners in the longest two (part 1’s) stick out just a little bit, so you can prick them into the headband. Now attach the parts 2 to the bottom parts of the parts 1 and the parts 3 to the top part of the parts 1, as shown in the picture. Weave in the yarn ends except for the yarn ends of the longest parts, so you can use them to sew the antlers to the headband.

Headband (any cheerful colour will do)

1. magic ring of 4 = 4

2 – 22. sc in each around = 4, sl st.

Now stretch this piece too and insert the pipe-cleaner. Now you can sew the band closed by putting the needle from the inside out through all the outside loops of the 4 st, clockwise. If you do it correctly, you can pull the yarn end and it will close the gap.

All you have to do now is attach the antlers to the headband, about two rounds apart.

There, now you can give all your Popkes a reindeer metamorphose!

Patterns

Windu, crochet horse pattern

Sonja

Brace yourselves, horse girls and boys, for I have finally made you a pattern! I present to you Windu the crochet horse!

realistic crochet horse

Now that this amigurumi horse is finished, I almost regret I haven’t made a horse sooner. I think it’s not just horse people who will like this majestic cutie. I cannot deny that I have a preference to make small, furry wild animals. Horses are gorgeous and clever but I’ve never been a horse girl. There is a big heathland in our area that we often visit where sheep and cows and two sweet Shetland ponies graze. When we go there, we always call the ponies and they come running to us and we can pet them. They have a gorgeous wild fur, and it is so amusing to see those two characters between the other grazers. But it was when I met the Exmoor ponies in the wetlands close to my home that I got excited about making a horse pattern. I absolutely fell in love with those gorgeous, fuzzy and wild ponies.

Because Exmoor ponies are quite big, I decide I could make a horse pattern instead of a pony, as they look so similar anyway. And it is basically up to us, isn’t it? I mean, Windu could just a well be a Shetland pony as a horse!

When I started working on this crochet horse pattern, I wasn’t sure what colours to use. I decided to go freestyle and see what would happen. When I had created the perfect shape for the head, I knew I wanted a lighter nose and a white triangle shape on the head. When I designed the legs, my idea was to give this horse white socks. But while testing, I discovered a darker foot sole with white on top looked perfect. The pieces of the puzzle fell together and I found that I had created this beautiful horse. I’m especially proud of the shape of the head and the mane. Because the head has a very realistic horse shape, you can use any colour you like to create your own horse. So go ahead crafters, experiment and create your favourite! Here are some more pictures of Windu, and below them you can find info about the pattern and links to buy it.

This lovely fuzzy horse is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. He is 6 inch / 15.5 cm when sitting.

The pattern is written in US terms and contains a clear and colour-coded description of how to crochet and assemble this animal, with extra illustrations and example pictures at the bottom to help you get everything right. In the pattern you can also find what materials you need, the yarn colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make your own horse amigurumi. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings. You can buy this pattern in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

This pattern has a one dollar release discount till Thursday the 13th of December, so get your copy soon!

Patterns

Finse, crochet rabbit pattern

Sonja

My crochet rabbit amigurumi is the second pattern I have given a make over.

rabbit amigurumi crochet

Here he is, my little star. Now probably, many of you looking at this picture are thinking ‘but he looks the same’ and you are right, he does look the same. How could I change my utterly whimsical looking crochet rabbit. I thought about changing the eye patches like I did for Floro and tried a few things, but Finse lost his character with those new looks. His funny expression has become so recognisable that I just couldn’t change the eyes. The eye patches create that look and work perfectly for this rabbit amigurumi.

But something has changed. Good old Finse has a new body. My skills for creating light coloured bellies have improved a lot since I started designing these crochet animals. Nowadays, I use a little trick to make them look much rounder than before. Not only did I change the light belly, I also improved the shape of the body. I found his body too much pear-shaped, so I slimmed it down a little bit at the bottom. Finse still is chubby enough but the proportions are better now. The funny thing is, ‘common’ people won’t even see the changes I made, it is all in the details. But for me those details are very important and make my first animals look as good as the ones I design now.

Here are a few more pictures of Finse and below them you can find info about and links to buy the pattern.

 

Info about & links to buy the pattern

This crochet rabbit amigurumi is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool. Finse is sitting 6.7 inch / 17 cm, when made with worsted weight yarn.

The pattern contains a clear and colour coded description of how to crochet and assemble this animal, with extra illustrations and example pictures at the bottom to help you get everything right. In the pattern you can also find what materials you need, the yarn colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make your own whimsical rabbit amigurumi. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings. You can buy this pattern in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

Despite this being an update, the new pattern has a one dollar release discount till Wednesday the 14th of March.

If you purchased the previous version of this pattern, you will receive a message with a download link to get the new version for free.

Temporary note: I am going to update a few more older patterns and will give you a heads up about it, but won’t always write new posts. For most of them, I will replace the images and update the new pattern to my shops.

Why am I updating these patterns? Well, not because they are not good enough as they are. It is mainly because of the pictures. The backgrounds in the older pictures are messy and I want the same clean look for all my patterns.

Patterns

Floro, crochet red squirrel pattern

Sonja

This one looks familiar! Meet Floro 2, the new version of my crochet squirrel amigurumi.

amigurumi squirrel animal

Floro the crochet squirrel has always been one my personal best-liked patterns. Together with badgers, red squirrels are my favourite animals. I’ve had the jolly pleasure to seeing them very often and they are such graceful little characters. I love how they wave their tail when seeing other squirrels and their sneaky attitude when it comes to hiding food. They are ever so entertaining to watch.

Because Floro was one of the first animal patterns I designed, he did not meet up to my recents standards. When I looked at him lately, I only saw what could look better. I decided he needed a makeover.

What has changed with Floro?

First of all, I wanted his head to be easier to make. There is nothing wrong with sewn on muzzles, but with heads shaped like Floro’s there is no need to anymore now I have improved my skills for that. I am able to crochet the muzzle and head in one piece and still have a muzzle shaped little snout. Also, the big eye patches did not seem to work for everyone. I had made Floro’s as small as possible, but it still looked a bit as if he was staring in utter surprise. The eye patches have been replaced by much more subtle lines around the eyes you can easily embroider in four stitches. I also replaced the ears for flat folded ears.

The body has also changed. It has an improved shape and a rounder white belly. The last thing I changed is the tail. I wanted it to look curved by itself, without the need of inserting pipe cleaners to bend it. It now consists of two pieces that make a lovely curved tail.

I am so happy with the result. Floro still is the same, but looks much better! And the good thing is, anyone who has bought the previous pattern, will receive a message about this update with a download link to download the new version for free.

Here are some more pictures of my lovely crochet squirrel and below them you can find info about and links to buy the pattern if you do not have it yet.

Info about & links to buy the pattern

This crochet red squirrel is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness that works very well with brushing. Floro is sitting 6 inch / 15 cm, when made with worsted weight yarn.

The pattern contains a clear and colour coded description of how to crochet and assemble this animal, with extra illustrations and example pictures at the bottom to help you get everything right. In the pattern you can also find what materials you need, the yarn colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make your own graceful squirrel amigurumi. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings. You can buy this pattern in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

Despite this being an update, the new pattern has a one dollar release discount till Monday the 26th of February.

Note: Floro’s original post will stay on my blog until google has indexed this one.

Uncategorized

Choof, crochet cheetah pattern

Sonja

And here he is, a very spotted feline, meet Choof the crochet cheetah.

cheatah crochet pattern

This was such a fun pattern to create. The basic shapes of this cheetah amigurumi were already known to me. The shape of the head many of my big cats have, did not need much changes and the limbs and body only needed to be a bit slimmer than that of the other cats. You clearly see the difference in shape between the big cats is you put them in a line. But of course the spots make the most difference. Because I knew from the start how many stitches wide I was going to make each body part, I could totally focus on getting the ideal pattern for the spots.

As I always do, I started with the head. The hardest part of designing the cheetah’s face were those distinctive dark lines around the muzzle. As you all are familiar with, crocheting in a spiral does not always create smooth vertical lines when you crochet in multiple colours. On one side of the muzzle I got a very neat dark line, but on the other side I got this rugged line that did not run smoothly around the muzzle at all. I had to try many options before I found a neat combination of stitches to get the right look. I am very pleased with the end result, even though the stitches aren’t all lined up, the stripe runs smoothly around the muzzle and looks realistic.

For the spots of the body I tried a combination of bigger and larger spots, but soon noticed the spots all needed to have the same size. I also figured out pretty soon the spots needed to be placed randomly, not on every other stitch on every other round. So I just worked one round at the time and placed the spots delicately. 

And in all it simplicity, it works so well. Those random spots give this crochet cheetah the perfect cheetah coat and are so easy to make. And the tail, how could I forget about that, I love this tail. I made it exactly like a real cheetah’s tail, white end, striped and then dotted, just look at it! Below the images you can find info about and links to buy the crochet cheetah pattern.

Info about & links to buy the pattern

Choof is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. He is sitting 5,5 inch/ 14 cm tall.

This cheetah crochet pattern contains a clear and colour coded description of how to crochet and assemble it, with extra illustrations and example pictures at the bottom to help you get everything right. In the pattern you can also find what materials you need, the yarn colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make your own spotted feline. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings. You can buy this pattern in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

This pattern has a one dollar release discount till Thursday the 12th!

Patterns

My dapper crochet badger pattern

Sonja

Dapper crochet badger

Doesn’t he look dapper, this cute crochet badger amigurumi? Almost a year ago I found in a local bookshop, this utterly amusing postcard with the portrait of a rather realistic badger wearing a striped sweater. It inspired me to make a little sweater pattern for Falun and of course I made a portrait of him wearing it. Some of you may even remember seeing it on my Instagram.

It was my intention to add the pattern for that sweater to Falun’s pattern, but somehow it never really came to it. Because of the lovely reactions I got after posting another picture on IG where Falun was wearing the sweater, I decided to update the pattern as soon as possible.

What has changed and what do you need to do if you already purchased the pattern?

The pattern is completely updated. Falun’s original body was on the chubby side, so I rewrote that part and made a better looking version. There is also an instruction for an even slimmer body, which will fit the dapper sweater. And last but not least, the instruction for the cute sweater is included in the pattern.

Good news for those of you who already have the pattern, you’ll receive an automatic update about this and can download the new version (for free) anytime you like, how about that!

If you don’t have the pattern yet, you can buy it in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it from me here.

Now go and make yourselves a bunch of dapper creatures. Have a lovely end of summer dear crafters!

Uncategorized

Noof, crochet cow pattern

Sonja

Meet my newest creation, Noof the crochet cow amigurumi.

realistic crochet cow pattern

To some of you this may come as a surprise. I didn’t announce the cow pattern here with a sketch. At Instagram I did post some sneak previews, but skipped the blogpost this time. No worries, there is a little drawing in the pattern.

I seem to be into farm animals lately I suppose. After I made the pig and ram, my boyfriend suggested I had to make a cow now too. That sounded quite tempting so I started thinking about what kind of cow I should design. Most important, it had to look like a real cow, even if it would be made without spots. Secondly, I wanted it to have a rustic feel, so no bright white and black, but more textured colours. My crochet cow also needed little horns and an udder of course, how much fun would that be to crochet! Last but not least important, it needed to have the famous new hooves. So, I set down at my desk for many hours and came up with this rustic and realistic looking doll shaped cow and called her Noof.

Just look at this slide of Noof’s sides, you can clearly see how all the spots are matched up to create a neat and  realistic cow appearance.

Noof is quite spotty isn’t she? I decided to place her spots delicately over her body to create the crochet pattern for a more complex looking cow. But, you can of course make a different sort of cow. A single coloured one or just place the spots somewhere else. Or you could make my pattern but rotate the body and limbs for a different look. It is completely up to you!

Info about & links to buy the pattern

Noof is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. She is sitting 6 inch/ 15 cm tall.

This crochet cow pattern contains a clear and colour coded description of how to crochet and assemble the cow, with extra illustrations and example pictures at the bottom to help you get everything right. In the pattern you can also find what materials you need, the yarn colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make your own realistic looking cow doll. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings. You can buy this pattern in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

This pattern has a one dollar release discount till Thursday the 19th!