Amigurumi for Beginners: Free Basic Animal Head Pattern

Almost every crochet animal starts with the same shape: a round head or body worked in a spiral. Learn this one shape and you can make bears, bunnies, cats and dogs. Here are the amigurumi basics plus a free pattern to practise.

Materials

• Cotton or acrylic yarn, DK or worsted weight
• A hook 0.5–1 mm smaller than the yarn label suggests, for tight stitches
• Safety eyes (8–10 mm), fiberfill stuffing, stitch marker, yarn needle

The 5 amigurumi basics

1. Magic ring: starts the piece with no hole in the middle.
2. Working in a spiral: don't join the rounds; move your stitch marker up each round.
3. Increases: 2 sc in one stitch make the piece grow.
4. Invisible decrease: insert the hook into the front loops of the next 2 stitches, yarn over, pull through both, then finish the sc. Much neater than a regular decrease.
5. Stuffing: stuff firmly in small pieces before the opening gets too small.

Abbreviations (US terms)

• MR = magic ring, sc = single crochet
• inc = 2 sc in the same stitch, dec = invisible decrease

Free pattern: basic amigurumi head (about 7 cm with DK yarn)

1. Round 1: MR, 6 sc (6)
2. Round 2: inc in every stitch (12)
3. Round 3: *sc, inc* 6 times (18)
4. Round 4: *2 sc, inc* 6 times (24)
5. Round 5: *3 sc, inc* 6 times (30)
6. Rounds 6–11: sc in every stitch (30)
7. Round 12: *3 sc, dec* 6 times (24)
8. Round 13: *2 sc, dec* 6 times (18). Insert safety eyes between rounds 8 and 9, about 6 stitches apart, then start stuffing.
9. Round 14: *sc, dec* 6 times (12). Stuff firmly.
10. Round 15: dec 6 times (6). Close the hole with the yarn needle.

Now turn it into an animal: add two small circles for bear ears, long ovals for bunny ears or triangles for a cat.

Ready for your first full animal?

Practise with our 12 in 1 Mini Animals or the 20-in-1 Cuddly Animals Bundle, and find bears, dogs, bunnies and more in our crochet animal patterns collection, all as instant PDF downloads.