If you’ve been itching to try arigurumi (a Japanese term that means a knitted or crocheted toy), we found the perfect project for beginners, but they’re so adorable that even advanced crocheters will want to join in on the fun! These darling little critters would make the perfect gift for a child or an animal enthusiast of any age. Whether you’re interested in crocheting up a crowd of puppies, cats, pigs, or penguins, the patterns are all similar enough that if you learn how to make one, you can make the others.
To make your own incredibly cute amigurumi, you’ll need to gather the following materials:
- A 3mm or 3.5mm needle (unless you want larger cube animals, in which case, make sure you also get a corresponding yarn size)
- DK yarn (any color will work, and trying out different textures will result in vastly different cube pets)
- 8mm safety eyes and triangle nose (these can usually be purchased at a craft store, but if you can’t find them, you can substitute and either embroider the eyes and nose or use buttons)
- Scissors
- Tapestry needle
You’ll be crocheting individual pieces separately – body, ears, legs, tail – and then sewing everything together at the end. You can also choose to leave off the legs if you want to start with a simpler project. There aren’t many stitches to learn either, you just need to be familiar with the following terms:
- Magic circle (if you don’t know how to start with this, you can find plenty of YouTube tutorials to show you how it’s done)
- sc – single crochet
- 2-sc inc (2 sc in next stitch)
- 3-sc inc (3 sc in next stitch)
- sc2tog (2 sc together)
- sc3tog (3 sc together)
These are your increase and decrease stitches, which will provide shaping for the pet. You will also be crocheting in a continuous round, which means no stitch markers, making this project one of the easiest amigurumi patterns we’ve seen.
Want to make your own pile of cube pets? You can find instructions for four of them: Easy Cube Puppy Dog, Easy Cube Kitty Cat, Easy Cube Piggy Pig, Easy Cube Little Penguin
