I crocheted a group of animal puppets, amigurumi style, for my nephews. As you can see in the above picture, I made a tiger, a zebra, a bird, an elephant, and a lion. The boys adore The Lion King, Madagascar, and Dumbo, so of course the puppets were big hits.
The puppets were very easy to make. I used extra-thick Lion Brand Yarn (of course!) and crocheted and embellished them without using a pattern. Here’s what I did:
First, make a puppet body–the “blank slate” for any of the puppets.
- Crochet a chain into a tight circle.
- Single-crochet (SC) around the chain, increasing in every other chain.
- Keep single-crocheting around in a spiral, increasing in every other stitch on each round.
- Important note: Do not increase by putting two SCs in each stitch, or you will create a flat disc, not a puppet.
- When you have created what looks like a little hat for your hand, and you can see it is going to be wide enough that it would easily slip over your hand, stop increasing. Just continue spiraling, but make a single SC in each stitch.
- Stop when the puppet body is long enough to cover your hand.
Note that the birdie is much smaller–just a finger puppet. It’s a bittybird.
Then, create the ears.
- For the lion, tiger, and zebra, I crocheted two little discs each and attached them as ears.
- For the elephant’s ears, I made huge discs.
Make sure everything of this nature is attached really well, so that the puppets are safe for little ones to play with.
Embroider eyes using a contrasting yarn.
Then, create snouts/noses/beaks/mouths.
- I embroidered black noses and mouths on the lion and tiger, and a yellow beak on the bird.
- For the zebra, I crocheted another little hat-like disc for a snout, embroidered a nose and mouth on the snout, and attached it to the face.
- For the elephant, I made a long chain and then single-crocheted back along it once, to make it thick enough, and attached it to the elephant’s face.
Finally, embellish their bodies.
- I embroidered stripes on the tiger, radiating out from the face.
- Note that I did not embroider stripes on the zebra; instead, I alternated between white and black yarn so that the stripes were integrated into its body.
- For the zebra’s mane, I used black yarn to sew small loops along the zebra’s back.
- For the lion’s mane, I used fun fur, sewing it in long, loose loops radiating out along the face.
- I gave the birdie a pair of little crocheted wings, too—simple, skinny triangles.
The final step: Give the puppets to kids you love, and have fun playing!
