Amigurumi basics: spheres, cones, stuffing and safety eyes

Before you start: Magic ring crochet · Single crochet · How to increase in crochet · How to decrease in crochet

Hook in your right hand; guide the working yarn with your left hand. The loop counts stay the same.

Insert through the ring and catch the working yarn.
Draw a loop back through; chain 1 to secure.
Make 6 sc around the ring strand and tail together, then pull the free tail.

The crossing stays loose until stitches are in place. The tail and ring strand must be enclosed by each sc so the tail can slide and close the center. Keep the working yarn available to make stitches; do not use the tail as the working strand.

Work tight, in a spiral

Use a hook about 0.5 to 1 mm smaller than the yarn label suggests, so the fabric is firm and the stuffing cannot show through. Work single crochet through both loops unless the pattern says otherwise.

Amigurumi rounds are not joined: the last stitch of one round runs straight into the first of the next. Put a removable marker in the first stitch of each round and move it up as you go. Count the stitches when you reach the marker; every pattern gives the total for each round.

Shape a sphere

Round 1: make a magic ring and work 6 single crochets in it.
Increase 6 stitches every round: 2 sc in each stitch, then [1 sc, 2 sc in the next] 6 times, then [2 sc, 2 sc in the next] 6 times, and so on, until you reach the widest round.
Work even rounds, with no increases, for about as many rounds as you increased.
Decrease 6 stitches every round, in the reverse order: [2 sc, decrease] 6 times, then [1 sc, decrease] 6 times.
Stuff firmly when about 12 stitches remain, then decrease 6 times more and close the opening.

Make a cone, a tube or a flat piece

Increase 6 stitches every second or third round instead of every round and the circle rises into a cone: the slower the increases, the pointier it is. That is how ears, horns and noses are shaped.

Increase to the width you want and then work even rounds, and you have a tube for legs, arms and tails. Stop increasing early and flatten the piece without stuffing for ears, wings and flukes.

Decrease without holes

An ordinary sc2tog can leave a small gap in tight rounds. The invisible decrease goes under the front loops only of the next two stitches, then finishes like a single crochet; it sits flat and looks like the stitches around it. Count it as one stitch.

Stuff and close

Use polyester toy stuffing in small pieces, pushed into the shape rather than packed in one lump. Stuff firmly: amigurumi soften as the stuffing settles. Shape the piece with your hands as you add more.

To close, thread the yarn tail through the front loops of the last round, pull it tight like a drawstring, and pass the needle through the middle of the piece before trimming the tail so it hides inside.

Eyes, faces and safety

Safety eyes have a post and a locking back. Push the post between two rounds from the outside, check the position, then press the back on from the inside before you stuff and close. They cannot be added after closing.

Safety eyes, buttons and beads can come loose. For a toy for a baby or a child under 3, embroider the eyes and face with yarn instead, and sew every part on securely.

Join the parts

Pin each part in place and look at the toy from several sides before sewing. Sew with the tails you left, through both loops of the part’s edge and under a stitch of the body, keeping the stitches small.

Open-ended parts, such as a tail or a neck, are sewn around their whole edge. Closed, stuffed parts are sewn where a flat face touches the body. Weave every tail into the middle of the toy.