The latest free pattern here on the blog – the Crochet Happy Monkey!
Read below about the inspiration, the perfect yarn I chose, the DIY Halloween costume for kiddos, or scroll on down for the free pattern, video and photo tutorial.
The Inspiration + Design
My three year old Parker is obsessed with Curious George – the books, the movie, everything. So when I thought about Halloween coming up, I thought surprising him with a fun costume would be just the thing!
I’ll be dressing Parker up as The Man with the Yellow Hat and he will carry around a monkey! Of course, I could just buy a plush monkey and call it a day but where’s the fun in that? I knew stitching up a monkey in the amigurumi style of toy making would be perfect!
This makes it such a special piece for his first Halloween costume (he didn’t dress up the last couple of years) and he can keep the monkey around to play or sleep with beyond just Halloween! Which means all my hard work making this little guy will be so worth it.
The Yarn
I knew I wanted to use a worsted weight yarn for this project because I love the way worsted works up in amigurumi. Due to using a small hook size to get a dense, tight fabric I didn’t want to use a light weight yarn that would take longer and I didn’t want to use a bulky yarn that would create more gaps between the large stitches.
I chose Lion Brand Heartland because of the color range and the heathered look that this yarn line presents! I love more dimensional yarns like this for all projects (they’re just more interesting to me) but especially for amigurumi as they look more like the actual variation of real animals. At least a little bit 😉
This happy monkey pattern only took one skein of each color yarn! I had about half the ball of the lighter color leftover too – such great bang for your buck!
PATTERN
- Get the ad-free, large print, printable PDF pattern HERE.
- Grab the Ultimate Pattern Bundle that includes 100+ patterns just like this one for under $30 HERE.
- PIN this pattern to your Pinterest boards for later HERE.
- Add this pattern to your Ravelry queue HERE.
DESCRIPTION
Ooh-ooh, aah-aah! This monkey is the silliest, happiest around and he’s sure to bring smiles to everyone he sees. Simple amigurumi techniques and whimsical features make this monkey cute and easy to make.
MATERIALS
Weight 4 / worsted
1 skein each Sequoia and Great Sand Dunes
–Yarn needle (bent-tip preferred)
–9mm safety eyes (this set comes with lots of colors, I used brown)
-Hot glue (optional)
NOTES
Finished size:
17 x 10”
-Yarn substitutions can include any yarn that is a category 4 worsted weight yarn. brands and colors may vary.
-Add embellishments like bowties, hair bows, or flowers.
-Pieces are worked separately (with the exception of the head/body which are worked as one piece) and sewn together to finish.
-Numbers listed within <> indicate final stitch counts for that round.
-When the pattern reads “sc 2” this means to sc one time in each of the next two stitches.
-When the pattern reads “4 sc” this means to sc four times in the next stitch only.
-When the pattern reads “3 inc” this means to increase (2 sc in the same stitch) in each of the next three stitches.
-Work in unjoined rounds (a spiral) unless otherwise directed.
CROCHET HAPPY MONKEY
Face
In “Great Sand Dunes” yarn
Make a magic ring
Rnd 1: 6 sc in ring <6>
Rnd 2: Inc around <12>
Rnd 3: Inc, sc; rep around <18>
Rnd 4: Inc, Sc 2; rep around <24>
Rnd 5: Inc, Sc 3; rep around <30>
Rnd 6: Inc, Sc 4; rep around <36>
Rnd 7: Inc, Sc 5; rep around <42>
Rnd 8: Inc, Sc 6; rep around <48>
Insert safety eyes between rounds 5 & 6 with 9 sts between them. Do not place backs.
Finish off leaving a long tail for sewing. Weave magic ring end. Set aside.
Snout
In “Great Sand Dunes” yarn
Make a magic ring
Rnd 1: 6 sc in ring <6>
Rnd 2: 4 sc, sc 2, 4 sc, sc 2 <12>
Rnd 3: Sc, 3 inc, sc 3, 3 inc, sc 2 <18>
Rnd 4: Sc 2, 3 inc, sc 6, 3 inc, sc 4 <24>
Rnd 5: Sc 3, [inc, sc] 3 times, sc 6, [inc, sc] 3 times, sc 3 <30>
Rnd 6: Sc 4, [inc, sc] 3 times, sc 9, [inc, sc] 3 times, sc 5 <36>
Rnd 7: Sc 6, [inc, sc 2] 3 times, sc 9, [inc, sc 2] 3 times, sc 3 <42>
Rnds 8-10: sc around <42>
Finish off leaving a long tail for sewing. Weave magic ring end. Set aside.
Head / Body (one piece)
In “Sequoia” yarn
Make a magic ring
Rnd 1: 6 sc in ring <6>
Rnd 2: Inc around <12>
Rnd 3: Inc, sc; rep around <18>
Rnd 4: Inc, Sc 2; rep around <24>
Rnd 5: Inc, Sc 3; rep around <30>
Rnd 6: Inc, Sc 4; rep around <36>
Rnd 7: Inc, Sc 5; rep around <42>
Rnd 8: Sc around <42>
Rnd 9: Inc, sc 6; rep around <48>
Rnd 10: Inc, Sc 7; rep around <54>
Rnd 11: Sc around <54>
Rnd 12: Inc, Sc 8; rep around <60>
Rnd 13: Inc, Sc 9; rep around <66>
Rnds 14-22: Sc around <66>
Place safety eye backs (while attached to face) between Rnds 15 & 16 with 9 sts between them. Place backs securely. Safety eyes are now anchored through both pieces.
Begin stuffing with polyfil stuffing and continue stuffing after each round until firm.
Rnd: 23: Dec, sc 9; rep around <60>
Rnd: 24: Dec, sc 8; rep around <54>
Rnd: 25: Dec, sc 7; rep around <48>
Rnd: 26: Dec, sc 6; rep around <42>
Rnd: 27: Dec, sc 5; rep around <36>
Rnd: 28: Dec, sc 4; rep around <30>
Rnd: 29: Dec, sc 3; rep around <24>
Rnd 30: Dec, sc 2; rep around <18>
Rnd 31: Sc around <18>
Rnd 32: Inc, sc 2; rep around <24>
Rnd 33: Inc, sc 3; rep around <30>
Rnd 34: Inc, sc 4; rep around <36>
Rnd 35: Inc, sc 5; rep around <42>
Rnd 36: Inc, sc 6; rep around <48>
Rnds 37-42: Sc around <48>
Begin stuffing with polyfil stuffing and continue stuffing after each round until firm.
Rnd 43: Dec, sc 6; rep around <42>
Rnds 44-45: Sc around <42>
Rnd 46: Dec, sc 5; rep around <36>
Rnds 47-48: Sc around <36>
Rnd 49: Dec, sc 4; rep around <30>
Rnds 50-51: Sc around <30>
Rnd 52: Dec, sc 3; rep around<24>
Rnd 53: Dec, sc 2; rep around <18>
Rnd 54: Dec, sc; rep around <12>
Finish off and sew opening closed by whip stitching through the front loop of each stitch of the last round.
Arms
*make 2
In “Great Sand Dunes” yarn
Make a magic ring
Rnd 1: 6 sc in ring <6>
Rnd 2: Inc around <12>
Rnd 3: Sc around <12>
Rnd 4: Inc, sc <18>
Rnd 5: Sc around <18>
Rnd 6: Sc 4, 4 dc, sc next 13 <21>
Rnd 7: Sc 4, 2 dec, sc next 13 <19>
Rnd 8: Dec, sc 4; rep around, sc in last st <16>
Rnds 9-10: Sc around <16>
Change color to “Sequoia”
Rnds 11-31: Sc around <16>
Weave magic ring end. Stuff with polyfil stuffing until firm.
Flatten the arm and work the next round through both layers to close.
Rnd 32: Sc across <8>
Finish off leaving a long tail for sewing. Set aside.
Legs
*make 2
In “Great Sand Dunes” yarn
Make a magic ring
Rnd 1: 6 sc in ring <6>
Rnd 2: inc around <12>
Rnd 3: inc, sc; rep around <18>
Rnd 4: Inc, Sc 2; rep around <24>
Rnd 5: Inc, Sc 3; rep around <30>
Rnds 6-9: sc around <30>
Rnd 10: sc 9, 6 dec, sc 9 <24>
Rnd 11: sc 6, 6 dec, sc 6 <18>
Rnd 12: sc around <18>
Change color to “Sequoia”
Rnds 13-17: sc around <18>
Rnd 18: dec, sc 16 <17>
Rnds 19-20: sc around <17>
Rnd 21: dec, sc 15 <16>
Rnds 22-23: sc around <16>
Rnd 24: dec, sc 14 <15>
Rnds 25-26: sc around <15>
Rnd 27: dec, sc 13 <14>
Weave magic ring end. Stuff with polyfil stuffing until firm.
Flatten the leg and work the next round through both layers to close.
Rnd 27: Sc across <7>
Finish off leaving a long tail for sewing. Set aside.
Ears
*make 2
In “Great Sand Dunes” yarn
Make a magic ring
Rnd 1: 6 sc in ring <6>
Rnd 2: Inc around <12>
Rnd 3: Inc, sc; rep around <18>
Rnd 4: Inc, Sc 2; rep around <24>
Rnds 5-7: Sc around <24>
Rnd 8: Dec, sc 2; rep around <18>
Finish off leaving a long tail for sewing. Weave magic ring end. Set aside.
Nose
In “Great Sand Dunes” yarn
Make a magic ring
Rnd 1: 5 sc in ring <5>
Finish off leaving a long tail for sewing. Weave magic ring end as best you can on the back of the nose stitches. Set aside.
Tail
In “Sequoia” yarn
Make a magic ring
Rnd 1: 6 sc in ring <6>
Rnd 2: Inc around <12>
Rnds 3-25: Sc around <12>
Flatten the tail and work the next round through both layers to close.
Rnd 26: Sc across <7>
Finish off leaving a long tail for sewing. Set aside.
Assembly
View the real-time video tutorial on assembly here.
Sew around the edge of the face piece to secure to the head.
Sew snout centered on the face just below the eyes.
Sew nose over last Rnd of Snout (the nose should overlap the face just a bit).
Sew ears on either side of the head. Top of ear should align with the eyes – between Rnds 15 & 16 of the head. Count 8 sts over from the edge of the face and begin sewing.
Sew other ear in the same fashion.
Sew arms on either side of the body right at the neck. Arm placement should line up with the ears.
Sew legs on either side of the bottom body. Sew each leg at a slight angle toward the front center body.
Sew tail at back of the bottom body along Rnd 50 of the body.
With a spare piece of “Sequoia” yarn embroider a smile with the lowest part at Row 1 of the Snout and the highest part between Rnds 6 & 7 of the Snout. Use hot glue to secure in place if you desire.
ABBREVIATIONS
ch – chain
dc – double crochet
dec – decrease /sc 2 together
inc – increase / 2 sc
rep – repeat
rnd – round
sc – single crochet
OTHER FREE CROCHET KIDS PATTERNS YOU MIGHT LOVE
- Crochet Frankenstein Trick-or-Treat Bag / 2. Crochet Little Lamb Lovey / 3. Crochet Pumpkin Trick-or-Treat Bag
You have a gorgeous little man
Jennifer
Need to dave pattern to make later.