Charly Seahorse

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Charly

the seahorse

crochet amigurumi pattern

© 2008 Copyright by Diana Buß

All rights reserved, not to be reprinted

Patterns are for personal use only, not for commercial or retail purposes

www.mygurumi.de

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Charly

Skills needed

You need to know how to make a single crochet and how to increase / decrease a stitch

Yarn requirements

Use whatever yarn U like, try everything you can find. You might result in something very adorable.

I use catania from Schachenmayr. It is a 100 % cotton yarn and a typical yarn to make potholders from.

Needles

Use the needle size to obtain gauge given on your yarn. If you find your tension to be very loose try using a needle size smaller. It is important to make tight stitches due to a firm and substantial form of your doll.

Stuffing

Stuff firmly! I tend to overstuff my dolls. Overstuffing leads to a well shaped look of your dolls and they hold their shape quite nicely.

Finished size

The finished size of your amigurumi goes hand in hand with the yarn and needle you choose. However using a 3.5 mm needle / E hook you will receive dolls of about 4 to 7 inches high. Charly measures 9” / 23 cm high and 3” / 8 cm wide.

Final Tip

Use a row counter or something else to keep track with your finished rounds. Also I recommend to use some waist yarn (maybe thread or pearl yarn) to mark the beginning of your row, it will make counting lot easier and it’s easily removable anytime.

Abbreviations

beg - begin, beginning BO - bind off

dr - double ring: prevents holes at beginning of work: to make a double ring wrap yarn around your finger two times, remove resulting loops from finger and start crocheting desired number of stitches into these loops. Holding the stitches firmly with one hand, pull on the yarn tail with the other. One after the other both loops will drawn closed. Insert a marker at the beginning/end of the round. esc - extended single crochet;

Insert hook in next st, yo, pull up a loop, yo, draw through one loop, yo, and draw through all loops on hook

m2 - make 2, i.e. make two single crochets into one stitch

m2[x,y] - make 2, make stitches given in parenthesis into one stitch, follow given order

sc - single crochet sc2tog - decrease 1 stitch slst - slip stitch

tog - together

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Charly

Before we get started a few more words on tension:

The body shape of this seahorse is build with extended single crochet stitches (esc) and slipped stitches (slst); both different versions of a single crochet (sc). The esc as a bigger version and the slst as a smaller one. Both are worked on opposite sites of the specific body parts and therefore create the unique shape of the body (e.g. the bending of the seahorse’s tail).

The esc are very similar to classic half double crochet stitches (hdc) but use a little less space and therefore don’t let as much stuffing shine through as hdc stitches possibly would. Still the esc’s leave enough spaces between the single stitches that stuffing might shine through if you don’t have pretty firm tension.

Therefore it is important to really use a smaller needle size than your yarn asks for if your tension tends to be a little loose.

Also it will help a lot to make the sc sts in the following rows (above the esc’s) as tight as possible, this way you just don’t allow the esc’s to stretch as much later on.

Also it is very helpful to use a smaller hook to help you yarn over and draw a loop when crocheting into the slst’s. These are very small and tight and using a smaller hook to yarn over will prevent you from breaking your fingers, still you should make the required stitch itself with the normal working hook. I normally use a 3.5 mm / E hook and have a 2 mm / B hook to help me pull the yarn through those super tiny stitches.

But now lets start on Charly

-Head / Body / Tail

1 make a dr with 6 sts 2 m2 x6 3 (m2, sc1) x6 4 sc1, (m2, sc2) x5, m2, sc1 5 (m2, sc3) x6 6 sc2, (m2, sc4) x5, m2, sc2 7 (m2, sc5) x6 8 sc3. (m2, sc6) x5, m2, sc3 make 6 rows 15 sc3, (sc2tog, sc6) x5, sc2tog, sc3 16 (sc2tog, sc5), x6 17 sc2, (sc2tog, sc4) x5, sc2tog, sc2 18 (sc2tog, sc3) x6 19 (sc2tog, sc2) x6 20 (sc2tog, sc1) x6 make 2 rows (sc12) 23 (sc2, m2) x2, sc6 24 sc2, m2, sc4, m2, sc6 25 sc3, m2, sc4, m2, sc7 26 sc4, m2, sc5, m2, sc7 27 sc5, (m2, sc2) x2, m2, sc8 28 sc5, m2, sc3, m2, sc4, m2, sc2, slst6 29 slst3, sc3, (m2, sc4) x2, m2, sc9 30 sc7, m2, sc4, m2, sc5, m2, sc5, slst5 31 slst3, (sc7, m2) x2, sc13 32 (sc10, m2) x2, sc7, slst5

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Charly

33 slst4, sc6, m2, sc6, m2, sc6, m2, sc11 34 sc3, m2, sc10, m2, sc8, m2, sc11, m2, sc3 35 sc3, m2, sc35, m2, sc3 36 sc40, slst5 37 slst5, sc11, sc2tog, sc9, sc2tog, sc16 38 sc20, sc2tog, sc16, slst5 39 slst6, sc10, sc2tog, sc6, sc2tog, sc16 40 sc16, sc2tog, sc5, sc2tog, sc10, slst5 41 slst7, sc8, sc2tog, sc4, sc2tog, sc15 42 sc11, sc2tog, sc2, sc2tog, sc3, sc2tog, sc2, sc2tog, sc6, slst4 43 slst6, sc5, sc2tog, sc1, sc2tog, sc2, sc2tog, sc1, sc2tog, sc9 44 sc11, sc2tog x4, sc6, slst3 45 slst5, sc5, sc2tog x3, sc8 make 3 rows (sc21) 49 sc12, sc2tog, sc7 50 sc9, slst7, sc4 make 1 row (sc20) 52 sc12, sc2tog, sc6 make 1 row (sc19) 54 sc10, slst2, slst2tog, slst2, sc3 make 1 rows (sc18) 56 sc3, sc2tog, sc13 57 sc9, slst6, sc2 58 sc3, sc2tog, sc12 59 sc9, slst6, sc1 60 sc3, sc2tog, sc11 61 sc2, esc4, sc3, slst5, sc1 62 sc3, sc2tog, sc10 63 sc1, esc5, sc3, slst4, sc1 64 sc3, sc2tog, sc9 65 sc2, esc3, sc4, slst3, sc1 66 sc2, sc2tog, sc9 67 sc2, esc3, sc3, slst3, sc1 68 sc3, sc2tog, sc7 69 sc2, esc3, sc2, slst3, sc1 70 sc3, sc2tog, sc6 71 sc2, esc3, sc2, slst3 72 sc3, sc2tog, sc5 73 sc2, esc3, sc2, slst2 74 slst1, sc2, sc2tog, sc2, slst2 75 slst2, esc4, sc2 76 sc7, slst1 77 slst2, sc1, esc3, sc1, slst1 78 slst2, sc6 79 sc4, esc3, sc1 80 slst3, sc5 81 slst3, sc1, esc3, sc1 82 sc8 83 sc1, slst3, sc1, esc3 84 sc1, slst3, sc4 85 sc5, esc3 86 esc1, sc1, slst2, sc2, sc2tog 87 sc2, slst2, sc2, esc1 88 esc1, sc6 89 sc2tog, sc5 90 sc2 BO

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Charly

Snout

1 make a dr with 6 sts 2 m2 x6 3 (m2, sc1) x6 4 (sc2, m2) x6 make 1 row (sc24) 6 sc5, (sc2tog, sc2) x2, sc2tog, sc4 (row not finished)

BO

When binding off leave a real long tail, about the length of your arm to sew the snout to the head:

the decreases created a bending in the snout which resembles the top of the snout. Now place the snout to the head in a way that the bended end is on top and the flat end is at the lower side. Use pins to fix the snout in place before you sew it to the head. To sew the snout to the head use the BO yarn end. Secure yarn ends and hide within the seahorse.

Head ‘Pocks'

1 make a dr with 6 sts 2 m2, sc5

BO

make about 4 (or as many as you like) and add them to the head, all centered and lined up in a row, sew to head, secure and hide yarn ends.

Dorsal Fin

1 make a chain with smaller hook: chain 10, change back to normal working hook

2 start in 2nd chain from hook: sc8, m3 into last chain, turn, sc8 3 sc1, sc2tog, sc5, sc2tog x2, sc5,

sc2tog

4 sc1, sc2tog, sc3, sc2tog, sc1, sc2tog, sc2, sc2tog

make 1 row (sc11) BO

Sew to lower back, opposite to belly, below bending of back and above beginning of tail (see front picture). Secure ends and hide them.

Side Fins / “Arms"

make two

1 make a chain with smaller hook: chain 6, change back to normal hook size and start in 2nd chain from hook:

2 sc4, m3 into last chain, turn, sc4 3 sc1, (sc2tog, sc1) x3, sc1

make 1 row (sc8) 5 (sc2, sc2tog) x2 make 1 row (sc6) BO

Sew to side of body, one thumb wide away from dorsal fin.

Secure and hide yarn ends.

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Eyes

white 1 make dr with 6 sts 2 m2 x6 3 (m2, sc1) x6 BO dark/black 1 make dr with 6 sts 2 m2 x6 BO

Embroider little sparkles onto the dark pupil parts of the eyes. See figure below for guidance. The figure also shows you how to sew both parts of the eye together.

left - - right

We’re finished. Hope you had fun

Abbreviations

for the following additional patterns dc - double crochet

hdc - half double cochet trc - triple crochet

Charly

Additional:

Two little patterns to decorate your Seahorse:

Star

use same yarn and hook as Charly (only a different color)

1 chain 4 and close to form a ring 2 chain 3, sc into 2nd chain from

hook, hdc in last chain, sc into ring – repeat 5 times

BO

Sew to body, maybe onto the belly? Or how about right behind one eye?

Heart

use same yarn and hook as Charly (maybe a red color way?)

1 chain 4 and make all following sts into the first chain from hook: 2 trc3, dc3, chain 1, trc1, chain 1,

dc3, trc3, slst2 BO