Hello friends! Thanks for joining along with this month’s free crochet-a-long, the bitty lamb buddy! If you are just joining, check out the Materials list here. You can choose to make your bitty buddy in size 4 worsted weight yarn or size plush yarn! Remember, if you prefer a pdf of the instructions, you can find the pattern on sale on Etsy or Ravelry. It is on sale through the end of the month! Don’t forget! I’d love for you to share your work and progress on Facebook or Instagram using #bittybuddyCAL and tagging me @_stuckonyoucrochet_ !
We will kick off part one of this crochet-a-long by making the arms and the body of the bitty lamb. First, we’ll make the arms and then the body. We will crochet the arms into the body as it is being worked so that we won’t need to sew them on later. Less sewing is always a win in my book! The body of the lamb is worked all in the same color but if you would like to add stripes as I’ve shown previously with some other bitties, you can use alternate colors on rounds 4, 6, 8 and 10. Or you can use a variegated yarn as shown below!
The lamb is worked in two colors – a main color used for the body, arms, back of the ears and most of the head as well as an accessory color used for the hooves of the arms, the muzzle and the inside of the ears. Be sure to pay attention to which color yarn you should be using in each part! My favorite yarn to use for the bitties is I Love This Cotton Yarn from Hobby Lobby. It makes a great teether toy and the 100% cotton yarn is easily washable and holds up well. For plush, I like using either Premier Parfait Chunky or Big Twist Baby Bear. Not as “teethable” but adds to the extra squish factor! I’ll be using Big Twist Baby Bear from JoAnn’s for my bitty lamb this weekend – have you tried it yet? I love how soft and squishy it is and it seems to hold up a bit better for me than Premier Parfait Chunky yarn. Parfait Chunky tends to break easily and at times can really shed. Baby Bear is listed as a size 6 yarn but it is really quite thin and I would describe it as a size 5 or almost like a 4.75 yarn, if that were a thing! Baby Bear does not shed or break as easily in my experience so far!
As a reminder, most of my patterns use the bobble stitch and we will be making lots of bobbles on the body of the bunny today! This is a unique stitch that creates bobbles which pop up off of the work to add to the texture and overall look of the project. I work my bobbles in the round by pushing them towards me rather than away from me so they end up on the outside of the work in the round. If you need help with this technique, see the “special stitches” below and check out this video which gives directions on how to work the bobble stitch in the round. The pattern featured in this video is the free pineapple plush, but the technique used is the same!
STITCH ABBREVIATIONS:
SPECIAL STITCHES:
BOBBLE STITCH (bobble):
To make a bobble stitch you will work multiple double crochets into the same stitch.
To begin, yarn over and insert hook into the stitch. Yarn over and draw up a loop. This leaves three loops on your hook. Yarn over and pull through the first two loops (two loops left on hook).
Yarn over, insert hook into the stitch. Yarn over and draw up a loop, leaving four loops on your hook. Yarn over and pull through the first two loops (three loops left on hook).
Yarn over, insert hook into the stitch. Yarn over and draw up a loop, leaving five loops on your hook. Yarn over and pull through the first two loops (four loops left on hook).
Yarn over, insert hook into the stitch. Yarn over and draw up a loop, leaving six loops on your hook. Yarn over and pull through the first two loops (five loops left on hook).
Yarn over and pull through the five loops on the hook. Pull stitch tightly and it will create a bobble. You can choose to make the bobbles on the right or the wrong side of your project, just make sure they are on the outside of the body when finished
DECREASE STITCHES (dec): To decrease stitches, you will sc or hdc 2 stitches together.
INCREASE STITCHES (inc): To increase stitches, you will sc or hdc 2 stitches into the same spot.
PATTERN:
Let’s get started! You will use a 4.0 mm hook for size 4 yarn or a 5.0 mm hook for size 5 yarn. If you use a bulkier weight yarn, you will want to size up to an even larger hook. I don’t recommend super bulky yarn as the bobbles end up kind of bulky and close together, but you may find something that works with a large hook size!
MAKING THE ARMS (MAKE TWO):
Round 1: Start with accessory color. To begin, make a magic circle. Place 6 sc in the magic circle. [6]
Do not join. You will continue to work in the round.
Rounds 2-4: sc x 6 around. At end of row 4, switch to main color. [6]
Rounds 5-11: sc x 6 around. [6]
Round 12: Pinch the top of the arm together and place 3 sc through each side in order to close off the arm. [3] Cut yarn, tie off and weave in ends.
MAKING THE BODY:
Stitch counts are included at the end of each round. Bobble rows include [total # stitches, # bobble stitches]. You will not join at the end of each row. You will continue to work in the round.
For rounds with increases and decreases, they will always be done with a hdc stitch, not a sc stitch. sc stitch will only be used on rounds that also have bobbles.
Round 1: To begin, make a magic circle. Place 6 hdc stitches in the magic circle. [6]
Do not join. You will continue to work in the round.
Round 2: [inc] x 6 around. [12]
Round 3: [inc, hdc] around. [18]
Round 4: [sc x 2, bobble] x 6. [18, 6 bobbles]
Round 5: [inc, hdc x 2] around. [24]
Round 6: sc x 2, bobble, [sc x 3, bobble] x 5, sc. [24, 6 bobbles]
Round 7: hdc x 24 around. [24]
Round 8: sc, [bobble, sc x 3] x 5, bobble, sc x 2. [24, 6 bobbles]
Round 9: hdc x 24 around. [24]
Round 10: [bobble, sc x 3] x 6. [24, 6 bobbles]
Round 11: hdc x 24 around. [24]
Round 12: [sc x 3, bobble] x 6. [24, 6 bobbles]
Round 13: hdc x 24 around. [24]
Round 14: sc x 2, bobble, [sc x 3, bobble] x 5, sc. [24, 6 bobbles]
Round 15: [hdc x 2, dec] x 6. [18]
Round 16: sc, [bobble, sc x 2] x 5, bobble, sc. [18, 6 bobbles]
Round 17: hdc x 18 around. [18]
Round 18: [hdc, dec] x 6. [12]
At this point, you will add the arms to your bunny to avoid having to sew them in later. The arms should be closed (as written in Part One) with three stitches across. Add in arms as below:
Round 19: sc x 3. For the next three stitches, place your first arm on the outside of the body and sc x 3 through both the arm and the stitches of the neck. This will attach your first arm.
sc x 2. For the next three stitches, place your second arm on the outside of the body and sc x 3 through both the arm and the stitches of the neck. This will attach your second arm. sc x 1 to finish the round.
Round 20: [dec, sc x 2] x 3. [9]
Slip stitch to first stitch and then, leaving a long tail, cut yarn and tie off. You will use this tail to attach the head to your body, so be sure to leave a long enough tail!
Need more help? You can check out this YouTube tutorial for making the body of the bitty bunny here. While this is a different bitty buddy, the body style and technique used to create it is the same!
And that is it for Part One! Tomorrow, we will make the head and ears of our lamb and assemble everything together. If you are joining in, please share your bitties with me! I can’t wait to see your work. Thanks for being here! 🙂
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