Craft Your Own Adorable Crochet Giraffe: A Step-by-Step Guide

Meet Crochet Gira the Giraffe, the adorable handcrafted companion that is bound to steal your heart with its charm! Created with love and meticulous attention to detail, this one-of-a-kind crochet giraffe is not just a toy but a cherished friend in the making. Its long, graceful neck and cute button eyes make it the perfect cuddle buddy for both kids and adults alike.

Materials

To make Gira you will need:

• A Crochet hook, 2.5mm
• Yellow and Light brown DK yarn (you could use any colors you wanted to, though!)
• A tapestry needle and scissors
• Stuffing
• Safety eyes (I used 9mm)
• A stitch marker to help you keep track of the start of the round

Please note that you can make Gira using any size crochet hook and yarn weight for a smaller or bigger result. I like using DK as it’s most commonly available. If you make amigurumi, it is usually recommended to go down a bit from the recommended hook size for the yarn to allow for a no-hole look (we don’t want to see the stuffing show through in between stitches)! Using DK yarn and a 2.5mm crochet hook, Gira should stand about 24cm tall.

Stitches & Abbreviations

The pattern is written using US crochet terms in continuous spirals. You will need to know the following kinds of stitches to make her:

• Magic Ring (MR)
• Single crochet (sc)
• Decrease (dec); preferably using the invisible decrease method
• Increase (inc)
• Working into back loops only (BLO)
• Working into front loops only (FLO)
• Slip stitch (sl)
• Changing colors

And now, let’s get started!

Legs

Round 1: Starting with light brown yarn, 6 Sc in a Magic Ring

Round 2: (Sc, inc) around (9)

Round 3: Sc around in BLO, change to yellow on the last stitch (9)

Round 4-14 (11 rounds total): Sc around (9), then fasten off with a sl

Repeat this 3 more times, making 4 legs, BUT DO NOT FASTEN OFF THE FOURTH LEG! We will now join the legs together to make the

Body

Round 15: To join the legs together, simply continue crocheting single crochets into each of the stitches of one of the legs you’ve fastened off, and repeat with the other 2 legs. It will look like a chain of legs at first. You will have 4×9=36 stitches now. Don’t worry about the gaping hole in her belly, we will fix this later. Don’t forget to stuff her legs!

Rounds 16-22 (7 rounds total): Sc around (36). We will now start decreasing to form her back. It’s important that you are decreasing over 2 legs equally, we don’t want her butt to be centered over one leg, do we? If for some reason your starting point is way different from mine and you feel like my instructions don’t let you decrease over 2 legs equally, feel free to add or remove some Scs from the beginning of the round (this would mainly be the case if you are using a different yarn/hook size from me)

Round 23: Sc 7, (sc, dec) x4, sc to end (32)

Round 24: Sc 7, (sc, dec) x3, sc to end (29)

Round 25: Sc 5, (sc, dec) x4, sc to end (25)

Round 26: (Sc 4, dec) around (21), start stuffing her body

Round 27: Sc 5, dec 3, sc 10 (18)

Round 28: (Sc 4, dec) around (15)

We are now starting to crochet the neck. Don’t forget to finish stuffing her body and neck!

Head

Rounds 29-39 (11 rounds total): Sc around (15), we will now start working on the

Round 40: Inc in every stitch in FLO (30)

Round 41: Sc around (30)

We will now give her a nose, so again, make sure when you start the increasing section of the next round, you’re close to the front of her face (if not, best case it will look like she’s looking sideways, worst case she will have twisted her head by 180°. Outch.)

Round 42: Sc 3, inc x9, sc to end (39)

Round 43: Sc 10, (sc, inc) x3, sc to end (42)

Round 44-48 (5 rounds total): Sc around (42)

Round 49: Sc 9, dec 8, sc to end (34)

Round 50: Sc 5, dec 8, sc to end (26)

Round 51-56 (6 rounds total): Sc around (26)

Add safety eyes between round 51 and 52, approx. 5 stitches apart

Round 57: Sc 11, dec, sc 11, dec (24), start stuffing the head

Round 58: (Sc 2, dec) around (18)

Round 59: (Sc, dec) around (12)

Round 60: Dec around (6), fasten off and close.

Congrats! The main part is done! Now we will close the belly and work on the other features that Gira is missing right now.

Closing the Belly

To close the belly, insert your hook into any of the stitches on her belly, then sc approx. 10 stitches around her belly hole. The exact number does not matter, we just want to create some extra “fabric” to avoid a strong pull on the legs. Then, decrease over the stitches you’ve just made. Fasten off, and sew together.

Horns

Round 1: Using light brown yarn, 6 Sc into a Magic Ring

Round 2-4 (3 rounds total): Sc around (6), then fasten off.

Make two, and sew them onto the head.

Ears

Round 1: Using yellow, 6 sc into a Magic Ring

Round 2: (Sc, inc) around (9)

Round 3: (Sc 2, inc) around (12)

Round 4-7 (4 rounds total): Sc around (12)

Round 8: (Sc 2, dec) around (9)

Make two, then pinch the ends together and sew onto head.

Spots

Round 1: Using light brown yarn, 6 Sc into a Magic Ring

Round 2: Inc around (12), fasten off

I made 7, but you can make more or less. Sew them onto the body however you like!

Tail

Using yellow, chain 12, then sc 11 along the chain. For the hairs, cut a few strands of light brown yarn and knot them to the end of the tail. Then sew the tail to the butt.

Assembly

Assembly is very simple, you’ve already done the most difficult part of closing the belly! All you need to do now is sew on the ears, the horns, the tail, and the spots wherever you’d like them.