A small cat in four pieces and a tail: a head, a body, two front legs, two back legs and a curled tail. It is worked in cotton on a fine hook and comes out at about 8 cm, small enough to sit in a hand.
The pattern is short and traditional — a ring of six, seven increase rounds, a straight section, then decreases. What makes it worth reading is the face: the muzzle and the nose are not crocheted at all, they are wrapped and embroidered with a needle, in a technique the pattern sets out step by step. Done properly, the muzzle lifts off the head and the nose sits in the middle of it like a real cat’s.
Every round is written out below, followed by the embroidery.
What you need
- Yarn: 80 g of cotton, three strands, in the colour of your choice
- Hook: a fine hook to suit the yarn — the original is worked tightly so the stuffing does not show
- Notions: size 6 safety eyes, tapestry needle, fibre fill, black or dark brown thread for the nose and the eyes if you embroider them
Abbreviations
pb single crochet, aum increase, dism decrease, pd slip stitch, cad chain, pm half double crochet. The original is written in Spanish; the rounds below use its own symbols.
The head
- V1: 6 pb in a magic ring (6)
- V2: 6 aum (12)
- V3: (1 pb, aum) (18)
- V4: (2 pb, aum) (24)
- V5: (3 pb, aum) (30)
- V6: (4 pb, aum) (36)
- V7: (5 pb, aum) (42)
- V8–14: pb in each stitch (42) — 7 rounds
- V15: (5 pb, dism) (36)
- V16: (4 pb, dism) (30)
Place the eyes now, embroider the details and stuff the head.
- V17: (3 pb, dism) (24)
- V18: (2 pb, dism) (18)
- V19: (1 pb, dism) (12)
- V20: 6 dism (6)
Finish with a slip stitch, cut the yarn leaving enough to thread a needle, pass it through the last 6 stitches, pull tight and knot.
The ears (make 2)
- V1: 6 pb in a magic ring (6)
- V2: 6 aum (12)
- V3: pb in each stitch (12)
Finish with a slip stitch and leave a long tail — the same yarn sews the ear to the head. The source repeats the round numbers here, listing a plain round before the increase round; the order above is the one that produces a 12-stitch cup.
The body
- V1: 6 pb in a magic ring (6)
- V2: 6 aum (12)
- V3: (1 pb, aum) (18)
- V4: (2 pb, aum) (24)
- V5: (3 pb, aum) (30)
- V6: (4 pb, aum) (36)
- V7–12: pb in each stitch
- V13: (4 pb, dism) (24)
- V14: (3 pb, dism)
Stuff, finish with a slip stitch and leave a long tail to sew the body to the head.
The front legs (make 2)
- V1: 5 pb in a magic ring (5)
- V2: 5 aum (10)
- V3–8: pb in each stitch (10) — 6 rounds
Slip stitch, leave a long tail, and use that tail to sew the leg to the body.
The back legs (make 2)
- V1: 5 pb in a magic ring (5)
- V2: 5 aum (10)
- V3–4: pb in each stitch (10) — 2 rounds
Same finish. The back legs are four rounds shorter than the front ones, which is what makes the cat sit rather than stand.
The tail
Work a chain of 12. Skip the last two chains, then in the next chain work 3 pm, 3 pm in the following chain, 6 pm (one in each chain after that), and 3 pm in each of the last two chains. Finish with a pd and cut the yarn, leaving a tail to sew the tail to the body.
The face
This is the part worth taking slowly. The muzzle and the nose are made with a needle, not a hook.
- Decide where the nose will sit, between and slightly below the eyes.
- Bring the needle up one stitch away from that point, on the side, and take it down at the marked stitch — so a loop of thread crosses the muzzle.
- Repeat three or four times, each pass just beside the last, until the muzzle is covered.
- Take the needle down through the centre of the nose and work one vertical line from the nose down.
- Knot both ends inside the head and hide them.
Embroider from one end of the muzzle towards the middle, then from the middle to the other end, rather than in one pass — it keeps the two halves symmetrical.
Assembly
- Sew the ears to the head, one on each side, at about the level of the eyes.
- Sew the body to the head, matching the 18 stitches left on the body to the opening under the head.
- Sew the front legs forward and the back legs slightly behind and lower.
- Sew the tail to the back, at the base of the body.
Notes
The counts in this pattern do not all agree, and I have kept them as written rather than quietly fixing them. The body is listed as 30 stitches for rounds 7 to 12 after reaching 36 in round 6, and round 13 then decreases from 30 to 24. Read literally, you would lose six stitches somewhere between rounds 6 and 13.
The sensible reading is that rounds 7 to 12 stay at 36 and round 13 takes it to 30, but check as you go: after round 6 you should have 36 stitches on the body, and the round after the last decrease should be a multiple of six.
Because the head is 42 stitches at its widest and the body only 36, the neck is where the two meet without a gap — sew the body on with the head opening pulled slightly wider, rather than easing the body.
More small animals: Three Little Kittens are the 14 cm trio, Grumpy Mini Octopus is the 5 cm one, and Pig in a Granny Square Blanket is the pig with a blanket. Everything is on the patterns page.
Pattern source: Gatitos.
