Koala Lovey – Free Crochet Pattern

It’s Pattern Day!

Are you ready, do you have your yarn?

GET THE YARN

Scheepjes Cahlista is an aran weight yarn, made with 100% cotton. I’m using two balls of colour 074 Mercury, and you will also need a single ball of the complementary colour. Have a look at the Scheepjes Website for colour inspiration and stockists, there are more than 100 colours to choose from!

You can order the yarn online from my local yarn store Caro’s Atelier*.

Internationally there’s Wool Warehouse* (global shipping) and if in the US check out Dot’s Yarn Den.

Note: this version of the pattern uses UK terms. If you would like to access US terms or printable PDFs in both UK and US terms, you can purchase the patterns from either Ravelry or Lovecrafts.com for a small fee.

Please share your projects using #KoalaLovey in the socials and tag me everywhere!

Let’s go!

Materials

MC: Scheepjes Cahlista in 074 Mercury – 2 balls (100% cotton, aran weight, 50g, 85m)
CC: Scheepjes Cahlista in your choice – 1 ball (100% cotton, aran weight, 50g, 85m)
Scrap black, preferably Scheepjes Cahlista – about 2 metres
I used 385 Chrystalline and 256 Cornelia Rose in my samples.
4mm hook (amigurumi parts)
6mm hook (mini-blanket)
5mm hook (border of mini-blanket)
Toy filling (or you can stuff the head with scrap yarn or anything you have at home that will be a bit squishy)

Tension

Mini-blanket: 16 rows and 17sts over 10 cm in YUdc

Head: not important, but stitches should be tight, so use at least a hook size down from what the yarn recommends.

Measurements

Mini-blanket – 30 x 30cm blocked

Abbreviations

(UK terms)
Ch chain
MR magic ring
Ss slip stitch
St(s) stitch(es)
Ch chain
Dc double crochet
DcInc double crochet increase (2 sts increased in 1 st)
Dec double crochet decrease (1 st worked decreased over 2 sts)
HtrInc half treble crochet increase (2 sts increased in 1 st)
Tr treble crochet
YUdc yarn under double crochet
MC main colour
CC contrast colour.
Rep repeat
Pm place marker
Rm remove marker
Flo front loop only
Blo back loop only

Pattern Notes

This pattern is worked both amigurumi style in continuous rounds (with no joining) and sewn together to make the koala’s head, and also back and forth in rows using the yarn under colourwork technique to make the mini-blanket.

Work instructions inside parentheses (…) the indicated number of times.

Special Abbreviation

YUdc (yarn under double crochet) is a colourwork technique using two strands of working yarn. To work the stitch insert hook with mc, yoh, pull up a loop, with cc yoh from front to back (keeping cc in front of mc), with mc yoh, pull through 3 loops.

Check out the short instruction vid here.

Instructions

Koala head

Working in rounds, with MC and 4mm hook

Round 1 6dc in MR (mark first st and move marker up each round to keep track of starting point) (6)
Round 2 6dcinc (12)
Round 3 (inc, dc) six times (18)
Round 4 (inc, 2dc) six times (24)
Round 5 (inc, 3dc) six times (30)
Round 6 (inc, 4dc) six times (36)
Round 7-17 36dc (36)
Round 18 dec twice, pm second dec, 14dc, dec twice, pm second dec, 13dc, dec, rm. (32)
Round 19 dec, pm, 12dc, dec twice, rm, pm second dec, 11dc, dec, ss. (28)

Cut yarn, leave tail long enough to sew top shut when assembling.

Ear

(make 2)
Working in rounds, with MC and 4mm hook

Round 1 6dc in MR (6)
Round 2 6dcinc (12)
Round 3 (inc, dc) six times (18)
Round 4 inc, pm in second st of inc, 8dc, inc, pm in second st of inc, 9dc (20) (starting point is moved by 1st )
Round 5 20dc
Round 6 inc, pm in second st of inc, 9dc, inc, pm in second st of inc, 10dc (22) (starting point is moved by 1 st)
Round 7-10 22dc. Ss (22)

Cut yarn and leave tail to sew to head when assembling.

Nose

Working in rounds, with black and 4mm hook

Round 1 6dc in MR (6)
Round 2 6dcinc (12)
Round 3 (3htrinc, 3dc) twice, ss to join (18)

Cut yarn, leave long tail to sew to head and make eyes.

Mini Blanket

Working back and forth in rows using both MC and CC, 6mm hook

See short video tutorial here.

Row 1 MC, ch42
Row 2 YUdc in third loop and each ch across to end (40)
Row 3 ch1 (does not count as a st), YUDC to end (40)
Row 4-42 rep row 3 (40)

Cut MC and continue working the border in CC.

Border

Working in rounds 5 and 6mm hooks

Round 1 turn, with 6mm hook, work 40ss loosely across to corner, ch1, 40ss across the rows (note, there are two more rows than border sts, so you will need to “lose” two sts). Continue around to end and ch1 and ss to 1^st st of the round.
Round 2 change to 5mm hook, ch2, working into the ss, [tr to corner ch (tr, ch1 tr) in flo of corner ch], rep around to end, ss to join. Cut yarn.
Round 3 flip your work so the back is facing you, ss to join at a corner, ch2, tr in the back of the ss from round 1, rep round 2.
Round 4 now we’ll join the two rounds. Ch1, dc in the flo of round 3 sts and the corresponding blo from round 2 sts to join the two rounds together. Rep to corner, 3dc in the corner ch, then rep all the way round to end. Ss to join, cut yarn, weave in ends and block.

Assembly

Position nose 7 rounds below opening at mid-point between markers, sew to head.  Make eyes 1 st to the side of the nose, 3 sts wide and slightly angled (1 round) upwards at the outer side. Fasten the eye loop on row below to fix it in place.

Stuff the head with toy filling and sew shut. Attach ears to side of head on an angle, 3 sts in from the sides of the sewn shut head.

Sew the head to the middle of the blanket, either using the leftover yarn tails, or a new length of yarn, using round 3 of the head as your guide.

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