How to Crochet a Butterfly: Quick Beginner Project

Pick your first color (Maddy uses cream) and make a slip knot. Hold the short tail and the working strand in your left hand, cross the working yarn over the top to make a small loop, reach two fingers through the loop, grab the long working strand, and pull it through the loop. Tighten the knot, slip it onto your hook, and tug the long tail to snug it up. Watch this part of the video.

The slip knot is the only stitch in the whole project that comes off the hook if you let it go, so set it firmly. A 3.5 to 4.0 mm hook is a good starting point for DK or sport-weight yarn. Smaller for a tighter butterfly, bigger for a chunkier one.

Yarn over and pull the wrap through the loop on the hook - that's one chain. Repeat five more times so you have six chains total. Then go back to the very first chain you made, insert the hook through it, yarn over, pull up a loop, and pull that loop through the loop on the hook. Watch this part of the video.

That slip stitch joins the ends of the chain into a small ring. Every stitch in round one goes into the middle of this ring, not into the chain stitches themselves. If you'd rather start with a magic circle, it works the same way and gives you a cleaner closed center.

Chain 3 to start the round (this counts as your first double crochet), then work one double crochet into the ring. Chain 2 to open the first chain-space. Work two more double crochets into the ring. Chain 2 again. Keep repeating two double crochets followed by chain 2 until you've made eight chain-2 spaces total around the ring. To close the round, slip stitch into the top chain of the starting chain-3, then chain 1 and snip the yarn leaving a couple of inches to weave in later. Watch this part of the video.

To make one double crochet: yarn over once, insert the hook into the ring, yarn over and pull up a loop (three loops on the hook), yarn over and pull through two loops, yarn over and pull through the last two. The eight chain-2 spaces become the channels you'll fill with pink wing stitches in step 5, so count carefully as you go.

Thread the cream tails onto a yarn needle and weave each one through five or six stitches on the back of the round, then trim flush. Doing it now means you won't have a dozen tails to chase at the end. Watch this part of the video.

Now grab your wing color (Maddy uses pink). Insert the hook between any pair of double crochets in a cluster - NOT into a chain-2 space. Place the tail of the pink yarn on the hook and pull it all the way through that gap. Tie a small overhand knot at the top of the stitch and snug it down. Re-insert the hook through the same gap, yarn over with the working pink strand, pull up a loop, and chain 1. Your wing color is now anchored and you're ready to fill the chain-2 spaces with pink double crochets.

Working with the pink yarn, put six double crochets into the very first chain-2 space (the big gap next to where you joined the color). Then slip stitch into the next gap between a pair of double crochets in the cream round to anchor the wing flat. Watch this part of the video.

Now you'll repeat six-double-crochets-then-slip-stitch in every chain-2 space all the way around. Each cluster of six becomes one half-wing, and the slip stitch between clusters pinches the wings into their classic shape. After the eighth cluster the piece looks like a slightly wrinkly little flower - that's exactly what it should look like before the fold turns it into a butterfly.

After the last cluster of six, slip stitch back into the gap where you originally joined the pink yarn. Then chain 8 in pink - those eight chains become the body wrap. Watch this part of the video.

Fold the round flower in half so two clusters of six sit above the fold and two clusters sit below. That's the butterfly silhouette: two wings up, two wings down. Wrap the chain-8 strand around the middle of the fold to cinch the body, take it to the bottom side, and slip stitch into the first chain of that chain-8 to lock the wrap in place. Chain 1, snip the working yarn, pull the loop tight to fasten off, and weave the pink tails into the body with your yarn needle.

Cut a piece of cream yarn about four inches long and fold it in half so you have a small loop at the top and two tails at the bottom. Watch this part of the video.

Push the hook through one of the chain stitches at the top of the butterfly's body (between the two upper wings), catch the folded loop with the hook, and pull it partway through so a loop stays on the front of the body - don't pull the whole strand through. Open that front loop with your fingers, push both tail ends up through it, and pull the tails tight. That's a lark's-head knot. Trim the antennae to your preferred length with sharp scissors. Your butterfly is finished and ready to clip, pin, or stitch wherever you like.