How to Crochet a Cactus (Easy Amigurumi for Beginners)

Lay everything out before you cast on. You need DK or worsted-weight green yarn for the body, a small amount of contrasting yarn for the flower (pink, yellow, or white all work), a 3.75 mm hook (3.5 mm or 4 mm are fine substitutes), a yarn needle, scissors, polyester fiberfill stuffing, and a small 2 to 3 inch terracotta pot.

If you want the kawaii face look, also grab a pair of 6 mm safety eyes and a length of embroidery thread for the smile. Skip both for the more naturalistic plant-only version. Both look great - the kawaii version photographs better on Pinterest, the plain version blends into real plant groupings.

Start the body with a slip knot. Wrap the yarn once around your finger so you have an X shape on top of your fingertip. Pick up the strand on the right and cross it over to the left. Reach through the X with your hook, grab the back strand, and pull a loop up through the front.

Slide the loop off your finger and pull the working yarn gently to snug the knot around your hook. The loop should slide freely on the hook shaft - if it's tight enough to squeak, loosen it before you start chaining.

Yarn over and pull through the loop on your hook nineteen times. Each pull-through is one chain stitch. The slip knot doesn't count. Count out loud - it's worth slowing down to be sure you have exactly nineteen because every row after this one builds on it.

Now work back across the chain. Skip the first chain right at the hook (you can't comfortably work into it anyway) and single crochet into each of the next 18 chains. Insert your hook under the top loop of the chain, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, and pull through both loops on the hook. That's one single crochet. Do that 18 times and your foundation row is done.

This is the row that builds the whole cactus. Chain 1 and turn your work. Now single crochet across, but only insert your hook through the back loop of each stitch (the loop furthest from you when the row faces up). The front loop sits there unused as a visible horizontal bar.

At the end of the row, chain 1 and turn again. Repeat. Do this for 20 rows total. The rectangle will grow into a flat panel about three inches tall with clear horizontal ridges. Those ridges become the vertical cactus pleats once you fold the panel into a tube.

When the panel is 20 rows tall, cut your yarn but leave a very long tail - at least 18 inches. You'll use it to drawstring the top, sew the side seam, and drawstring the bottom. Better to have too much than have to attach more partway through.

If you want the kawaii face, place the safety eyes now while the panel is still flat. Fold the rectangle in half lengthwise to find the center, then position the eyes a few stitches apart in the middle of the panel. Push each post through from the front, then snap the washer onto the back of the post on the inside of the work. The washer locks on permanently - check positioning before you commit.

To add the smile, thread a small length of pink or red yarn onto your needle. Come up between the eyes a few rows down, stitch a shallow U-shape across, then back to the start. A handful of stitches is all you need.

Thread the long tail onto a yarn needle. Working along the short edge of the panel that will become the top of the cactus, weave the needle in and out along the row ends - in through one row end, out through the next, all the way around the short edge.

When you've gone all the way across, pull the tail. The weave should cinch into a puckered closed circle like the top of a drawstring pouch. This is the same technique you use to close a magic ring. The opening doesn't need to seal perfectly - the flower will cover the top, so a small gap is fine.

Bring the two long sides of the rectangle together to form a tube and sew them with a whip stitch using the same long tail. Insert the needle through both edges, pull tight, move down a row, and repeat. Work all the way down the seam.

Before the seam fully closes, stop and stuff the body. Pull the fiberfill into walnut-sized pieces and push them in from the bottom up. More stuffing gives you a rounded barrel shape - less keeps the cactus slimmer and more saguaro-like. Stuff firmer than feels comfortable. The cactus should bounce back when you press it. If your finger leaves a dent, add more.

Finish the seam, then drawstring the bottom closed the same way you closed the top. Take a few extra stitches across the bottom hole if it doesn't fully seal - the bottom hides inside the pot.

Switch to your contrast color yarn for the flower. Make a magic ring - wrap the yarn around your finger so you have an X, pick up the back strand, pull a loop through, and snug it onto your hook. (Our magic ring walkthrough has a full breakdown if this is new to you.)

Chain 1 to anchor, then work 6 single crochets inside the ring. Pull the starting tail to close the ring - all 6 stitches will pull together into a tight little cluster. Then slip stitch into the first stitch of the round to join.

Round 2: increase in every stitch. That means 2 single crochets into each of the 6 stitches around (12 stitches total).

Each petal is just three stitches plus a slip stitch anchor. Chain 3, then single crochet into the second chain from your hook, single crochet into the next chain, then slip stitch into the next stitch on the flower circle. That's one petal.

Repeat all the way around the circle. Because the base has 12 stitches and each petal uses 2 stitches of the base (one for the petal foot, one for the slip stitch anchor), you'll get 6 evenly spaced petals. Cut the yarn leaving a 10-inch tail for sewing the flower onto the cactus.

Thread the flower tail onto a yarn needle. Push the needle down through the center of the flower and out through the top of the cactus, then back up through the cactus and out near the edge of the flower. Repeat around the flower base to anchor it firmly. Use the starting tail of the magic ring for an extra row of stitches if the flower flops.

Bury any remaining tails by pushing the needle through the stuffing and out somewhere on the body. Snip flush. Wedge the finished cactus down into your terracotta pot - the bottom drawstring keeps it sitting upright. Add a pinch of stuffing or a small ball of brown yarn in the bottom of the pot first if you want it to sit higher.

Make three or four more in different shapes and flower colors for the full Pinterest-worthy plant shelf. Cylindrical body plus pink flower is the classic. Round body without a flower is the barrel cactus. Tall body with a small arm sewn on is the saguaro. Same five materials, four different plants.