How to Crochet a Cat (No-Sew Beginner Amigurumi)

Lay out an 8 mm crochet hook, super-chunky chenille yarn for the body (Ana uses Alize Velluto - any chunky chenille works), black sport-weight yarn for the embroidered eyes and whiskers, a small amount of contrast chenille if you want stripes, polyester fiberfill stuffing, a yarn needle with an eye large enough for the chunky yarn, scissors, and a stitch marker.

No safety eyes. No separate ear or tail pieces to sew on later. That is the whole list. The chenille hides every uneven stitch, which is why this works as a first amigurumi - the texture forgives anything a beginner does to it.

Start with the main chenille yarn. Pinch the tail between your thumb and pointer finger, wrap the working strand around your fingers to form a small loop, slip the hook through, and pull a loop. That is the magic ring.

Work 6 single crochets into the ring with yarn-over-the-needle (the standard way). Once round 1 is done, pull the short tail to cinch the ring closed. Drop a stitch marker into the last stitch so you can find the start of round 2.

Round 2 is two single crochets in every stitch around - 12 stitches total. Round 3 alternates one single crochet and one increase, repeating six times around for 18 stitches.

Rounds 4 through 7 keep adding increases at the corners only - two single crochets and one increase, then three single crochets and one increase, and so on. By the end of round 7 you should be holding a soft chenille dome roughly the size of a clementine. Move the stitch marker into the last stitch of every round so you do not lose your place.

Round 8 is where the head starts to close up. Work 12 invisible decreases across the round to bring the count back down to 12 stitches.

An invisible decrease grabs only the front loop of the next two stitches. Insert the hook through the front loop of the first stitch, then through the front loop of the next stitch (three loops on the hook), yarn over, and pull through everything at once. Repeat all the way around. The top of the head curls inward and starts to look like a cat skull from underneath.

Round 9 is the bobble round, and the two bobbles become the cat's front paws. Work three single crochets, then one bobble, then four single crochets, then one bobble, then three single crochets - all in the front loop only.

To make a bobble: yarn over, pull up a loop in the next stitch, yarn over and pull through one loop, then repeat that sequence three more times into the same stitch. You will end with five loops on the hook. Yarn over one last time and pull through all five loops together. The bobble puffs out from the body. The two bobbles end up sitting at the chest where front paws would be, separated by the four sc that becomes the chin and tummy.

This is the most fiddly round in the pattern. Slow down and work it once at full speed in the video before you start.

Chain nine for the tail. Skip the first chain and work eight single crochets back along the chain (working into the third loop is optional - work into whichever loop your hook can find). That gives you a skinny tube hanging off the body. Join the tail back into the round with a single crochet, then work five more single crochets around the body. Now repeat the bobble-then-five-sc pattern twice for the back paws. The tail dangles, the back paws sit at the bottom, and the cat shape is essentially built.

Stuff the body firmly through the open bottom. Push the polyester fiberfill all the way up into the head with a stuffing tool or chopstick. The chenille hides any uneven lumps, so pack it generously - a slightly over-stuffed amigurumi holds its shape better than an under-stuffed one.

For the last decrease round, switch to yarn-under-the-needle so the stitches are extra tight and the stuffing cannot poke through. Fasten off by threading the yarn tail through the front loop of the final 12 stitches with your yarn needle, then pull the tail tight to cinch the bottom closed. Bury the tail inside the body so nothing shows.

This is the magic of the no-sew design. The ears get worked directly onto the head - no separate pieces, no sewing.

Push your hook between rounds 1 and 2 at the top of the head, pull up a loop of the same main yarn, and chain 1. Work one single crochet in the same spot, chain 1, work one double crochet into the stitch in the round just below, chain 1, then work one single crochet in the next stitch over. That five-stitch shell is one ear. Fasten off, thread the tail through the base of the ear with your needle, and pull it tight so the ear stands up on its own. Repeat on the other side of the head for the second ear, leaving roughly six stitches between them.

Thread your yarn needle with black sport-weight yarn. Bring the needle up where you want the first eye to sit (between rounds 5 and 6 of the head, roughly two stitches off the centerline) and stitch a lot of short straight lines over and over in the same spot until they build up into a round black eye. Knot off inside the head. Repeat on the other side for the second eye, four stitches over.

For the whiskers, stitch three small horizontal lines out from each side of the face just beside the eye. For the nose, switch to a fresh length of black yarn (or pink embroidery floss if you prefer) and stitch three tiny straight lines stacked in the center between the eyes. For stripes like Ana's, run two or three short tan lines across the top of the head and along the tail. Weave in every loose end on the inside of the head and the cat is done.