How to Crochet a Sloth (Amigurumi Pattern for Beginners)

The head begins with a brown magic ring holding six single crochet. From there you work increase rounds, adding stitches evenly until the circle grows wide. This flat disc is the crown of the head and the base every other round builds on.

Drop a stitch marker into the first stitch of each round and move it up as you go. You are crocheting in a continuous spiral with no join, so that marker is the only thing telling you where a round starts and ends.

Work a few even rounds so the disc curves up into a ball, then start decreasing to draw the top back in. As the opening shrinks, that is your cue to fill it. Push polyester fiberfill inside and pack it firm before the gap gets too small to reach.

Firm stuffing matters more here than anywhere else. A well-packed ball keeps its round shape and stops the stitches from spreading and showing the white filling through the brown yarn.

The body is the head's twin. Start it with a brown magic ring, increase to a ball, then decrease and stuff it firm the same way you just did. Making the two pieces back to back keeps them a matching gauge, which reads as a tidier toy in the end.

When both brown balls are done, set them side by side. Even at this early stage you can see the sloth forming - one round part for the head, one for the chunky body underneath.

The face is a flat cream disc, not a ball. Switch to cream yarn, start with a magic ring, and increase for four or five rounds until you have a circle a little smaller than the head. Keep it flat as you work so it sits against the front of the face later.

Finish with a slip stitch, then cut the yarn and leave a long tail. That tail is what you will use to sew the patch on, so give yourself plenty of length to work with.

A sloth needs two long arms and two legs. Work each one in brown from a small magic ring, then keep going in a spiral to make a short tube. Leave the top open and finish with a long tail so you have something to sew with.

These stay unstuffed, or barely stuffed, so the limbs can bend into that hanging sloth pose. Make all four before you sew anything, and lay them next to each other to keep the lengths matched.

This is where the sloth comes alive. Sew the cream patch onto the front of the head so it sits centered. Then push a safety eye through the fabric on each side of the patch and clip the washer onto the inside. Check the placement from every angle first, because those washers do not come back off.

Finish the face with a scrap of dark yarn. Embroider a small triangle nose between the eyes and a short curved line under it for the smile. Two eyes and a stitched grin, and it is unmistakably a sloth.

Now put it together. Sew the head to the top of the body, lining up the face so it looks straight ahead. Then attach the two arms high on the sides and the two legs lower down, positioning them in a relaxed sloth pose before you stitch them fast.

Weave the loose tails back inside the body so nothing shows, and give the whole toy a gentle squish to settle the stuffing. Your crochet sloth is finished and ready to hang around.