Freeall eight patterns, to read in full

Pocket Garden Friends: eight tiny crochet garden animals, all free

A frog, a bee, a ladybug, a caterpillar, a snail, a butterfly, a field mouse and a hedgehog, each small enough to sit in a palm and each free to read here in full.

Start with Pocket Bee →See all eight ↓

8 patterns
4.5–6.7 cm (1¾–2¾ in)
3–7 pieces
DK cotton, 3.25 mm

4 of 8 are out · next: Pocket Frog, 26 October

Eight amigurumi friends

Illustration: a crocheted butterfly with a cream head and body, two thin brown antennae and round lilac wings tipped in dusty rose, resting on a weathered wooden plank in front of a sunlit stone wall and green leaves, seen from the front, the forewings standing up behind its head and the hindwings low at its sides.

Out now

Pocket Butterfly

Naps with folded wings and wakes when the sun reaches the wall.

6 cm (2¼ in) · 7 pieces

Illustration: a butter-yellow crocheted bee with two brown stripes lying on its belly on a weathered wooden plank in front of a sunlit stone wall and green leaves, seen low from the front-left, with two glossy black eyes on its round face and two cream wings standing on its back.

Out now

Pocket Bee

Counts the flowers every morning and always loses count at nine.

5.5 cm (2¼ in) · 3 pieces

Illustration: a crocheted caterpillar with a sage-teal head, two yellow antennae and two glossy black eyes, its three round segments in moss green, sage teal and moss green trailing behind it on a weathered wooden plank in front of a sunlit stone wall and green leaves, seen low from the front left.

Out now

Pocket Caterpillar

Is in no hurry to become anything else.

6.7 cm (2¾ in) · 3 pieces

Illustration: a crocheted ladybird with a brick-red shell, a brown line down its back and brown spots, and a cocoa-brown head with two short antennae and glossy black eyes, on a weathered wooden plank in front of a sunlit stone wall and green leaves, seen from its front left.

Out now

Pocket Ladybug

Is certain the leaf it sits on is the best in the garden.

6 cm (2¼ in) · 4 pieces

Illustration: a muted green crocheted frog sitting on a weathered wooden plank in front of a sunlit stone wall and green leaves, seen from low at its front left, with glossy black eyes on two cups on top of its head, a straight black mouth stitch, two short arms reaching the plank and a rounded hind leg at its side.

Out 26 October

Pocket Frog

Sits on the warmest stone and hums to the rain.

4.5 cm (1¾ in) · 7 pieces

Illustration: a crocheted snail with a taupe body, two thin stalks, glossy black eyes and a small smile, its dusty-rose shell with a cream spiral, on a weathered wooden plank in front of a sunlit stone wall and green leaves, seen from the front right.

Coming

Pocket Snail

Carries a house along, and so is never far from home.

5.5 cm (2¼ in) · 5 pieces

Illustration: a taupe crocheted field mouse lying along a weathered wooden plank in front of a sunlit stone wall and green leaves, seen from its front right, with two big round dusty-pink ears, glossy black eyes, a cream muzzle with a black nose and a pink tail behind.

Coming

Pocket Field Mouse

Keeps one seed for winter and one for a friend.

6 cm (2¼ in) · 4 pieces

Illustration: a crocheted hedgehog with a hazel-brown coat of standing loops, a cream face, two small taupe ears, glossy black eyes and a black nose, lying on a weathered wooden plank in front of a sunlit stone wall and green leaves, seen from its front left.

Coming

Pocket Hedgehog

Takes the long way round to smell everything twice.

6 cm (2¼ in) · 3 pieces

A small crocheted toadstool with a brick-red domed cap, cream dots and a cream stem with a braided ring round it, standing beside a flat moss-green leaf and a flat five-petal dusty-rose flower with a yellow middle, on a pale neutral surface.

Bonus pattern

Pocket Garden Extras

A bonus pattern to set beside the eight friends.

Free · 3 pieces

Free colouring pages

All the Pocket Garden Friends together to colour by number, with answers. Print at home, no sign-up.

Download PDF

A4 · 4 pages

Colour it on screen

All colouring pages

Where to start with these amigurumi

If you are choosing a first one, start at the top.

1Start here
Pocket Bee
Pieces
3
Seams
2
Size
5.5 cm (2¼ in)
Three pieces and two seams, the fewest here, and its stripes are a colour change rather than sewn-on bands.
Teaches Changing colour at the end of a round, so the stripes are not sewn on.
2Next
Pocket Caterpillar
Pieces
3
Seams
2
Size
6.7 cm (2¾ in)
Also three pieces, and it teaches the shaping every other body here uses, one bulge at a time.
Teaches Repeated segments, with each colour change hidden in a waist.
3Then
Pocket Frog
Pieces
7
Seams
6
Size
4.5 cm (1¾ in)
Seven pieces and six seams, the most sewing here. Keep it for last, or first because you want a frog.
Teaches Shaping a seated pose, and a stuffed leg sewn on.

One palette, eight friends

Screen colours are not yarn shades: choose by comparing balls.

Which shades each friend takes
	Warm cream	Mushroom taupe	Dusty rose	Cocoa brown	Butter yellow	Black	Leaf green	Hazel brown	Brick red	Sage teal	Muted lavender	Moss green
Butterfly	Warm cream		Dusty rose	Cocoa brown							Muted lavender
Bee	Warm cream			Cocoa brown	Butter yellow
Caterpillar					Butter yellow					Sage teal		Moss green
Ladybug				Cocoa brown					Brick red
Frog						Black	Leaf green
Snail	Warm cream	Mushroom taupe	Dusty rose			Black
Field Mouse	Warm cream	Mushroom taupe	Dusty rose
Hedgehog	Warm cream	Mushroom taupe						Hazel brown

Warm cream 20 m · 5 of 8
Mushroom taupe 24.5 m · 3 of 8
Dusty rose 17 m · 3 of 8
Cocoa brown 16.5 m · 3 of 8
Butter yellow 11 m · 2 of 8
Black 1 m · 2 of 8
Leaf green 23 m · 1 of 8
Hazel brown 13 m · 1 of 8
Brick red 9.5 m · 1 of 8
Sage teal 8.5 m · 1 of 8
Muted lavender 7.5 m · 1 of 8
Moss green 6 m · 1 of 8

All eight together: 157.5 m (172 yd) and 75 g of cotton in 12 shades

Illustration: a crocheted bee, a lilac butterfly, a red ladybug and a striped caterpillar on a garden step beside a zinc watering can, a terracotta pot and violas, in golden afternoon light.

Anastasia Marchenko, who designs these patterns.

From Anastasia

Why these eight

I wanted a garden's worth of small things that could come out of a project bag, and that would still look like one family when they were done.

A friend this size is an evening rather than a project, made from what is already in your bag — the end of a ball you kept because the colour was too good to lose.

Fill a small crocheted animal's outline in black and most become the same ball. That was the problem I set myself: to give each friend the one thing that survives losing its colour — a coat you can feel before you see it, a shape you could name from across a room. Some of those cost an extra piece to sew, and I paid it every time.

They are free to read here, all of them, and they will stay free. I am releasing them one a week, in the order I would make them myself.

Anastasia Marchenko

Behind the design

Illustration: a crocheted bee and a green-striped caterpillar in a garden bed beside a small pumpkin, cabbage leaves, thyme and lavender in golden backlight.

On the whole set

A larger hook than a toy this small usually gets

Three published pocket frogs of one finished size settled this before I counted a round: the fine-yarn ones cost nearly twice as many stitches as the DK ones. I took the larger hook and the coarser shaping that comes with it, because I would rather you finished all eight than admired one.

Illustration: a crocheted green frog, a hedgehog and a red ladybug on wet earth among clover and stones beside a small puddle, just after rain.

On Pocket Frog

Two of the frog's six seams are its eyes

A frog is only a frog because its eyes stand above its head: take its colour away and nothing else is left. So I kept the eye cups, though they take this one to seven pieces and six seams, the most sewing in the set. The arms and legs are the simplest shapes that still read as arms and legs.

Illustration: a crocheted snail, a field mouse and a lilac-and-pink butterfly on a weathered bench beside a basket of blackberries and raspberries in morning sun.

On Pocket Snail

The snail's shell is two halves, not a coil

I tried the shell as a rolled coil first. It came out over the stitch budget the collection is built to, and it left the cream spiral nowhere to go: a line sunk in a groove reads as a shadow. So the shell is two small halves, each given its spiral while it is still open, then sewn together; and the body, one piece from the crown to the tail, curls under it.

What is checked

8/8

stitch counts checked, round by round

8/8

made from the written pattern

photos of finished makes

How patterns are made

Made by hand

Photographs of real makes, crocheted from the written patterns.

The whole collection together
Pocket Butterfly
Pocket Bee
Pocket Caterpillar

What you need

Yarn: DK cotton, 12 shades157.5 m (172 yd) · 75 g for all eight
Hook: 3.25 mm
Safety eyes: Glossy black, one pair for each friend — 6 mm for the frog and the bee, 5 mm for the rest
Toy filling: Polyester, a few grams for each friend
Tapestry needle: Blunt, and at least 5 cm long for the ladybug and the hedgehog
Stitch markers and pins: One to three removable markers, and pins to hold a piece while you sew it on
Contrasting scrap yarn: Short lengths in a colour that stands out, to mark where the pieces go
Black cotton: A little, for the mouse's and the hedgehog's noses and for any eyes you embroider
Scissors: For cutting the yarn and trimming the ends

Every friend here is worked in a smooth DK cotton, one strand, on a 3.25 mm hook. If your stitches are loose or the filling shows through, use a 3 mm hook; a finer yarn makes a smaller friend, and a worsted or aran yarn on a 3.5 mm hook a slightly larger one. Every pattern shows how to embroider the eyes instead, if you would rather have no plastic in the toy.

Still to come

26 OctoberPocket Frog
ThenPocket Snail
ThenPocket Field Mouse
ThenPocket Hedgehog

Eight amigurumi friends