Very Hungry Caterpillar Hand Puppet

Posted on by

Caterpillar Puppet {The Reluctant Hippie}

Baby Hippie just adored Eric Carle’s work, so The Very Hungry Caterpillar holds a special place in my heart. Here’s a pattern for a relatively simple crochet puppet: 

Materials needed:

  • Crochet hooks, sizes F and G
  • Worsted weight yarn: 3 shades of green, red, yellow and black
  • Yarn needle
  • Embroidery needle and thread for finishing
  • Stitch marker (I just used a short piece of yarn in a different color, mostly because I can never find my stitch markers)

Pattern:

Body:
(Note: The body is worked in spiral rounds. Use a stitch marker to keep track. I used this tutorial for changing colors so there was not a telltale zigzag with each stripe)

Choose one of the greens to start the body.

  • Round 1: 6 hdc in a magic ring. Pull tight.
  • Round 2: 2 hdc in each stitch (12)
  • Round 3: 2 hdc in each stitch (24)
  • Rounds 4-6: hdc in each stitch (24)
  • Change color to a different green yarn, pull up a loop, and continue.
  • Rounds 7-9: hdc in each stitch (24)
  • Change color to the third green yarn, pull up a loop, and continue.
  • Do 3 rounds per section, alternating colors until you reach your desired length. I did 2 sets of each color for the puppets pictured above (6 stripes total).
  • Finish and weave in ends.

Face:

  • Using red yarn and G hook, make the face with rounds joined by slip stitches.
  • Round 1: 10 hdc into magic ring, join with slip stitch. Chain 2.
  • Round 2: 2 hdc into each stitch around, join with slip stitch. Chain 2. (20)
  • Round 3: 2 hdc into next 5 stitches, 2 dc into next 5 stitches, 2 hdc into next 5 stitches, 2 dc into next 5 stitches. Join with slip stitch. (40)
  • Finish and weave in ends.

Eyes and nose:

  • Make 3 dark green circles using F hook: 5 sc into magic ring, join with a sl st.
  • Make 2 larger yellow circles using F hook: 7 hdc in magic ring (make 2).
  • Weave in ends of all circles

Antennae: (make 2)

  • Using black yarn and F hook: Chain 8, sc into third chain from the hook. Sc into next stitch. Sl stitch into the remaining chains. Finish off and weave in ends.

Assembly:

  • Using embroidery thread in coordinating colors, attach the dark green eye parts to the yellow eye circles.
  • Attach eyes and nose to the red face.
  • Stitch antennae to the back of the face, using photos above as a guide.
  • Finally, securely stitch the face to the top of the body (if you have any jagged edges or weird-looking joins on the body, put those toward the bottom – people will rarely see that portion).
Advertisements