My Chubby Narwhal pattern is my newest no-sew chenille free crochet pattern!
Read on to learn more about my design process and inspiration, or scroll to the end to get the free pattern. If you’re in a hurry and need to take this pattern offline, grab the beautifully formatted, ad-free, PDF pattern from Etsy here.
Table of Contents
The easiest (no-sew!!) crochet narwhal ever
I don’t mind sewing when making amigurumi as much as some people do, but sometimes it’s nice to have one less thing to worry about.
I created this chubby narwhal pattern as a sized-down version of my Jumbo Narwhal (made with jumbo velvet yarn) with a few edits to clean it up.
Instead of using jumbo velvet yarn like Sweet Snuggles, it uses a super bulky yarn like Hobbii Baby Snuggle (or any other substitute chenille yarn) to get its smaller but still adorably squishy size.
There’s a clever no-sew technique to create the fins and tail, and I’ll show you how to attach the horn onto the top of the body using just a crochet hook in my video tutorial.
Speaking of which — there’s a complete video tutorial for this project! I’ve been working on building my YouTube channel lately and it makes me so happy when people find me from over there. Making videos takes a lot of time but I know it really helps beginners out.
Tips for working with plush yarn!
If you’ve never worked with plush chenille yarn before, here are a few tips to get you going on your way. Generally, chenille yarn isn’t too big a step up from regular cotton or acrylic yarn, so it’s a good first “novelty” yarn for novices to try. For more tips on working with chenille yarn, read my blog post here!
Chenille yarn sheds very easily when frogged. Because velvet/chenille yarn generally is made up of a lot of tiny bristles stuck onto a central string, if you frog it, the friction can easily lead to a lot of shedding and stray yarn pieces. The best solution to this is to try to avoid frogging, and also working in a place that can be easily cleaned.
Working the magic ring can be really tricky when using plush yarn. The best way to avoid breaking the yarn is to make the magic ring extremely small at first — about the size of a dime — and before you’re done working the first round, continuously tug on the tail to decrease the size of the magic ring. This will ensure that the magic ring is as small as possible so that you don’t have to pull as hard later and risk breaking the yarn. If the yarn sheds significantly so that there’s no more fluff on the center string, I would recommend restarting completely since it’s likely that it will break later on.
If your chenille crochet fabric is too loose and you can see the stuffing poking through, size down your crochet hook so that it’s tighter. If it’s too tight and the crochet stitches are warping or too stiff, size up your crochet hook to get that perfect balance.
If you want to take this pattern offline, grab the beautifully formatted, ad-free, PDF pattern from Etsy here!
Description
This cute and cuddly narwhal pattern is a breeze to work up and is super cute! It’s a no-sew pattern, so it’s great for working in chenille yarn. You can make this pattern with jumbo velvet yarn for a giant narwhal or you can downsize it with super bulky yarn like I used here. This pattern is accessible to beginners because it just uses simple stitches!
Yarn
Confused about materials? For all my personal recommendations of my most-used tools, yarns, and supplies, check out my favorites in this complete guide!
Hobbii Baby Snuggle (super bulky)
(<1 skein) Blue
(<1 skein) White
Notions
Size F 3.75mm Clover Amour hook
6.0mm safety eyes
scissors
fiberfill stuffing
stitch markers
Abbreviations
BLO: back loop only
ch: chain
CC: contrast color
dec: decrease
hdc: half double crochet
inc: increase (work two single crochets in one stitch)
MC: main color
MR: magic ring
rnd: round
RS: right side
sc: single crochet
sk: skip
x sc: work x number of single crochets
sl st: slip stitch
st(s): stitch(es)
WS: wrong side
(x sts): total number of stitches for the round
(…) x: work all steps within parentheses x number of times
Technical Notes
Crochet in continuous spiral rounds, unless specified otherwise. Use a stitch marker or piece of yarn to keep track of the last stitch in each round.
When filling with polyester stuffing, pull apart each large chunk into many smaller chunks. This ensures an even distribution of firmness within the amigurumi.
To avoid large holes in the crochet fabric, increase tension until the holes cannot be seen, or choose a crochet hook a size down.
Try to avoid frogging velvet yarn since it sheds easily, and close the magic ring in the beginning as soon as possible, gently but firmly. Attempting to close it later on may result in breaking the yarn.
Use sewing pins to secure parts of the amigurumi before you sew them.
Color Coding
For this pattern, the MC is blue, and CC1 is white.
Final Size
4″ x 4″
BODY(in MC)
Round 1: 8 sc in MR (8 sts)
Round 2: inc x8 (16 sts)
Round 3: (sc, inc) x8 (24 sts)
Round 4: (2 sc, inc) x8 (32 sts)
Round 5: (3 sc, inc) x8 (40 sts)
Round 6-7(2 rnds): sc around (40 sts)
Round 8: (7 sc, inc) x5 (45 sts)
Round 9-12(4 rnds): sc around (45 sts)
Round 13: (3 sc, dec) x2.
Create first flipper (tutorial here): chain 4 off the side of the narwhal, and beginning from the second chain from the hook, sc, 2 hdc, then work 1 hdc in the most recently worked st on rnd 13 to anchor the st (fig. 1 and 2). The flipper does not take up a whole stitch, and merely occupies the space between the last decrease and the beginning of the first single crochet in the next step. Continue working in the round: (3 sc, dec) x3.
Create the tail: chain 4 off the side of the narwhal, and beginning from the second chain from the hook, 3 sc back. Work 1 more sc in the most recently worked st to anchor. Then, chain 4 off the side, and sc 3 back, work one more sc to anchor, then continue working on the round (See fig. 3 and 4).
Continue working in the round: (3 sc, dec) x3.
Create second flipper identically to the first one: chain 4 off the side of the narwhal, and beginning from the second chain from the hook, sc, 2 hdc, then work 1 hdc in the most recently worked st on rnd 13 to anchor the st (fig. 1 and 2).
Continue working in the round: 3 sc, dec. (36 sts total in round 13)
Insert 6.0mm safety eyes between rounds 12 and 13, 11 stitches apart.
Finish off, leaving a tail. Bury the tail either by using a crochet hook (see tutorial here) or by using a tapestry needle.
HORN(in CC1)
Round 1: 4 sc in MR (4 sts)
Round 2: (sc, inc) x2 (6 sts)
Round 3: (2 sc, inc) x2 (8 sts)
Round 4: sc around (8 sts)
Gently stuff. Finish off, leaving a tail. Using a crochet hook, attach the horn to the to the whale between rounds 3-5 (counting from the top), directly between the eyes (tutorial here).
Your Chubby Narwhal amigurumi is all done! I hope you enjoyed crocheting it and found the pattern helpful. I would love to see your finished amigurumi, so share a picture on Instagram with me by using the #littleworldofwhimsy and tagging me @littleworldofwhimsy.
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