Free Crochet Pattern: Unicorn (made almost without sewing)

My little nice visited me lately and the moment she saw my tiny crochet unicorns her eyes went all bright. So of course I decided to design a crochet unicorn all for herself. It should become a little bigger than the ones I made before. And I wanted to do it in as few parts as possible, as she is only 1.5 years old and could pull some of them of and swallow them. Ok, apart from that, I am not too happy with sewing all tiny bits and pieces together, so there also was something in for me. As the pattern is ready by now, I want to share it with you. I hope the world will become more and more filled with unicorns by it.

As always, this pattern is a prototype and could contain some errors. If you realize something is wrong, don’t hesitate to contact me and I will try to fix it asap.

You may sell any product made with the help of this pattern, but please don’t copy and share it. You may of course link it to your blog or social media. When selling or linking it, please name this blog as source. Apart from that, I will be more than happy to see your results on my facebook-page.

But let’s go!

Material:

About 25g yarn in one colour (I used a lightweight cotton yarn in orange)

Little bits of yarn in a second colour (I used pink)

Very little bits of yarn in all colours of the rainbow.

Soft filling

8mm safety eyes (Attention: When crocheting for very little children it might be more secure to stitch the eyes rather than using safety eyes – anyhow, it is always safest to watch your child carefully when it plays with selfmade toys)

Hook size 2.5

Gauge: 3sc x 3rows = 1 x 1cm (However, gauge is not that important. If you want your unicorn to be a bit bigger, just take bigger yarn and hook, if you want it to be smaller, take lighter material)

Abbreviations used:

ch = chain

sc = single crochet

inc = increase

dec = decrease

Head:

1. Round: ch 9

2. Round: 1 sc in the 2nd ch from hook, sc 6, 3 sc in the last ch, sc 6 on the other side of the chain, inc (18 sc)

3. Round: inc, 6 sc, inc 3, 6 sc, inc 2 (24 sc)

4. – 7. Round: 24 sc

8. Round: inc 10, 14 sc (34 sc)

9. Round: 5 sc, inc 8, 21 sc (42 sc)

10. – 16. Round: 42 sc

If you want to use safety eyes, now is the time to insert them between rounds 9 and 10. Then fill the front part of the head with soft filling.

17. Round: [sc 5, dec] 6 (36 sc)

5. & 6. [sc 4, dec] 6 (30 sc)

Fill in a bit more soft stuffing

19. Round: [sc 3, dec] 6 (24 sc)

20. Round: [sc 2, dec] 6 (18 sc)

Stuff more if needed

21. Round: [sc, dec] 6 (12 sc)

22. Round: dec 6 (6 sc)

Cut yarn and sew up the ends

Body

1. Round: 16 sc – crochet them in a square directly to the downside of the head. Do 4 sc in line, then change direction by 90°, do 4 sc again and so forth. Then sew up the beginning of the yarn. The first row should lie between rows 9 and 10 on the downside of the head.

2. & 3. Round: 16 sc

4. Round: [sc 3, inc] 4x (20 sc)

5. Round: sc around except: inc 4 at the back and [inc, sc, inc] at the front (depending on where you started with the neck, this may vary) come out with 26 sc

6. Round: sc around except: [inc, sc, inc, sc, inc] at the back (29 sc)

7. Round: sc around except: [inc, sc, inc, sc, inc] at the back (32 sc)

8. Round: sc around except: [inc, sc 2, inc, sc 2, inc] at the back (35 sc)

Start stuffing

9. Round: sc around except: [inc, sc 3, inc, sc 3, inc] at the back (38 sc)

10. Round: sc around except: [inc, sc 4, inc, sc 4, inc] at the back and dec in the middle of the front part (40 sc)

11. Round: sc around except: [inc, sc 5, inc, sc 5, inc] at the back and dec in the middle of the front part (42 sc)

12. Round: sc around except: [inc, sc 6, inc, sc 6, inc] at the back and dec in the middle of the front part (44 sc)

13. Round: sc around except: dec 4 in the middle of the front part (40 FM)

14. Round: sc around except: dec 4 in the middle of the front part (36 sc)

15. Round: sc around except: dec 4 in the middle of the front part (32 sc)

16. Round: sc around except: dec 4 in the middle of the front part (28 sc)

17. Round: sc around except: dec 4 in the middle of the front part (24 sc)

Stuff

18. Round: [sc 4, dec] 4x (20 sc)

19. Round: [sc 3, dec] 4x (16 sc)

Stuff (as the head of the unicorn is relatively big, you should stuff the body tightly, if you want your unicorn to be able to stand)

20. Round: [sc 2, dec] 4x (12 sc)

21. Round: dec 6 (6 sc)

Cut yarn and sew up the ends

Legs (4 x)

1. Round: 12 sc in the first colour (for me it’s orange) – crochet them directly to the body as you did with the neck. Then sew up the beginning of the yarn. I actually start with the right front leg (from my perspective). I crochet a chain stitch around round 15 of the body and follow the middle line (wich is formed by the decreases of the body) to the front (3 sc), I then follow the line formed by the rounds of the body for a few stitches and do a slight bow to come back to round 15 (6 sc), I do the last 3 sc to meet the first one (not the ch) as you can see in the picture below:

2. – 4. Round: 12 sc (As you may see in the biggest picture, it is crucial for round 2 to do the first sc into the first sc (not the ch) of the 1st round. In any case you should have 12 sc in the end)

5. Round: 12 sc in the second colour (I took pink)

6. Round: sc around except inc 2 in the front middle (14 sc)

7. Round: sc around except inc 2 in the front middle (16 sc)

8. Round: 16 sc

Stuff

9. Round: [sc 2, dec] 4x (12 sc)

Stuff

10. Round: [sc, dec] 4x (8 sc)

11. Round: dec 4 (4 sc)

Cut yarn and sew up the end. Try to pull the yarn inside until you have a nearly flat bottom of the foot.

For the second leg, I start with the chain directly at the first leg and then crochet 3 sc to the left. I then follow the round line of the body to the front until the 9th sc meets the front line of the first leg. Then, there are three sc left to meet the first one and close the circle. Again, it is important to find the 1st sc for the second round.

The back legs are made in the same way: I start with the right one directly beneath the knot which closes the body. I crochet the first three sc over the knot to make it invisible. The last three sc of the second back leg are also crocheted over the knot.

Horn:

1. Round: 8 sc – crochet them directly to the front of the head (as you know by now, you will have a square with 2 sc at each side)

2. Round: 8 sc

3. Round: sc 6, dec (7 sc)

4. Round: sc 2, dec, sc 3 (6 sc)

5. Round: dec, sc 4 (5 sc)

6. Round: sc 2, dec, sc (4 sc)

7. Round: dec 2 (2 sc)

Cut the yarn and sew up the ends

Ears (2x)

1. Round: 4 sc into a magic ring

2. Round: [sc, inc] 2x (6 sc)

3. Round: 6 sc

4. Round: [sc 2, inc] 2x (8 sc)

5. Round: 8 sc

6. Round: [sc 3, inc] 2x (10 sc)

7. Round: 10 sc

Cut the yarn and leave a long end to sew it – yeah, here comes the little bit of sewing – to the head. Sew the ears to the head a little behind left and right of the horn.

Start to crochet at least 7 chains of ch 25 between the ears and go down a little with each chain. Take all the colours you want for it to make it very colourful.

Take the same colours to crochet chains of ch 20 in 3 rows to the back of the body forming the tail. If you take the seven colours of the rainbow as I did, you will get one row of 2 chains, one of 3 chains and again one of 2 chains underneath each other.

If you did not want to use safety eyes, now it’s time to give your unicorn a face by stitching eyes to it. I would use cross stitch and repeat them several times on each side to make them less „crossy“ and more haptic.

Enjoy crocheting!