Hedgehog crochet pattern: fourteen rounds, one piece
A free hedgehog crochet pattern for a one-piece animal about 6.5 cm nose to tail and 4.5 cm across, worked in four colours on a 3.5 mm hook in about forty-five minutes. The spines are not crocheted separately: rounds 8 and 10 go into the back loops only, leaving two ridges of front loops standing across the chestnut back while the count holds at twenty-four through both. Fourteen rounds cover the whole animal, each with the count it ends on, and the nose, ears and paws are embroidered once the crochet is finished.
Maths verified, not yet made. Every one of the 14 rounds was checked against the round before it by machine — the counts, the increases and the decreases all add up. What nobody can promise you yet is how it sits in the hand.How we check
6 of 8 checks ran on 2026-09-04
- 1 format and stitch chainscripts/validate.py — 113 patterns, all counts chain.
- 2 catalogue auditscripts/audit-patterns.py — 113 audited, 0 errors, 66 warnings.
- 3 geometrygeometry-check.py — 113 checked, 0 errors, 4 warnings.
- 5 not a duplicate113 distinct display names across 113 patterns
- 6c target on the recordseo.headKeyword, confidence and demand present and cross-checked by scripts/validate.py
- 8 page readinessscripts/check-completeness.py --gate — 0 required fields missing, 114 editorial flags, 0 unearned claims.
Not yet checked
- 4 render matches the pattern — no image has been compared against its own prompt, so a render showing a piece the rounds do not make would not be caught here. Nothing has counted how many do.
- 6a recognisability — provenance.recognisability is empty in every pattern, so there is no feature list to check the parts against.
Why it is rated Beginner
Fourteen rounds, one piece, and no shaping beyond an increase and a decrease. The back-loop rounds keep the same twenty-four stitches, so the count cannot drift on them.
Sell what you make. Anything you crochet from this pattern is yours to sell — any quantity, no fee, no credit required.
00
00What you need before you start
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What you need before you start
Yarn — four colours, all weight 4
scrapsWorsted acrylic, weight 4
1 skein, well under half of itWorsted acrylic, weight 4
a short lengthScrap yarn or six-strand embroidery floss
a short lengthScrap yarn or six-strand embroidery floss
Tools
4 you probably own, 2 to buyYou likely have
Tapestry needle
Scissors
Stitch markers
Pins
You need to buy
6 mm black safety eyes ×2
Polyester stuffing (~10 g)
Optional
Charcoal embroidery floss instead of safety eyes, which is the safer choice for a child under three
A stitch marker in a contrast colour for the round start
Blush and a soft brush for the cheeks
Gauge and finished size
the last check before you cast onTension
Not critical. Work tight enough that the stuffing does not show between stitches — a looser hand gives you a larger hedgehog and nothing worse.
Finished size
~6.5 cm nose to tail, about 4.5 cm across the middle
The same fourteen rounds worked in worsted on a 4.0 mm hook give a larger hedgehog with the two ridges further apart. If you would rather skip the texture, work rounds 8 and 10 as ordinary single crochet and the size does not change.
How to make the hedgehog
Switching rewrites every round:US6 sc in mrUK6 dc in mrWork a US sc as a UK single crochet and the fabric comes out looser and taller.
1
01The body
Fourteen rounds from nose to tail. The snout holds its width twice…14 RNDS
starts in cream· magic ring· Piece 1 of 1
First six rounds[6] [6] [12] [12] [18] [24]
The snout
RND 1–41[6]
2[6]
3[12]
4[12]
Opening out to the head — eyes go here
RND 5–65[18]
6[24]
Chestnut back, ridges on 8 and 10
RND 7–117[24]
8[24]
9[24]
10[24]
11[24]
Closing in — stuff as you go
RND 12–1412[18]
13[12]
14[6]
US termsmrmagic ringscsingle crochetincincreasedecdecreaseBLOback loop onlyst(s)stitch, or stitches
When this piece is doneThat is the entire animal in one piece. What is left is surface work: a dark nose, two pink ears, and a pair of paws at the front.
You are here
Twelve notes on the hedgehog
Read themClose
01An original Crochet Genie design.
02Worked in a continuous spiral, nose first. Nothing is joined and nothing is turned, so mark the first stitch of every round and carry the marker up with you.
03Rounds 1 to 4 are the snout. They stay narrow on purpose — the pause at 6 stitches and again at 12 is what gives the hedgehog its long pointed nose instead of a round face.
04Change to chestnut brown at the start of round 7, at the round boundary. Cut the cream, leave a tail to weave in, and carry on.
05Rounds 8 and 10 are worked in back loops only. That leaves a raised ridge of front loops across the back, which is what reads as spines. The stitch count does not change: round 8 is still 24 stitches in and 24 out, and so is round 10.
06The back loops only rounds are the only texture in the pattern. If you would rather keep it smooth, work them as ordinary single crochet and the hedgehog comes out the same size.
07Set the safety eyes between rounds 5 and 6, about 6 stitches apart and low on the cream, while the body is still open. Once the decreases start you cannot reach the backs of them.
08The nose is embroidery: four or five short charcoal stitches worked over the closed tip of round 1 until it reads as a small dark point.
09The ears are embroidered, not crocheted. Work a tight fan of five or six dusty pink stitches on each side of round 7, roughly level with the eyes and a stitch or two behind them, so each one sits as a small filled half-circle against the brown.
10The front paws are two short dusty pink stitches under the cream at round 6, side by side and close together, so the hedgehog looks like it is leaning forward.
11Stuff firmly during round 13 and add a little more before you close round 14. An understuffed body loses the teardrop the shaping was built for.
12Everything that is not a stitch count is worked on the surface at the end, so the hedgehog is one piece with nothing to sew together.
Four questions this pattern answers
Not questions anybody asked. Each one is written from this pattern's own record, and every answer is read off the fields it names.
Can the hedgehog be made with a different hook or yarn?
How much yarn will the hedgehog take?
What hook will the hedgehog need, and what is the finished size?
How long will the hedgehog take to crochet?
A round that will not add up?
Tell us the piece and the round number — the stepper already knows where you are.There is nowhere to send one yet.
Put the laptop down mid-round
The iPhone app keeps your place — piece of 1, round of — and hands it back where you left it.
