Chibi Totoro Free Crochet Pattern

I am making as many of the studio Ghibli characters as I can. My kids and the cousins are mad on all things Spirited Away, Totoro and so on.  I'm starting off with the Totoro characters as they are pretty simple shapes.  Although I (rather ambitiously) want to be able to fit all the Totoros inside the cat bus... we'll see how that works out.  So here is my pattern for Chibi Totoro

Equipment:

4mm hook
white aran weight yarn (only a small amount, 50g would be ample)
large darning/wool needle
scissors
black thread
pink thread (optional)

This arrangement is my preferred set up for amigurumi. Now, everybody has slightly different tension etc so hook size and yarn weight can and should be altered to what you get the best result with.

This pattern is written assuming you have a basic knowledge of crochet techniques because 1) I'm not a good enough crocheter to explain things that well and 2) this is the first pattern Ive ever written out properly so will probably not be that great. Please feel free to try it out and give me feedback on how terrible it is.  It's the only way I'll learn!

I haven't told you how to end the rounds because it is up to you.   You can either slip stitch into the 1st stitch of the round and chain one or (as I do because then you don't get a seam) use a stitch marker and work in a continuous spiral.

Method body/head

Making a starting ring in your preferred fashion, you can magic loop if you like.  I chained 3, slip stitched into 1st chain to form a circle.  DC 7 into ring.

Round 1, DC 2 into every stitch around (14)
Round 2, (1DC, 2DC in next stitch) repeat to end (21)
Round3, (1DC, 1DC, 2DC in next stitch) repeat around (28)
Round 4, (1DC, 1DC, 1DC, 2DC in next stitch) repeat around (35)
Round 5,6, 7, 8, 9,  1DC in each stitch around (35)
Round 10, (DC5, DC2 together) repeat around until last 6 stitches DC4, DC2 together(29)
Round 11,12, 13,  1DC in each stitch around (29)
Round 14, (DC4, DC2 together) repeat around (25)
Round 15, 16, 1DC in each stitch around (25)
Round 17, (DC4, DC2 together) repeat around (22)
Round 18, 1DC in each stitch around (22)
Round 19, (1DC, 1DC, 1DC, DC2 together) repeat around (17)
Round 20, 1DC in each stitch around (17)

At this point stuff Chibi Totoro quite stiffly.

Round 21, (DC2, DC2 together) repeat around
Round 22, DC2 together all the way around and sew closed.

Ears,  make 2

Ch5, slip stitch in ch1 to form a ring.

Round 1, 2DC in ch1 and ch2, 1dc in each other ch around (9)

Round 2, 3, 4, 1DC in each stitch around (9)

Round 5, DC3, DC2 together DC4 (8)

Round 6, 1DC in each stitch around (8)

Round 7, DC3, DC2 together, DC3 (7)

Round 8, 1DC in each stitch around (7)

Round 9, (DC1, DC2 together) repeat around and sew to close

Tail

Chain 10, slip stitch into ch1 to form a ring.

Round 1 and 2, 1DC in each stitch around (10)
Round 3, (DC3, DC2 together) twice (8)
Round 4 and 5, 1DC in each stitch around
Round 6,( DC1, DC2 together) repeat around and sew to close.

Making up

Assemble your Chibi Totoro using the darning needle to sew the ears in an upright manner on the head. lightly stuff the tail before sewing on.  Use black thread to sew on eye details and pink thread for optional blush marks below eyes.


Patterns for Chuu Totoro, Oh Totoro and Cat Bus are coming soon!

xoxo

P.S. (Do what you will with my pattern, I couldn't really care less.  If you do reproduce it online it would be lovely if you would link back to this dismal little blog here, many thanks!)