Happy Chinese New Year! I know, I know, I’m cutting it a little close this year. As many of you already know, 2020 is the Year of the Rat/Mouse!
And if I’m being completely honest, I’m not a huge fan of rats.
When I was younger, we would often visit my grand aunt in the Philippines and her house/store was infested with mice, rats and cockroaches. It was all “fine” until one night, I needed to use the internet and I had to go to the store part of the house. I sat in silence while I MSN-ed my friends (am I totally dating myself right now?) back in Taiwan.
As I was happily typing away on my laptop, a rat the size of a large shoe scuttled towards me. Right as it was about to go under my chair, I screamed. My scream sent the rat into a panic and it jumped, grazing my right arm. And thus, I was scarred for life.
But you know what doesn’t scare me? Amigurumi mice!
For this toy, I used Knitpicks Shine Sport Yarn. I chose to work with Shine Sport for this project because it’s one of my favourite yarns to crochet with. I like that the yarn rarely splits, crochets up very smoothly and has a slight glossiness. However, you can use any cotton yarn as long as you correspond your hook to the weight of your yarn. For this pattern, I used roughly 25-30g of Platinum (about half a skein of yarn), 5 g of Blush, and a little bit of Coffee.
Free Chinese New Year Mouse Amigurumi Crochet Pattern
The finished Mouse amigurumi toy measures to be about 5 inches tall (12.5cm). The difficulty level of this pattern is Easy and this pattern is written in US crochet terminology. You can find the Chinese New Year Lantern pattern here!
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TERMINOLOGY
st(s): stitch(es)
ch: chain
sl st: slip stitch
sc: single crochet
inc: two single crochet in one stitch
dec: invisible decrease, single crochet two stitches together through the front loops only
(…) x #: repeat anything in the parenthesis however many times the number indicates
[#]: total number of stitches for that row
#sc: one sc in the following # stitches
THINGS YOU NEED
- Knitpicks Shine Sport Yarn in Platinum, Blush and Coffee
- 3.0mm Crochet Hook
- 6mm Safety Eyes with Matching Backings
- Scissors
- Darning Needle
- Locking Stitch Marker
- Pins
- Polyfil Stuffing or Scrap Yarn
- Grey Embroidery Thread (You can also use Black Thread)
- 24-Gauge Floral Wire
- Wire Cutter & Needle Nose Pliers
- Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue (or any fast drying, tacky glue that dries clear)
Head
with Platinum yarn
1 6sc in magic circle [6]
2 (inc) x 6 [12]
3 sc in all sts [12]
4 (inc) x 3, 9sc [15]
5 sc in all sts [15]
6 2sc, (inc) x 3, 10sc [18]
7 13sc, (inc, sc) x 2, inc [21]
8 6sc, inc, 7sc, inc, 4sc, inc, sc [24]
9 sc in all sts [24]
10 (3sc, inc) x 6 [30]
11 sc in all sts [30]
Insert eyes between rows 8 & 9. First eye should be in the 17th st of Row 8, second eye should be in the 22nd st. There should be 4 sts between the eyes.
12 2sc, inc, (4sc, inc) x 5, 2sc [36]
13 sc in all sts [36]
14 2sc, dec, (4sc, dec) x 5, 2sc [30]
15-16 sc in all sts [30]
17 (3sc, dec) x 6 [24]
18 sc, dec, (2sc, dec) x 5, sc [18]
19 (sc, dec) x 6 [12]
Fasten off, stuff fully with a chopstick, close hole and weave tail in.
Ears
Inner Ears
Make 2
with Blush yarn
1 6sc in magic circle [6]
2 (inc) x 6 [12]
Fasten off, weave tails in.
Outer Ear
Make 2
with Platinum yarn
1 6sc in magic circle [6]
2 (inc) x 6 [12]
Place the wrong side of the inner ear to the wrong side of the outer ear (wrong sides inside) and crochet the next step through both pieces.
3 (sc, inc) x 6 [18]
Fasten off, leave a tail for sewing.
Legs
Make 2
with Platinum/Cream yarn
1 6sc in magic circle [6]
2-4 sc in all sts [6]
5 (sc, inc) x 3 [9]
6 sc in all sts [9]
Fasten one off. Do not fasten the second one off.
Body
with Platinum/Cream yarn
Continuing with the 2nd leg:
1 Ch 4, sl st to any st on the first leg, sc into the same st you sl st into, 8sc, 4sc in the back of the chains, 9sc, 4sc into the front of the chains [26]
2 (9sc, inc, 2sc, inc) x 2 [30]
3 sc in all sts [30]
4 6sc, inc, 4sc, inc, 2sc, inc, 4sc, inc, 10sc [34]
5 sc in all sts [34]
6 14sc, (inc) x 2, 18sc [36]
7-8 sc in all sts [36]
9 2sc, dec, (4sc, dec) x 5, 2sc [30]
10-11 sc in all sts [30]
12 4sc, dec, (8sc, dec) x 2, 4sc [27]
13 (7sc, dec) x 3 [24]
14 sc in all sts [24]
15 3sc, dec, (6sc, dec) x 2, 3sc [21]
Fasten off, stuff fully with a chopstick, leave a long tail for sewing.
Arms
Make 2
with Platinum/Cream yarn
1 6sc in magic circle [6]
2-10 sc in all sts [6]
Fasten off, leave a tail for sewing. Do not stuff.
Assembly
- Embroider a nose onto the tip of the snout with Coffee yarn. You can stop here and it will look great. But if you want to add extra oomph to your mouse, embroider the mouth details in with Grey or Black embroidery thread.
- Pinch the Ears where the yarn tail is and thread the tail through a couple times to secure the fold.
- Pin the Ears onto the head and sew in place. You can play around with the positioning of the Ears. I left a 6 st space between the Ears.
- Pin the Head onto the Body and sew in place.
- Pin the Arms onto the side of the Body, with the top of the arms starting at Row 13 of the Body, leaving a small gap between the Arms and the Head. There should be an 8 st gap in the front area between the two Arms.
- Tail: Cut a 6-inch (15cm) piece of 24-gauge floral wire. Dab some glue onto one end of the wire and wrap about a centimeter of the wire with Blush yarn.
- Using a pair of pliers or your fingers, pinch the wrapped area of the wire in the middle and clamp down so that there isn’t a loop.
- Continue gluing and wrapping the yarn over the wire, making sure to cover the exposed wire end. Wrap the wire until you have 4 inches (10cm) covered.
- Wrap the exposed wire around a chopstick to create a coil.
- Locate the centre of the butt of the mouse. Gently screw the coil end into the butt, making sure to not press too hard as doing so will warp the shape of the coil. Keep screwing until the exposed end is not showing. The wire tail allows the mouse to stand up on its own. If you are creating this toy for a child, omit the wire tail and just attach a Blush piece of yarn onto the butt.
You have just finished your Mouse! Happy Chinese New Year!
If you want to turn your mouse into Bernard or Miss Bianca from The Rescuers, head to this post!
Please leave me a comment down below (or contact me) if you have any questions about this pattern. I would also love to see your creation so don’t forget to tag me (@olliehollycrochet) on Instagram or use the #olliehollycrochet! Please let me know in the comments what you would like to see next!
If you find any mistakes in the pattern, please contact me and let me know! I do my best to catch my mistakes when I edit my patterns but I sometimes miss the little things.
You may sell products made from this pattern in small quantities but please clearly credit the design to me, Abby Sy of Ollie + Holly and provide a link to my blog www.OllieHolly.com. Permission is NOT granted for mass production or factory manufacturing of any kind. Thank you for being respectful and for your understanding!
Just checking on #6 of the body , mt stitch count did not match up. is # 6 correct? thanks sara
Hi there Sara, the stitch count for round 6 of the body is correct. I find that placing a stitch marker in the first stitch of the round helps to make sure you have the correct stitch count for each round.
Abby
Where is the Head Pattern?
Hi Vanessa,
The Head pattern is right after the materials and right before the ears. If you still don’t see it, you may need to try a different browser or try clearing the cache on your current browser.
Abby