Oona the Puffin Free Crochet Pattern

Hi friends!

My niece just turned 2 years old and I was having a hard time deciding what to get her for her birthday. My sister (her momma) mentioned that she is a big fan of the TV show Puffin Rock and that she would love some stuffies of the characters. Say no more! I was on it. I looked up some pictures from the show and, after some consideration and sketching, I decided that I could probably design and crochet them!

Puffin Rock features Oona, an Atlantic puffin, and Baba, Oona’s adorable little brother, as they explore the world and have adventures! Here’s the picture I used as inspiration for my design:

I’m happy to report that my niece did indeed love her Oona and Baba. When she opened the gift, her eyes went wide and she hugged them tight with a big smile on her face, which certainly made my heart happy!

Let’s get started! (Or Pin for later!)

This post contains the pattern for Oona, the grey puffin. The pattern for Baba, the baby white puffin, will be in another post.

As usual, this pattern is made in the same style as our Ragdoll patterns; separate pieces worked in flat rows and then joined together to give them that unique 2-D look. Oona has 7 separate pieces (not including the eyes).

This pattern incorporates tapestry crochet as well so I’ve included a section to explain the tapestry crochet technique if you’re unfamiliar with it.

Unfortunately, I totally forgot to measure Oona and Baba before I gifted them to my niece! But I would guesstimate the finished measurements of Oona are approximately 20cm/8″ from top to bottom.

I encourage you to read everything thoroughly before beginning, particularly if you don’t have a lot of experience with tapestry crochet.

Here’s what I used:

**If you’d prefer a downloadable or printable version of this pattern, an inexpensive, formatted, and ad-free PDF can be purchased HERE.**

• 3.5mm hook (I use THESE hooks!);
• Bernat Handicrafter in Blue Jeans (100g);
• Bernat Handicrafter in Off White (less than 50g);
• Red Hear Super Saver in Light Grey (small amounts);
• A very small amount of each of the following for the beak:
  • Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice in Mustard;
  • Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice in Terracotta;
  • Bernat Super Value in Hot Blue;
• Black crochet thread for mouth and around the eyes;
• Felt in white, blue and black for eyes (or alternatively, safety eyes);
• Sewing needle and sewing thread in white and black;
• Stuffing;
• Tapestry needle

Reading this Pattern and Colour Changes:

Everything is worked in single crochet stitches. So, in order to indicate the colour-changes, I have omitted the usual “sc” in front of the stitch counts in any lines with colour-changes and I’ve used the associated colour letter instead. For example, “Binc” means to work a sc increase in Blue yarn. “B1, W24” means to work the next 1 sc in Blue and the next 24 sc in Off White, and so on.

Due to the colour-changes, you will have at least two skeins or balls of yarn attached to your project at once.

The bonus part of the colour-changes in an amigurumi is that you don’t have to worry about what the back of your panels look like! This is why I carry my yarn on the back instead of carrying it inside the stitch as you go. It prevents any colours from bleeding through where they shouldn’t. As long as you always carry your yarn on the back of your panel, you won’t have to weave in any ends and you’ll have a beautiful smooth front with clear lines and colours.

When changing colours, you will insert your hook into the stitch for the last stitch of Colour A and pull up a loop. Then, with Colour B, yarn over and complete the stitch by pulling through both loops with Colour B. Drop your working yarn in Colour A and continue with Colour B. You will pick your Colour A working yarn back up again on the way back in the next row when you need it.

*Make sure to always drop your yarn on the WRONG side of your panel!* When you’re working on odd-numbered rows, your right side will be facing you. When you’re working on even-numbered rows, the wrong side will be facing you. (And vice versa when you’re working on the back panel!) So, when you are working on a row where the wrong side of the panel is facing you, you will have to make a conscious effort to pull your yarn toward you to the wrong side of the panel when dropping your yarn during a colour-change. This is because it will naturally drop to the side furthest away from you if you don’t.

Colour legend:

B – Blue

W – Off White

G – Grey

Stitches and Special Terms:

Ch – Chain

Slst – Slipstitch

Sc – Single crochet

Inc – Increase. Work 2 sc in the same st.

Dec – Decrease. Work a regular sc decrease.

Front Body (make 1 panel) with 3.5mm hook:

The panels are worked from the bottom up. Ch 1 and turn at the end of each row. The first row is a little tricky because I decided to incorporate a colour change right into the foundation chain. However, feel free to complete your chain in all blue if you’re finding it a bit too finicky.

Row 1: In Blue ch 4, switch to Off White and ch 7, starting in second ch from hook W6 along chains, B4 along rem chs (10 sts)

Row 2: Binc, B4, W3, Winc twice (13 sts)

Row 3: Winc, W4, B6, Bdec (13 sts)

Row 4: Bdec, B7, W3, Winc (13 sts)

Row 5: Winc, W4, B6, Bdec (13 sts)

Row 6: Bdec, B6, W4, Winc (13 sts)

Row 7: W6, B7 (13 sts)

Row 8: B8, W5 (13 sts)

Row 9: W5, B6, Bdec (12 sts)

Row 10: B7, W5 (12 sts)

Row 11: W4, B8 (12 sts)

Row 12: B9, W3 (12 sts)

Row 13: W2, B10 (12 sts)

Row 14: B12 (12 sts) *Do not fully complete the last st because you’ll be making a colour change at the start of the next row.*

Now we will start the head.

Row 15: Join your Off White yarn and ch 3, W2 along chs, W4, B8 (14 sts)

Row 16: In Blue, ch 5, Binc in first ch, B3 along rem chs, B2, W11, Winc (20 sts)

Row 17: Winc twice, W14, B3, Binc (23 sts)

Row 18: Binc, B2, W19, Winc (25 sts)

Row 19: Winc, W21, B3 (26 sts)

Row 20: Binc, B1, W24 (27 sts)

Row 21: Winc, W23, B3 (28 sts)

Now we will start incorporating light grey for the eye patches.

Row 22: B2, W14, G1, W11 (28 sts)

Row 23: W4, G1, W6, G3, W12, B2 (28 sts)

Row 24: B2, W7, G8, W6, G3, W2 (28 sts)

Row 25: G5, W7, G12, W2, B2 (28 sts)

Row 26: B2, W3, G11, W7, G5 (28 sts)

Row 27: G5, W7, G10, W3, B3 (28 sts)

Row 28: Bdec, B2, W4, G8, W8, G2, Wdec (26 sts)

Row 29: W1, G2, W9, G6, W4, B2, Bdec (25 sts)

Row 30: B4, W6, G3, W4, B2, W4, Gdec (24 sts)

Row 31: W4, B5, W10, B3, Bdec (23 sts)

Row 32: B7, W5, B8, W1, Wdec (22 sts)

Row 33: Bdec twice, B16, Bdec (19 sts)

Row 34: B15, Bdec twice (17 sts)

Row 35: Bdec twice, B11, Bdec (14 sts)

Tie off.

Back Body (make 1 panel) with 3.5mm hook:

The back panel follows the exact same pattern as the front, but it’s worked entirely in the Blue Jeans yarn. Here is the simplified pattern without all those colour-changes:

Row 1: Ch 11, sc along chs (10 sts)

Row 2: Inc, sc 7, inc twice (13 sts)

Row 3: Inc, sc 10, dec (13 sts)

Row 4: Dec, sc 10, inc (13 sts)

Row 5: Inc, sc 10, dec (13 sts)

Row 6: Dec, sc 10, inc (13 sts)

Rows 7-8: Sc across (13 sts)

Row 9: Sc 11, dec (12 sts)

Rows 10-14: Sc across (12 sts)

Now we will start the head.

Row 15: In Blue Jeans ch 3, sc 2 along chs, sc 12 along row (14 sts)

Row 16: In Blue Jeans ch 5, inc in first ch, sc 3 along rem chs, sc 13, inc (20 sts)

Row 17: Inc twice, sc 17, inc (23 sts)

Row 18: Inc, sc 21, inc (25 sts)

Row 19: Inc, sc 24 (26 sts)

Row 20: Inc, sc 25 (27 sts)

Row 21: Inc, sc 26 (28 sts)

Rows 22-27: Sc across (28 sts)

Row 28: Dec, sc 24, dec (26 sts)

Row 29: Sc 24, dec (25 sts)

Row 30: Sc 23, dec (24 sts)

Row 31: Sc 22, dec (23 sts)

Row 32: Sc 21, dec (22 sts)

Row 33: Dec twice, sc 16, dec (19 sts)

Row 34: Sc 15, dec twice (17 sts)

Row 35: Dec twice, sc 11, dec (14 sts)

Tie off.

Feet/Legs (make 4 panels but work in twos as explained below) with 3.5mm hook:

The feet/legs are worked from the bottom up. Start with Terracotta.

Row 1: Ch 4, sc across (3 sts)

Row 2: Inc, dec (3 sts)

Row 3: Dec, inc (3 sts)

Row 4: Inc, dec (3 sts)

Row 5: Dec, inc (3 sts)

Row 6: Sc 2 (leave the last st of the row unworked) (2 sts)

Row 7: Sc 2 (2 sts)

Row 8: Dec (1 st)

Join Off White yarn.

Row 9: Inc (2 sts)

Row 10: Inc twice (4 sts)

Tie off. Repeat rows 1-10 for second panel but do not tie off second panel. Place both panels together, matching up all sides, then join the panels by ch 1 and sc around both panels. You will need to switch from Off-White to Terracotta as you crochet around. Stuff when you’ve crocheted about two-thirds of the way around. Continue crocheting around. Switch back to Off-White where appropriate. Top up stuffing as you go. Slst to first st to close. Tie off and poke the yarn tails back inside the piece.

Repeat for second leg.

Beak (make 1) with 3.5mm hook:

Start in Mustard.

Row 1: Ch 15, sc across (14 sts)

Switch to Blue.

Row 2: Dec, sc 10, dec (12 sts)

Switch to Orange.

Row 3: Dec, sc 8, dec (10 sts)

Row 4: Dec, sc 6, dec (8 sts)

Row 5: Dec, sc 2, dec twice (5 sts)

Row 6: Dec, sc 1, dec (3 sts)

Tie off and weave in ends.

Move on to assembly below!

Assembly:

Step 1: Face

The first thing we need to do is add our facial features to the front panel.

I wanted to recreate the characters as closely as I could to the show, so I decided to cut felt pieces and sew them together to make the eyes and match them as best I could. However, you could easily use safety eyes and brightly coloured thread to outline the eyes if you want, which would look equally as adorable. This would also be a great project for needle felting the eyes, but since I haven’t ventured much into needle felting yet, I decided to leave that for another day. I’m sorry to have to break this to you, but if you’re doing felt eyes as well, this is going to be the fiddliest and perhaps most time-consuming part (I hope you like hand-sewing!).

Since I was making Oona in the ragdoll-style, I knew she would be more-or-less flat but I still wanted to maintain that 3-D appearance, so I designed the eye patches (the light grey patches on the front body panel), and the eyes to give this illusion. As you can see from the front panel, the eye patches are not at all even. They are set-off to make it appear as though the right eye (as you look at it) is further away. To do this with the eyes as well, the felt pieces for the right eye will need to be a little narrower than the left eye. Here is a comparison of the felt pieces I cut:

So, first thing’s first, for the left eye, cut the white felt piece in a dome shape. I did this by tracing a circle on the felt and cutting it in half. Keep trimming it down until it fits comfortably within the light grey eye-patch area on the front panel. Next, grab your blue felt and trace the exact same shape as the white piece. Trim it on the left side to be slightly smaller so that the white piece underneath is showing. Finally, repeat with the black felt.

The right eye pieces will be done the same way, but trim these to be slightly narrower than the left eye.

Next, with a sewing needle, hand-stitch the blue felt to the white felt, using white thread. Then hand-stitch the black felt on top of the blue using black thread.

Hand-stitch both eyes to the front panel, as shown below.

Next, you will sew the beak down with yarn (Terracotta for the orange section, Blue for the blue bit and Mustard for the yellow bit). The edge of the beak will overlap slightly onto the right eye. Tie knots in the back to secure. (In the below image, I haven’t sewn the beak down yet; I simply laid it on the panel to find the right position, hence the visible yarn tails.)

Finally, using black crochet thread, stitch around the eyes to outline them and make them pop! I also added a small stitch over each eye to match the picture (I think it must be a singular eyelash?).

Also using the black crochet thread, stitch a mouth across the beak.

Step 2: Body

Yay! Time to start attaching things! Here are the pieces you should now have:

Cut a length of Off-White yarn approximately 30cm/15″ long and set it aside for later.

Place the two body panels together, matching up all sides.

**Make sure the front of Oona is facing you as you crochet around the outside.**

Starting on the left side of the head, begin attaching the panels together by chaining one and single crocheting around the outside of the panels in your main colour.

Crochet down the side of the head and body. (Sc 2, ch 1, sc 2) in the tip of Oona’s tail.

Stop before you get to the Off-White of the belly. Pull up a long loop and leave this for now.

With the length of yarn that you set aside earlier, place the first leg between the panels and attach by sewing through all three pieces, the back panel, the leg and the front panel. Do the same for the second leg. Tie the yarn tails in a knot inside the panels of the body to secure.

Continue crocheting around. Switch to Off-White yarn. When you get to the legs, simply crochet in the stitches of the front panel only, since this portion is already sewn shut.

Continue crocheting around. Stuff when you reach the neck. Continue crocheting up and around the head, topping up stuffing as you go. Close with a slst to first st and tie off. Poke the yarn tails back inside the piece.

That’s it! Enjoy!

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