Make a festive crochet robin in this free project
Robins mark the holiday season as sure as the first frost. Crochet your very own festive feathery friend, complete with glass eyes, legs and eggs, to add to your Christmas decor this year.
Taken from Vanessa Mooncie's Crocheted Birds: A Flock of Feathered Friends to Make, this project is ideal for those with some knowledge of crocheting. Not confident in your skills to undertake this project? Not to worry. Expert textile artist Heather Orr offers a fantastic course on crocheting along with a kit filled to the brim with tools and materials to try out. Get her Learn to Crochet Masterclass and you'll be crocheting in no time.
Materials you'll need to crochet your festive robin:
- Drops Alpaca 4ply, 100% alpaca (183yd/167m per 50g ball), or any 4ply yarn:
- 1 x 50g ball in 0607 Light Brown Mix (A)
- 1 x 50g ball in 2925 Rust Mix (B)
- 1 x 50g ball in 0501 Light Grey Mix (C)
- 1 x 50g ball in 1101 White (D)
- 1.25mm (UK3:US8), 1.75mm (UK2:US6) and 2.25mm (UK13:USB/1) crochet hooks
- Blunt-ended yarn needle
- Toy stuffing
- 17in (43cm) length of 18-gauge (1mm) craft wire for the legs
- 7in (18cm) length of 26-gauge (0.4mm) craft wire for the tail
- 4in (10cm) length of 26-gauge (0.4mm) craft wire for the beak
- 1 pair of 3⁄16in (5mm) looped glass teddy bear eyes or buttons
- Strong sewing thread
- Sewing needle
- Long-nose pliers
- All-purpose adhesive glue
Crocheting the robin: an overview
The robin’s head is worked in continuous rounds of double crochet with the shaping of the breast worked in rows. An opening is created at the base of the body to insert the legs. The tail and wings are crocheted in rows and the last row of the tail is crocheted around craft wire to hold its shape so it can stand upright. The narrow beak is worked in rows. The first row is crocheted around craft wire as the beak is too small to stuff. The edges of the beak are sewn together before stitching it to the head. The legs are made of craft wire wrapped in yarn and bent into shape. The robin’s eggs are worked in rounds and stuffed. The speckles are embroidered on the surface after stuffing.
N.B. Some of the colour changes on the chart won’t correspond with the stitches of the previous round. This is because the stitches travel diagonally up the work when crocheting in continuous rounds, so to keep the markings of the robin straight, the colour change is occasionally made on a different stitch.
Tension / guage: 32 sts and 36 rows to 4in (10cm) over double crochet using 2.25mm hook
Each crochet diagram is available to view on screen or download and print.
Crochet abbreviations:
- ch - chain
- cm - centimetre(s)
- dc - double crochet
- dc2tog - work 2 double crochet stitches together to decrease
- dc2inc - work 2 double crochet stitches into the next stitch to increase
- dc3inc - work 3 double crochet stitches into the next stitch to increase
- dec - decrease
- htr - half treble
- htr2inc - work 2 half treble stitches into the next st to increase
- htr3inc - work 3 half treble stitches into the next st to increase
- in - inch(es)
- inc - increase
- m - metre(s)
- mm - millimetre(s)
- rep - repeat
- RS - right side
- sl st - slip stitch
- sp - space
- st(s) - stich(es)
- tog - together
- tr - treble
- tr2inc - work 2 treble stitches into the next st to increase
- 3 trcl - work 3 treble stitches together in next stitch to form a cluster
- WS - wrong side
- yd - yard(s)
- yrh - yarn round hook
Stage one: The Robin's Head
Round 1: 1 ch, 5 dc into loop (5 sts).
Round 2 (inc): (Dc2inc) 5 times (10 sts). Pull tight on short end of yarn to close loop.
Round 3 (inc): (Dc2inc, 1 dc) 5 times (15 sts).
Round 4: 1 dc in each dc. Join B to last dc. Carry unused yarn across the WS of the work.
Round 5 (inc): 1 dc in next 8 dc with B; with A, work 1 dc in next dc, (dc2inc) 5 times, join C to last dc, with C work 1 dc in next dc (20 sts).
Round 6: 1 dc in next 8 dc with B, 1 dc in next dc with C; with A, work 1 dc in next 10 dc, 1 dc in next dc with C.
Round 7 (inc): 1 dc in next dc with C, 1 dc in next 8 dc with B, 1 dc in next 2 dc with C, (dc2inc, 1 dc) 4 times with A, 1 dc in next dc with C (24 sts).
Round 8: 1 dc in next dc in C, 1 dc in next 8 dc with B, 1 dc in next 2 dc with C, 1 dc in next 12 dc with A, 1 dc in next dc with C.
Round 9 (inc): 1 dc in next 2 dc with C, 1 dc in next 3 dc with B, (dc2inc) twice, 1 dc in next 3 dc, 1 dc in next 3 dc with C, (dc2inc, 2 dc) 3 times with A, dc2inc, 1 dc in next dc with C (30 sts).
Stage 2: The Robin's Breast
Starting at the top of the head, with 2.25mm hook and A, make a magic loop (an adjustable loop of yarn). To make the loop, wind the yarn around a finger, insert the hook, catch the yarn and draw back through the loop. After a couple of rounds have been crochetted, covering the loop of yarn, the short end of yarn is pulled tight to close the centre.