Categories
Quick to Target
- Bestseller
- New patterns
- Featured
- Current Trends
- Popular authors
- CAL, KAL & Co.
- Discounts
- Free patterns
Community & Help
Here you can discover crochet instructions for hand puppets in the most different variations. Because the figures from the world of children are suitable as little finger puppets, which you can even carry them in your handbag to have them with you at all times. There are the crocheted hand puppets in larger sizes that let you perform a small theatre performance at home. And we have crochet hand puppet instructions for making funny washcloths, since many children fear the wet cloth on their face and prefer to be washed by a cuddly hippo or a lovable fish.
Show more »If you want to put on your own little theatre performance in the kid's room, it makes sense to crochet several hand puppets at once. You can use friends from TV, such as Kermit the Frog, or you can choose your child's favourite animal, such as a crocodile puppet. You can also use different animals to symbolise different characteristics with your characters. A hand puppet mouse can be small and cheeky. A hand puppet rabbit is agile, and a hand puppet lion is big and strong.
Even if at first sight it seems quite difficult to crochet a cute hand puppet, you don't have to despair. At Crazypatterns there are instructions for crocheted hand puppets for every level of knowledge. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced crocheter, you can get a suitable tutorial for crocheting hand puppets. Of course, if you don't have much experience in crocheting, you shouldn't rush to make the most difficult figures right away.
Maybe you can first try simple finger puppets, which only consist of head and neck. If you have succeeded with these figures, you can slowly approach the more difficult puppets. Note: The more details a figure has, the more difficult it is to make. As a crochet professional, however, you will not get into trouble with any of the instructions for crocheting hand puppets.
In general, crocheted hand puppets can be made of many different materials in addition to the usual materials such as yarn and crochet hook. However, when crocheting hand puppets, you have to pay attention to the purpose for which the figure is intended. If the hand puppet you crocheted yourself is supposed to be a cuddly toy, you should avoid googly eyes, buttons, beads or similar small parts, especially for small children.
If the figure is intended for your own theatre performances and will be kept safe by yourself afterwards, you can let your imagination run wild with the materials used. However, if you want to use the puppet as a washcloth, you also have to avoid hard decorations in order not to accidentally hurt your sweetheart. As a rule, you can crochet with the following materials in our hand puppet instructions:
If you search the world wide web for puppet crochet instructions, you might find one or two tutorials that are not available at Crazy Patterns. However, it's not uncommon for great manuals to be offered exclusively in a foreign language. And because the hand puppet tutorials are not always easy to translate because of their technical terms, this is quite annoying. Because with technical terms that deal with different crochet types or crochet stitches, you unfortunately cannot get along with a conventional translation program.
Even a lexicon only translates a limited vocabulary and can't help you with specific questions. But if you browse through the great crochet tutorials for hand puppets at Crazy Patterns, these difficulties will not arise, because all our crochet tutorials are in English. You don't need any translation help but can start as soon as you have everything.
Before you decide on a particular crochet instruction for hand puppets, you will of course browse through our overview page. There you will find a small picture of the finished figure for each tutorial from our wide variety of manuals. You can also find out if it is a free manual or if you have to pay something for the download. If you have to pay a small fee, you can only download the chosen tutorial after we have received the money. After that, however, you can download it as often as you like. A second payment for the same tutorial is of course not due.
However, it has proven to be helpful to save the paid instructions for crocheting hand puppets on your hard disk after downloading. Then you can always open it, even if you are not on the internet. In your manual you will find a detailed crochet description, which explains every step in detail, as well as information about the crochet yarn and the suitable crochet hook. And sometimes you will even get colour suggestions. Of course, you are completely free in your design. If you don't follow the crochet yarn advice, you may have to change the size of the crochet hook and the number of stitches accordingly.
As a true Muppets fan, you know of course that not every frog is a Kermit. But you can actually make a crocheted Kermit out of any crocheted frog. Simply choose one of the pretty crochet instructions for the frog hand puppet at Crazy Patterns and equip your finished work with a green, pointy collar. This is not difficult, because for the collar you only need single (US: double) stitches and chain stitches.
You start with chain stitches, which firstly can be perfectly placed around the neck of your crocheted frog puppet and secondly is divisible by the number of spikes of the collar. Since Kermit's collar has a smooth edge, you won't get far with one of the usual spikes’ patterns. But you can finish each spike individually on your chain. Crochet the spikes in single (US: double) stitches and in each row you crochet two stitches together at the beginning and at the end of the spike sides.
The crocheted hand puppet crocodile is versatile. In a theatre performance the crocodile often plays the bad part. The green monster with its big teeth tries to bite the Punch or eat the grandmother. However, because little boys like to be big and strong, the crocodile is often one of their favourite animals. So, you might as well give your puppet a cute touch. And for this very reason, the crocheted hand puppet is also perfect as a washcloth.
Of course, you should not use button eyes or wiggly eyes, but either embroider black eyes on your crochet crocodile or crochet eyes onto your crochet crocodile. Also, with the yarn choice you are not quite as free as with other hand puppets. Because if the crocheted hand puppet Crocodile is to be used for washing, it must be made of cotton. It should be washable at 60 degrees in the washing machine and may not shrink.
How easy or difficult it is to crochet the hand puppet rabbit depends on whether you choose a large hand puppet with many details, or if you decide to crochet a small finger puppet rabbit. The finger puppet rabbit is a little bit more difficult because the figure is relatively small, but usually only a head with long ears is made. The rabbit as a finger puppet is therefore a project that even beginners, if they know the basic crocheting skills, can master.
If you want to make a big hand puppet rabbit, you should be more experienced in crocheting. Besides single (US: double), double (US: treble), front post double (US: half treble) crochet and half double (US: treble) crochet stitches are often required. Of course, you have to be able to increase and decrease the number of stitches, as well. And you should also know how to stuff with cotton wool. After all, a rabbit has round, full chubby cheeks.
Similar to the rabbit, the hand puppet mouse can be crocheted in great detail or made in a simplified form. To give your crocheted hand puppet mouse a pointed nose, you have to stuff its head with cotton wool. To push the cotton wool up to the tip of the snout, use a pencil or the back end of your crochet hook. However, there are also professional stuffing tools on the market.
You should also crochet so tightly that the cotton wool does not come out between the crochet stitches. If you don't succeed because you crochet rather loosely in all your crochet projects, you can use a thinner needle size than the one in the instructions. This will automatically make the stitches a little tighter.
Beautiful role plays can also be staged with finger puppets. Because the small figures are so handy, they can be taken everywhere and are always ready for use. In order for the little finger puppets to show small details such as eyes, beard, or clothing belt, you have to crochet the figures with the thinnest possible yarn. Tiny details can either be glued on or sewn on separately.
The crocheted finger puppets can also be incredibly detailed. However, when crocheting finger puppets, you should remember that not every detail is important, especially for small children. A stylized figure is easier to make and is already recognized by the tiny young ones by its features. At the same time, the stylized hand puppet naturally stimulates the child's imagination and offers more room for interpretation.
Which crocheting techniques you need to crochet hand puppets cannot be determined generally. There are some stitches that you have to master for every crochet project. Other crochet stitches are only needed for more complicated crochet puppets. However, before you download a puppet crocheting guide, you should be familiar with the basics. Because the basic techniques are always a prerequisite and are not explained in any instructions.
If you are using a crochet hook for the first time, you should browse through our free crochet dictionary first. There you will find the most important crochet stitches for starting, as well as how to increase and decrease the number of stitches in any given project. The following techniques should be sufficient for the hand puppet crocheting instructions:
Although all the crocheting instructions for hand puppets on Crazypatterns explain to you step by step how to proceed, even the most experienced crochet artist can get it wrong. If you made a mistake and can't seem to get it right, don't despair. For general crochet questions we have put together a help page. There you will find answers to frequently asked questions in a simple and understandable way. If it is a special problem that won’t let you get on with your crochet hand puppet, you can ask for help in our forum. The forum is a helpful and experienced crochet community, where there is always someone to help you solve the problem.
And while we are at it: You shouldn't miss our general tips and tricks for crocheting hand puppets on our YouTube channel either. We update the video clips regularly, so it's worth checking back from time to time. If you have a great tip of your own that you would like to share with like-minded people, you are welcome to post it on our Facebook page.
Did you know that you can earn a little pocket money with your own tutorials at Crazy Patterns? If you have designed your own instructions for crocheting hand puppets, all you have to do is summarize your work in a clear and easy to understand text. As you crochet your puppet, you should take a few photos that show the steps in detail. Together with the text, you will then submit your self-written manual to us. What you have to consider when uploading your crocheting instructions for hand puppets and how you can cash in your earnings, you can read in our guide to selling instructions.
By the way, Crazy Patterns is not a pure crochet portal. For the hobby dressmaker we have many great tutorials for sewing, for the handyman we can serve you a large selection of different handicraft manuals. And the passionate knitter will find wonderful knitting instructions with us.