Crocheted Animal Finger Puppets

    -This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.-   

Last year around the beginning of March I decided to do a week of Book Inspired Crafts. I chose that time to coincide with Read Across America Week and Dr. Suess's Birthday when a lot of schools around the country are doing read-a-thons and other reading based activities. I have always loved reading and this was a fun way to combine 2 of my hobbies into one fun project. I enjoyed it so much I decided to make it an annual thing, which means it is time for the second annual Book Inspired Craft Week!

The hardest part about this project is deciding on which books to choose. There are so many wonderful books to choose from that narrowing it down to only 5 or 6 is a challenge. I try to pick a mixture of books that I loved as a kid, that I read to my kids a lot when they were little, and books that my kids have loved and that have sparked a love of reading in them. Sometimes the books are very well known classics that everyone knows and many people love, other times they may be slightly lesser known books that have significance to me or my family. 

I decided to start with a much loved children's book that is often read to, and loved by, babies and toddlers.  This book is one that is special to me because of some of my experiences when my oldest kids were little. The book I have chosen for Day 1 is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

This book is a special one for me because growing up my mom often read books out loud to us, everything from picture books to chapter books, and I loved it and always dreamed of doing the same with my kids someday. I collected lots of children's books as a teenager with the hope that someday I would be able to share those favorite books with my own children. Eventually I got married and had my first couple of kids when our world got turned upside down. 

When our second child was born she didn't pass her newborn hearing screening, and at the time our oldest was not quite 2. After a couple of months of testing we found out that she was born with a progressive hearing loss and would eventually be completely deaf. As we were going through that testing for her we brought our son in for a doctor's appointment where I asked the doctor if I should be concerned about his hearing since his baby sister had hearing loss and at almost 2 he was not yet talking. The doctor wasn't too concerned but did a quick test in the office to ease my mind, but he failed. That started a couple of months of testing for him which ended up with us finding out that he was profoundly deaf. 

One of the things that was really hard for me with this diagnosis for both of my kids was the fact that it was now really hard to read aloud to them. We started signing with them and they both picked it up so fast, but it was hard to do something like read a book in a language that you were just learning. I didn't have the vocabulary right away to sign books with detailed stories, for that matter I didn't really have the vocabulary to sign books with very simple stories. My language skills were just very limited. 

Brown Bear was the perfect book for me to read to my kids in this circumstance. The simple repetitive phrases combined with the color and animal combinations was just my speed. We read this book over and over. We even got the Baby Bear and Polar Bear versions to give us a little variety. Because of that this little book will always hold a special place in my heart. 

To go along with this book I knew I had to do something with all of the different animals, and I decided on finger puppets. You could use them while reading the book or on their own. And if you just wanted to have a set of animal finger puppets that didn't specifically coordinate with the book you could just change a couple of the colors to be more the colors of the real animals, like make the blue horse brown or black or another more horse-like color, or the purple cat and more realistic cat color. But I made them in the colors they are in the book to match. 

All of the finger puppets are made with the same body base with different colors, ears, faces, etc. to make them into each different animal. They are the same style as previous crocheted finger puppets I have made so if you have made my farm animal, pets, or Christmas finger puppets it will be very similar, some even almost exactly the same.

How to Crochet Animal Finger Puppets

You will need:

• Worsted Weight Yarn in a variety of colors specifically: brown, red, yellow, blue, green, purple, white, black, and orange or gold, as well as any accent colors you want to use (I used mostly Red Heart Super Saver, but I just pulled whatever I had scraps of in my stash since you need a very small amount)
• G crochet hook (4 or 4.25 mm)
• yarn needle
• embroidery floss (black, white, and pink or red)
• embroidery needle
• scissors

Instructions:

The finger puppets are worked in a spiral, starting with a magic ring. 

Each one starts with the same base body, then ears, noses, wings, etc. are sewn on at the end, and faces are embroidered on.

The body pattern is first, followed by each animal with instructions for the color to use as well as instructions for ears, beaks, wings, noses, etc. 

Finger Puppet Body

With G hook, begin with magic ring

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)
Round 2: 2 sc in each st (12 sc)
Round 3-10: 1 sc in each stitch (12 sc)


sl st to next stitch, finish off, weave in end

Brown Bear

Make body in brown (Red Heart Super Saver in Coffee)

You will also need a lighter brown or tan for muzzle (Red Heart Super Saver in Buff)

Make 2 ears in brown:

in mr, ch 1, 3 sc

finish off and pull ring tight to make a semi circle

Stitch ears to top of head

Make 1 muzzle in tan:

in mr, ch 1, 6 sc, tighten ring and sl st to first sc to join

finish off and stitch to the front of the face

Embroider face:

stitch eyes with black embroidery floss just above muzzle

stitch nose and line for mouth on the muzzle

Red Bird

Make body in red (Red Heart Super Save in Cherry)

You will also need yellow for the beak (Red Heart Super Saver in Bright Yellow)

Make 2 wings in red:

in mr, ch 2, 3 dc 
finish off, pull ring tight  and stitch to the side of the body

Make 1 beak in yellow:

ch 2, sl st in ch closest to hook, sc in next
finish off, stitch onto face

Embroider face:

stitch eyes above beak with black embroidery floss

Yellow Duck

Make body in yellow (Red Heart Super Saver in Bright Yellow)

You will also need orange for the bill (Red Heart Super Saver in Pumpkin)

Make 1 bill in orange:

ch 3, skip first 2 ch, hdc in last ch
finish off, stitch onto head along the flat side of hdc

Make 2 wings in yellow:

in mr, ch 2, 3 dc 
finish off, pull ring tight  and stitch to the side of the body

Embroider face:

stitch eyes above bill with black embroidery floss

Blue Horse

Make body in desired color (Red Heart Super Saver in Royal)

You will also need light blue for the mane (Red Heart Super Saver in Light Blue)

Make 2 ears in blue:

ch 3, sl st in first ch, sc in last 2 ch
finish off, sew onto side of head

Make 1 nose in blue:

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)

Round 2: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (9 sc)

Round 3: 1 sc in each st (9 sc)

finish off and stitch to the front of the face

Mane: 

make the main by cutting several lengths of yarn about 8 inches long and use a larks head knot to attache them to the center top of the head and down the back

Embroider face:

stitch eyes above nose with black embroidery floss

Green Frog

Make body in green (Red Heart Super Saver in Paddy Green)

Make 2 eyes in green:

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)

Round 2: 1 sc in each st (6 sc)

finish off and stitch the eye bumps to the top of the head

Embroider face:

stitch eyes onto the eye bumps with white and black embroidery floss, stitch mouth to head with red or pink embroidery floss

Purple Cat

Make body in purple (Red Heart Super Saver in Amethyst)

Make 2 ears in purple:

ch 2, sl st in ch closest to hook, sc in next
finish off, stitch onto face

Embroider face:

stitch eyes, nose and mouth with black embroidery floss

if desired you can also stitch whiskers on with 1 strand of white embroidery floss

White Dog

Make body in white(Red Heart Super Saver in white)

You will also need a contrasting color for collar and tag (Red Heart Super Saver in Cherry and Bright Yellow)

Make 2 ears in white:

ch 3, sc in second ch from hook, sc in last st

finish off, sew onto side of head

Make 1 collar in desired color:

ch 13

wrap around neck and stitch in place

Use yellow or gray yarn to make tag by stitching in place a couple of times

Embroider face:

embroider eyes, nose, and mouth to front of the body 

Black Sheep

Make body in black (Red Heart Super Saver in black)

You will also need gray for face and ears (Red Heart Super Saver in Charcoal)

Make 2 ears in gray:

ch 2, turn, sc in each ch

finish off, sew onto side of head

Make 1 face in gray:

in mr, ch 2, 8 hdc in mr, sl st to first st to join

sew face to the front of the body

Embroider face:

embroider eyes, nose, and mouth to the face

Gold Fish

Make body in orange or gold (Red Heart Super Saver in Pumpkin)

You will also need yellow for face (Red Heart Super Saver in Bright Yellow)

Make 1 face in yellow:

Round 1: in mr, ch 1, 6 sc (6 sc)

Round 2: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next st] repeat around (9 sc)

Round 3: [2 sc in first st, 1 sc in next 2 sts] repeat around (12 sc)

finish off and stitch to the front of the body

Make 1 tail in orange or gold:

ch 6

turn, sc in first st, 2 dc in next st, 1 sc in next 2 sts, 2 dc in next st, 1 sc in last st

finish off, stitch the center to the back of the body

Make 2 fins in orange or gold:

in mr, ch 2, 2 dc, ch 2, sl st in mr

finish off, pull ring tight, stitch to the sides of the body

Embroider face:

embroider eyes to the side of face with black, embroider mouth to front of face with pink or red