Crochet Amigurumi Christmas Cat Pattern Free Grey Mouse Tangled In Fairy Lights

Christmas Eve stockings have room for this crochet Christmas cat amigurumi, a palm-sized tabby that fits snugly beside the candy canes. Cat lovers on your gift list will spot the Santa hat and tangled holiday lights on this festive cat plush from across the room.

Bobble bulbs and a tipped hat mean most of your time on this crochet Christmas cat amigurumi goes into small fiddly extras rather than the body. Making the lights turns into a rhythm once you have done a few. The garland threading is the satisfying part. Suddenly the whole thing reads as festive.

Crochet Christmas Cat Amigurumi

Green string lights wrap twice around the body, studded with small bobbles in red, blue, yellow, purple, and orange. The cat itself is grey with black stripes across the forehead and a banded tail lying flat behind it. Black stitching marks the whiskers and mouth, glossy eyes sit wide apart, and a red hat with a white brim and pom tips over to one side. Body and head work as one rounded piece, with ears, tail, paws, hat, and the light garland made separately. Each bulb is its own tiny bobble. Threading the garland around the body and tacking it down is the last job.

Quick Facts

• Finished size: roughly 10 to 13 cm tall, not counting the tail. Estimate, since the pattern names no yarn weight.
• Difficulty: intermediate, and not because of the stitches. The shaping is simple but several rounds carry no counts and you will be filling in gaps.
• Time: two to three hours for the mouse, plus the lights.
• Piece count: 2 ears, 1 continuous body, 2 feet, 1 tail, the light cable, several bulbs, and an optional hat.
• Sewing: feet, tail, bulbs and hat. The ears and body are one piece.

Materials and Tools

Amounts are approximate. The pattern does not name a yarn weight, though a 3 mm hook points to sport or DK.

• Grey yarn for the body, roughly 40 to 50 g
• Black yarn for the tail stripes, a small amount
• Green yarn for the light cable, a short length
• Scrap yarn in several colours for the bulbs
• Red yarn for the hat
• White yarn for the hat trim
• 3 mm crochet hook for the body
• 2 mm crochet hook for the bulbs
• Snap on eyes, or black thread for embroidered eyes
• Stuffing
• Embroidery needle
• Stitch markers
• Scissors
• Pins

Abbreviations

• SC: single crochet
• HDC: half double crochet
• MC: magic circle
• SS: slip stitch
• Stitch counts appear in brackets where the pattern gives one

Pieces List

• Ears, 2, worked first and joined into the body
• Head and body, 1 continuous piece worked downward from the ear join
• Feet, 2, worked separately and sewn on
• Tail, 1, worked separately and sewn on
• Light cable, green yarn wrapped and stitched down
• Bulbs, several, worked on the 2 mm hook
• Hat, 1, optional. No pattern is given for it.

Colour and Customization Ideas

Worth settling before you start, since the tail stripes need planning.

• Classic grey mouse with a red hat, which is what most people picture
• White or cream mouse, which makes the green cable and coloured bulbs pop much harder
• Brown mouse with a cream belly if you want to work a colour change through the even rounds
• Multicoloured bulbs in scraps, which is the whole point of using scrap yarn here
• All one bulb colour for something more restrained, warm white or red
• Skip the hat and give the mouse a tiny scarf instead, which is easier to write than a hat and sits better with the lights
• Wider black stripes on the tail for more contrast, or skip the black entirely for a plain grey tail

The one thing to protect is contrast between the body and the cable. A grey mouse with a dark green cable loses the lights completely from a distance.

Tips

• Get the eyes in early. The pattern tells you to insert them near the end and that does not work on a body worked downward from the head.
• Count the ear join before you go further. Two ears at 9 stitches plus 4 chains worked along both sides gives 26, which is the number the pattern states and the only place in the body where the maths is spelled out.
• Stuff as you go, not at the end. The pattern says stuff firmly once, near the close, which contradicts its own notes.

Crochet Christmas Mouse Pattern

Worked mostly in continuous rounds. Shape checkpoints sit at the end of the round they apply to. Several sections below carry no stitch counts because the original gives none.

Ears, Make 2

• Round 1: magic circle, 4 SC [4]
• Round 2: increase every other stitch [6]
• Round 3: increase every other stitch [9] Checkpoint: a small shallow cup, roughly the size of a thumbnail. Both ears must match. Do not stuff them.
• First ear: slip stitch and cut the yarn.
• Second ear: do not cut the yarn.

Joining the Ears and Building the Body

• Chain 4 after the second ear.
• Slip stitch to the first ear to join.
• Work 2 rounds of SC around the join [26] Checkpoint: two ears at 9 stitches each plus the chain of 4 worked along both sides gives 26, which is exactly what the pattern states. If you are not on 26, recount before going further. The chain of 4 is now the bridge across the top of the head, so the ears should be standing up on either side of it.
• Increase to 30 stitches [30]
• Work even rounds up to round 13 [30] Checkpoint: this is the head. It should be a rounded shape with the ears sitting at the top rather than off to one side. Insert the eyes now. because the original tells you to do this much later.
• Increase to 36 stitches [36]
• Work even to round 17 [36]
• Increase to 42 stitches [42]
• Work even to round 24 [42] Checkpoint: the widest part of the body. It should stand on its own as a rounded barrel with a narrower head above it. Stuff as you work these rounds rather than waiting.
• Begin the decrease rounds, decreasing every 4 stitches [35]
• Continue decreasing every 3 stitches [28]
• Continue decreasing every 2 stitches [21] Checkpoint: the base is tapering but 21 stitches is still a wide opening. Insert the eyes before closing.
• Stuff firmly.
• Close completely and weave in the ends.

Feet, Make 2

• Magic circle.
• Work SC rounds to create a small oval base. Checkpoint: no counts are given for this piece at all. Both feet must match, so make the second one straight after the first and lay them side by side.
• Fasten off leaving a tail for sewing.

Tail

• Round 1: magic circle, 6 SC [6]
• Round 2: increase to 12 [12]
• Work even rounds [12] Checkpoint: a tube of even width with a closed end. No round count is given, so work it to the length you want against the body. Note that this tail does not taper.
• Alternate black and grey yarn to create stripes.
• Finish in grey.
• Stuff lightly.
• Sew to the back of the body.

Face Details

• Embroider the nose and mouth.
• Place the nose centred and slightly below the eyes.
• A small triangular nose suits a mouse.
• Add whiskers with a few short stitches extending sideways, if you want them.

Working in continuous rounds for the first time? No problem at all, the video tutorial below makes it easy to keep track!

Christmas Lights

• Wrap green yarn around the body in a spiral.
• Secure it at several points with small stitches so the spiral cannot slip or sag.
• For each bulb, using the 2 mm hook: chain 2, work a half double crochet into the first chain, then slip stitch to close. Checkpoint: a tiny raised nub. On a 2 mm hook it should be dense and hold its shape. If it flattens out, the hook is too large for the scrap yarn you are using.
• Attach the bulbs along the cable, spacing them unevenly so the string looks natural.
• Secure and trim the ends carefully.

Hat, Optional

• Crochet a small red hat.
• Add white trim and a pom pom.
• Sew onto the head securely.
• Note that no stitch instructions are given for the hat.

Eye Timing and Safety

• Insert the snap on eyes while working the even rounds at 30 stitches, around round 13. Not at the end, whatever the pattern says.
• Position them on the head with the ears above them, spaced evenly either side of the chain 4 bridge, which gives you a natural centre line.
• Push the post through from the outside, look at the face straight on and from the sides, then seat the washer from inside. These do not come off once on.
• Mark the positions with pins first and step back a metre before committing. Mouse faces read differently at distance.
• For a toy going to a child under three, do not use snap on eyes. Embroider them with black thread at the same position. Embroidery can be done at any stage, including after the mouse is finished.
• The bulbs are also a hazard for that age group. They are tiny sewn on pieces and a small child will find them. For a very young child, embroider the bulbs as French knots along the cable instead of crocheting and attaching them.
• Sew the pom pom on the hat very securely, or leave the hat off entirely.

Assembly

Pin before you sew. The mouse has several small pieces and placement is what makes it read as a character.

• Close and stuff the body first.
• Sew the feet on evenly spaced at the bottom front of the body. Position them toward the front so the mouse sits upright instead of tipping backward. Stand it up and check before sewing.
• Attach the tail at the back centre, sewing around the full open end so it cannot rotate.
• Embroider the nose and mouth next, once the body is closed and you can hold it properly.
• Wrap the green cable around the body in a spiral and pin it in place before stitching. Look at it from all sides. A spiral that looks even from the front often bunches at the back.
• Stitch the cable down at several points along its length.
• Attach the bulbs along the cable, spacing them unevenly. Even spacing reads as a decoration, uneven reads as fairy lights.
• Sew the hat on last, tilted slightly.
• Weave all ends into the inside of the pieces.

Stuffing Guide

• Head: slightly firmer than the body, so the ears stay upright and the face holds its shape.
• Body: firm but not stretched. This is a mouse, so a little softness suits it.
• Stuff gradually as the body grows, not in one go at the end. The pattern gives a single stuff firmly instruction near the close, which contradicts its own opening notes and makes the head almost impossible to fill properly.
• Ears: no stuffing. They are three rounds and meant to sit flat.
• Tail: light. A firmly stuffed tail goes rigid and sticks straight out.
• Feet: light or none.
• Where overstuffing shows first: the even rounds at 42, where the fabric stretches at the widest point and stuffing shows between the stitches. Grey yarn hides it better than most, so check in good light.

FAQ

• Why does the ear join give 26 stitches? Two ears at 9 stitches each is 18, and the chain of 4 gets worked along both its sides, adding 8. That comes to 26, which is what the pattern says. It is the one place in the body section where the arithmetic is actually written out.
• How many rounds should the tail be? The pattern does not say. Hold it against the finished body and stop when it looks right, which for a mouse this size is usually somewhere around 12 to 15 rounds. Remember it does not taper as written.
• My decreases left me with a big hole at the bottom. They did, and that is the pattern rather than you. It stops at 21 stitches and tells you to close. Two more decrease rounds get you to 7, which is closeable.
• Can I sew the ears on afterwards instead? You could, but you would lose the best thing about this construction. The chain of 4 between the ears becomes the top of the head, so the ears are holding the shape rather than sitting on it. Sewn ears on a mouse this small tend to droop.