00:08Hi friends! Welcome to another one of my crochet video tutorials. Today we're going to crochet this
00:15adorable little no-sew crab. It's quite small if you make it with medium weight yarn, and it's the
00:22perfect size for keychains. You can also use thicker yarn to make a larger plush version if
00:29you'd like to. Follow along with the free written pattern on my blog. Link in the description box
00:35below. If you'd like to support me as a pattern designer, there's a pdf pattern available to
00:41download as well. It's inexpensive, ad-free, printable, easy to read, and includes photo
00:47references. With that, you can also get a set of printable gift tags, perfect for valentine's day.
00:57What you'll need is some medium weight yarn, or your yarn of choosing, and a suitable hook to go
01:03with it so that you can crochet tight stitches. With my medium weight 4 yarn, I am using a 2
01:10.75
01:11millimeter crochet hook. I am also going to need some stuffing, just a tiny amount is all you need,
01:19and some 6 millimeter safety eyes. You will need larger eyes if you're making a plush version.
01:27For this one here that um is larger, I used 9 milli- wait, let me see.
01:37Yep, for this one here that's larger, I used 9 millimeter eyes.
01:43You'll also need a pair of scissors, and a yarn needle, and that's that.
01:51Let's go ahead and learn how to crochet this little guy.
02:02Let's begin with round one. For round one, we are going to start with a magic ring.
02:08In the magic ring, insert eight single crochets. That's my slipknot to start, and then 1, 2,
02:182, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
02:33Now we're going to pull the ring tight.
02:42And that concludes round one. For round two, we're going to increase all the way around.
02:48So starting in that first single crochet, I'm going to insert two single crochets for an increase.
02:58Here's my increase. Then in the next stitch, I'm also going to increase.
03:06In the next one as well.
03:11And all the way around. You should end with 16 single crochets in the round.
03:45You should end with 16 single crochets in the round.
03:47To finish round number two, we're going to jump to round three. For round three,
03:51we're going to single crochet three and then increase, repeating that four times around.
03:56Here's what it'll look like. And I'm going to use the starting tail to kind of hold my place
04:02and put it at right before I start my first stitch.
04:07So let's do three single crochets. That's one, two, and three.
04:13And then I'm going to increase in the next stitch.
04:20Repeat that three more times. One, two, three, and increase.
04:33Repeat that two more times. One, two, three, increase.
04:42And the very last repetition here. One, two, and three single crochets.
04:51And an increase at the very end.
04:55Now that you've gone all the way around, we're going to start on round four.
05:00In round four, we're simply going to crochet all the way around with no increasing and no decreasing.
05:06So that's going to be 20 small crochets around.
05:33So that's what I'm doing.
05:58Now that you've finished round number four, we can go ahead and move on to the next part
06:03of the crab, which is making the legs and the claws. We're going to work only in the front
06:14loops of the entire round. So normally you would crochet into both loops like so, but
06:22the front loop is the one closer to you here. So we're going to work only in the front loops
06:27for this whole next round. Back loops back here will be crocheted with when we finish
06:33the legs and the claws. All right. So now, and I'm just going to use this yarn tail to track
06:42where the start of the round is. You can use a stitch marker if you want. I'm going to
06:49work in a front loop here and make a slip stitch. Make another slip stitch. We're doing two
06:57slip stitches to start here. Now we're going to get ready to make three legs. We're going
07:03to first chain four. One, two, three, four. Then we're going to slip stitch in each of these
07:11three stitches back starting from the second chain from your hook. So in that second chain
07:16from the hook, make a slip stitch. In the next one, make a slip stitch. And in the last one,
07:25make a slip stitch. Like so. Now we're going to slip stitch into the next stitch in the body.
07:34Again, I'm working only in the front loops. And that's that for one leg. We're going to make
07:41two more legs on the side. One, two, three, four chains. Then we're going to slip stitch three
07:47back towards the body. One slip stitch. Two and three.
08:16And last leg. One, two, three, four chains. Let's go ahead and slip stitch three back towards the body.
08:25Three, one, two, and three. And slip stitch into the next stitch in the body.
08:51And as you can see, we've got three little legs here. Let's go ahead and put a slip stitch in
08:58the next
08:58stitch. That's a tiny bit of space that we'll put in between the legs and the claws.
09:05Now for the claw, we're going to do the right claw. We're going to chain five. One, two, three, four,
09:12five. Starting in that second chain from the hook, we're going to slip stitch. And then slip stitch a
09:19second time. Now we're going to chain two. One and two. Then we're going to slip stitch into that second
09:29chain from the hook. And slip stitch back into the starting chain that you made. There's only two more
09:37chains left before you reach the body. So slip stitch twice. Like so. And then slip stitch back into the
09:47body.
09:54Here is the crab's little arm, as you can see. Or sorry, not arm, the claw. And I have, um,
10:04now,
10:06now we're going to go and make the front of the crab. It's supposed to take up six stitches. So
10:11we
10:11already did one slip stitch here. Now we're going to do five more slip stitches. That's one. Oops.
10:22One. Two. Again, work only in those front loops. Three.
10:29Three. Four.
10:42And five. Counting that first slip stitch. It's now six slip stitches. And we're going to make the next
10:50claw. For the next claw, which is on the left side of the crab, we're going to start with four
10:55chains.
10:56One, two, three, four. Slip stitch into that second chain from the hook.
11:03Now chain three. One, two, three. Slip stitch in the second chain from the hook. And slip stitch into
11:11that next chain as well. Now we're going to go back into the starting chains and slip stitch two times
11:19to get back to the body. And now slip stitch into the next stitch of the body here like so.
11:34And now slip stitch
11:35one more time. Okay. And now we're going to repeat the instructions for the legs. They're made the same
11:47way as you did the first three legs. So just chain four, slip stitch three, starting from that second
11:55chain from the hook. And slip stitch back into the body, the next stitch in the body. And we're going
12:11to
12:11repeat that again. And slip stitching back into the body. Last leg.
12:50There we go. Um, that's that for the three legs. Now we're going to slip stitch in the last three
12:59stitches of this round. So into the body, we're going to slip stitch one,
13:08two,
13:12and three.
13:16And as you can see, we've now made it back to the start of the round. So let me pull
13:23this out
13:23and tighten the circle. There we go. Okay. Um, you've got your little crab's legs and claws all done.
13:34It's now time to, um, work on the crab belly. You can also insert safety eyes now, but I'm actually
13:42going to add the eyes after I do one round of the belly, because I think it'll be a little
13:48easier to
13:49do it at the point at that point. So let's go ahead and continue. And if you want, you can
13:55switch yarn
13:56colors to make the body, uh, the belly. I mean, you can make it a white if you'd like, or
14:02if you want to
14:03stick with the same color, like orange or red, uh, you're welcome to do so too. So if you switch
14:09colors,
14:09now would be the time to switch as you make, as you finish that last stitch. And before you start
14:15on your new stitch. For, um, the crab belly now, in this next round, we're going to crochet only in
14:27those unworked back loops. As you can see, when we worked in front loops only, that left behind,
14:33all of these back loops that are poking out, see that there? Here's one. Here's another back loop.
14:41Here's another back loop. And they're all the way around. So we're only going to crochet in those
14:48back loops. And we're going to, um, single crochet three, decrease, single crochet three, decrease,
14:54single crochet three, decrease, single crochet three, decrease. So that sequence is going to be
14:59repeated four times around. Let's go ahead and get started. I'm going to insert my hook into that first
15:05unworked, unworked, unworked back loop. Let me just catch where it is.
15:16Okay. So we're going to single crochet three, one, two, three, and then decrease.
15:30Let's do it again. Single crochet three, decrease, single crochet three,
16:00decrease, and single crochet three, decrease, and single crochet three.
16:21decrease. All right. That's that for the first round of the belly. As you can see, we're closing up
16:30the body here. Now would be a good time to attach those eyes if you'd like to. I'm going to
16:36go ahead
16:36and grab some safety eyes now. Here I'm using six millimeter eyes. You can use larger or smaller eyes
16:44if you'd like. And I'm inserting them between rounds three and four. So coming from round one, that's one,
16:52two, three, and four. So right between three and four here. And I am inserting them just at the corners
17:00where the claws are. So let's see, that's one, two, three, four, five stitches apart. And you can go ahead
17:08and do the same if you'd like, or choose the location, the positioning you want, and secure them down.
17:34Once you have secured your crab's eyes, it's time to finish up the last round,
17:40which is simply going to be to decrease all the way around.
17:49So let's decrease around. And this time, we're going to work normally in the stitch. So go through
17:57both loops. Decrease. And when you decrease around, you'll have a total of eight stitches at the end.
18:26Let's check theère. Okay.
18:26So let's do the same thing.
18:27Let's see.
18:43So, let's check thes before the next one.
18:51Alright, once you finish with that last round, you can go ahead and fasten off with a long
18:57tail for sewing the opening later.
19:00We're going to first fasten off and then stuff the little body through that ending hole.
19:09Here's my crab's body all stuffed and we can go ahead and finish by sewing the opening
19:15together.
19:16I like to do a running stitch in and out of the front loops.
19:22So here I go in a front loop and then I would go out the next front loop and I
19:29keep my yarn
19:30tail kind of lax until the very end after I've gone through all of the loops.
19:45So here I've gone through all of those front loops in this round and I'm going to pull
19:50the yarn tight to close up the hole.
19:55As you can see, that cinches it up nicely and we've got a neat closing here.
20:04And let's just weave in the ends a few times.
20:18Alright, and when you are all done, you can go ahead and fasten off by slipping off that yarn
20:37and that's that for your tiny little crab.
20:41As you can see, this no sew crab is quite fast to work up and it makes a cute little
20:48keychain
20:50size actually if you use medium weight yarn.
20:53And you can have fun making them in all sorts of colors with different yarn weights like
21:00so.
21:01You can even try making them with plush yarn for an even larger crab.
21:07Thank you so much for crocheting with me today.
21:11Hope you had a fun time crafting.
21:14Bye now!
21:14Bye now!
21:15Bye now!
21:16Bye now!
21:18Bye now!
