Crochet Llama | Free Amigurumi Crochet Pattern

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Lama Picchu

I made this cute Llama crochet pattern for a friend to celebrate good old times and South America trip memories. She is not very experienced in animal amigurumi crochet and soft toy creation, therefore I made this pattern beginner friendly and really fun to work with.

As a tribute to our favorite South American places I made the plushie Peru style and called this 10 inch beauty a ‘Lama Picchu’.

hand made crochet llama

Details needed for completion of the crochet project are laid out in the following sections of this post:

  1. Supplies used in creation of the crochet llama.
  2. Notes and additional useful information for this amigurumi pattern.
  3. Llama crochet pattern and assembly instructions.

If, at any stage you have any questions just shoot me a note or leave a comment in the Comments section underneath the post.

Llama Crochet Pattern

Supplies and Accessories used in the Llama crochet pattern

Yarn

As I mentioned before, I made this ammigurumi pattern for beginners and so decided to use yarn that is absolutely fantastic to work with and looks very good at the same time.

Yarn Art Jeans is made of cotton with some acrylic added. In essence, this composition makes the yarn very soft and pleasant. It’s more elastic than pure cotton and doesn’t split while crocheting. Therefore it’s ideal for newbies and less experienced crocheters. Moreover, they offer many colors to choose from.

My llama is made in cream with brown-and-orange feet, brown-and-orange hat and green-and-olive poncho. Since Yarn Art Jeans offers vast array of colors – you can really and truly decide upon your own palette.

Below is the list of exact colors codes and quantities used:

(Note: black is used for eyes and muzzle embroidery only therefore you can replace it with any other black yarn that you happen to have at home).

Yarn Substitutes

If you are not able to obtain Yarn Art Jeans then you can try to find a substitute. Should you want to dig into more details on how to do it, check out my blog post on yarn weights.

Based on my experience and similarity of characteristics, as a yarn substitute for completion of Llama amigurumi, I would recommend Alize Cotton Gold, Gazzal Baby Cotton, Scheepjes Softfun or Bernat Cottonish. Additionally, please bear in mind that you may need to adjust yarn quantities needed if you decide to go with a substitute yarn.

(Note: If you are planning to make this toy for anyone with soft skin or allergies then you may want to use Gazzal Baby Cotton as it has OEKO-TEX certificate therefore it should be safe).

Accessories

On top of yarn, you will need following accessories to make our lovely soft toy:

  1. Crochet hook – 3mm (US D-3)
  2. Scissors
  3. Stitch markers
  4. Toy fiberfill (Note: if you wish to explore some more options then have a look at my Stuffing for Toys blog post)
  5. Tapestry needle
  6. Row counter
  7. Color safety pin

As a side note – this time I changed toy stuffing from silicone to polyester. Initially I wasn’t really convinced if this would be a good choice. This was because polyester is a bit more difficult to work with and stuffing smaller parts requires more attention, but the end result looks and feels way better than silicone. Honestly, I’m really surprised with the effect. The toy is very elastic therefore it doesn’t deform after hugging and squeezing. So I think I will stay with polyester 🙂

Lastly, in my Llama crochet pattern I assume embroidery of eyes. If, however, you don’t feel like doing it then you can get safety eyes and attach them prior to sewing the neck into the main body.

Want to spice up your toy? Add remarkable amigurumi accessories to make your plushie stand out!

Psst: If you purchase an item from this post, I may receive a small cut. There is no extra cost to you and it helps me keep creating free content and patterns. Thank you for your support! Note that each item and price is up to date at the time of publication; however, an item may be sold out or the price may be different at a later date.

Important notes

Finished measurements (with ears & tail)

  • 29 cm (~ 12 inches) tall
  • 13 cm (~ 5 inches) wide
  • 9 cm (~ 4 inches) deep

Tension/Gauge

21 sts/24 rows = 10cm/4 inches square in single crochet

Abbreviations

  • Mr – magic ring
  • Sc – single crochet
  • Inc – 2 in one
  • Decr – 2 together
  • Ch – chain
  • Slp st – slip stitch

Notes

  • Recommended hook size for ‘Yarn Art Jeans’ is 3.5mm (US E-4), but I am using 3mm (US D-3) one. This is because we want the stitches to be very condensed so that toy stuffing doesn’t shine through.
  • When working in rounds work continuously unless instructed otherwise.
  • For amigurumi assembly utilize seamless joining method in order to make the toy look neater.
  • Lastly, at the end of each row, in brackets, I included a number which represents the total number of stitches in a given row. It should help tracking if instructions are followed.

Pattern Copyright Statement

Please do not copy, share, download or publicly display the pattern without permission of the author (CottonNutty). Should you wish to reuse it then please contact me at cogito@cottonnutty.com to obtain permission.

Llama Crochet Pattern

We start creating llama amigurumi with making legs, then we join them and proceed with making the body. Afterwards we create head and neck, ears, tail and muzzle. Finally, we make a hat and a poncho.

Legs

Make 4, start with brown yarn.

  • 6 sc in mr
  • Row 1: * inc * repeat 6 times (12)
  • Rows 2 and 3: 12 sc (12)
  • Row 4: * 3 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (15)
  • Row 5: * 4 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (18)
  • Change yarn to orange.
  • Rows 6 through 8:  18 sc (18)
  • Row 9: * 5 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (21)
  • Change yarn to cream.
  • Rows 10 through 12:  21 sc (21)
  • Row 13: * 6 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (24)
  • Row 14:  24 sc (24)
  • Row 15:  * 7 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (27)
  • Row 16:  27 sc (27)
  • Row 17: * 8 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (30)
  • Row 18:  30 sc (30)

In case of the first three legs – fasten off, leave tail for joining (roughly 30cm). For the fourth leg – do not cut as we’ll continue later on to create the body. Once all 4 legs are done – we will join them.

Place legs next to each other. Please note that it doesn’t really matter in which order as legs are identical and symmetrical and we are going to join adjacent sides.

Lama’s body has longer axis (the front to back axis) and shorter axis (side to side). In essence, we will join adjacent legs – we’ll use slip stitch to connect 10 stitches of neighboring legs along the longer axis and 4 stitches of neighboring legs along the shorter axis.

Follow steps outlined below:

Step 1

First, take any 2 of the legs which have yarn tail cut and place them next to each other as shown on the image below. Then count 10 stitches of each – those are the ones we need to work slip stitches in. To make it easier – mark first and last ones with stitch markers. For the purpose of explanation of the llama crochet pattern, I will number the legs from 1 to 4.

Loose ends of yarn (yarn tail) for legs 1 and 2 are on the side where the purple star is. In fact, the first stitch that is marked with red marker is the last stitch of the top row of each leg. Using yarn tail of leg number 1 make 10 slip stitches to join the legs. Follow direction shown on the image (purple arrow).

Make sure you insert your hook through both legs. Once done, secure outstanding yarn tail and place it loosely inside one of the legs. Note that there is no need to weave in or cut thread – it will be hidden inside the body, so we are fine with it.

Step 2

Secondly, take the third leg with cut yarn tail and connect it to the two already joined (look at the image). This leg will be joined to leg number 1, using 4 slip stitches. First, mark first and last stitch with markers and then connect with slip stitches. If you look closely at the image you will notice that the first stitch (where the white marker is) is adjacent to where we started joining first two legs. This is important to make sure we do not miss any stitches.

The loose end of yarn of leg number 3 should be on the side marked with purple star. Additionally, working direction is marked with purple arrow.

Step 3

Joining fourth leg is a bit tricky as we need to make sure we correctly count stitches both on leg number 3 and leg number 2. Remember, fourth leg is the one for which we didn’t cut yarn at the end. Your last stitch of the final row of this leg should be in the middle – look where orange arrow points to.

Firstly, join leg 2 with leg 4. Steps are same as joining leg 1 with 3. Use loose end of yarn of leg 2 to make 4 slip stitches. Start where the purple star is and crochet following direction shown by the purple arrow.

Step 4

Finally, join leg 4 with leg 3. Steps are same as connecting legs 1 and 2. This time however, we are crocheting 10 slip stitches and then we do not finish off but will continue working around joined legs to make the main body.

Before you continue with making the body take one of the loose yarn ends and tapestry needle and sew up the hole in the middle – more likely than not you will see one after joining all four legs.

Secure yarn after finishing, just leave ends inside. We’ll stuff the body later on so no need to worry about hiding yarn tails.

Crochet Llama Body

We make the amigurumi’s body using cream yarn, continuing after joining legs. Note that the first row is made into the top row of joined legs.

What is more, row 1 is made of 64 stitches, crocheted around. If you think about it, it makes sense. Firstly, the top row of each leg had 30 stitches. Secondly, we used up 14 of each leg – 10 to join along longer axis and 4 to join along shorter axis. Therefore, we are left with 16 ‘free’ stitches for each leg (30 minus 10 minus 4 = 16). If we make one sc into each of those ‘free’ stitches, we’ll come back to 64 (4 times 16 = 64).

Once you get this done, rest of the body is easy.

  • Rows 1 through 12:  64 sc (64)
  • Stuff.
  • Row 13: * 6 sc, decr * repeat 8 times (56)
  • Row 14: * 5 sc, decr * repeat 8 times (48)
  • Row 15: * 4 sc, decr * repeat 8 times (40)
  • Row 16: * 3 sc, decr * repeat 8 times (32)
  • Row 17: * 2 sc, decr * repeat 8 times (24)
  • Stuff up.
  • Row 18: * 1 sc, decr * repeat 8 times (16)
  • Row 19: * decr * repeat 8 times (8)

Close the hole (cut yarn, weave into row 19 and pull). As a last step fasten off securely and weave/hide in yarn end.

Interestingly enough, your final result should look a little bit like a tooth 😊

Head and Neck

We use cream yarn to make head and neck.

  • 6 sc in mr
  • Row 1:  * inc * repeat 6 times (12)
  • Row 2: * 1 sc, inc * repeat 6 times (18)
  • Row 3: * 2 sc, inc * repeat 6 times (24)
  • Row 4: * 3 sc, inc * repeat 6 times (30)
  • Row 5: * 4 sc, inc * repeat 6 times (36)
  • Row 6: * 5 sc, inc * repeat 6 times (42)
  • Rows 7 through 11: 42 sc (42)
  • Row 12: * 12 sc, decr * repeat 3 times (39)
  • Row 13: 39 sc (39)
  • Row 14: * 11 sc, decr * repeat 3 times (36)
  • Rows 15 through 18: 36 sc (36)
  • Row 19: * 4 sc, decr * repeat 6 times (30)
  • Row 20:  * 3 sc, decr * repeat 6 times (24)
  • Rows 21 through 32: 24 sc (24)
  • Row 33: * 7 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (27)
  • Row 34: * 8 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (30)
  • Row 35: * 2 sc, inc * repeat 10 times (40)
  • Stuff.

Lastly, fasten off and leave long tail for sewing.

Llama Muzzle

Make using cream yarn.

  • 6 sc in mr
  • Row 1:  * inc * repeat 6 times (12)
  • Row 2: * 1 sc, inc * repeat 6 times (18)
  • Row 3: * 5 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (21)
  • Row 4: * 6 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (24)
  • Rows 5 through 7: 24 sc (24)
  • Row 8:  * 7 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (27)
  • Stuff.

Lastly, fasten off and leave long tail for sewing.

Llama Ears

Make 2, using cream yarn.

  • 6 sc in mr
  • Row 1:  6 sc (6)
  • Row 2: * 1 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (9)
  • Rows 3 and 4: 9 sc (9)
  • Row 5: * 2 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (12)
  • Row 6: 12 sc (12)
  • Row 7: * 3 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (15)
  • Rows 8 and 9: 15 sc (15)

Lastly, fasten off and leave long tail for sewing. Then fold the ear along longer axis and sew along row 9. Don’t cut yarn yet as we’ll use it for joining with head later on.

Tail

Make using cream yarn.

  • 6 sc in mr
  • Row 1:  6 sc (6)
  • Row 2: * 1 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (9)
  • Row 3: 9 sc (9)
  • Row 4: * 2 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (12)
  • Row 5: 12 sc (12)
  • Row 6: * 3 sc, inc * repeat 3 times (15)

Lastly, fasten off and leave long tail for sewing. Similar to ear, fold the tail along longer axis and sew along row 6. Don’t cut yarn yet as we’ll use it for joining with body later on.

Crochet Llama Hat

Start with orange yarn.

  • 6 sc in mr
  • Row 1:  * inc * repeat 6 times (12)
  • Row 2: * 1 sc, inc * repeat 6 times (18)
  • Row 3: * 2 sc, inc * repeat 6 times (24)
  • Row 4: * 3 sc, inc * repeat 6 times (30)
  • Row 5: * 4 sc, inc * repeat 6 times (36)
  • Now we will make holes for ears.
  • Row 6: * 5 sc, inc, 5 sc, inc, chain 5, inc * repeat twice (42)
  • Rows 7 and 8: 42 sc (42)

[Note: In row 7 make sc normally in the chain in row 6, just as if crocheting as usual.]

  • Change yarn to brown.
  • Rows 9 and 10: 42 sc (42)
  • Change to orange.
  • Rows 11 and 12: 42 sc (42)
  • Change to brown.
  • Rows 13 and 14: 42 sc (42)

Do not cut yarn or fasten off as we’ll continue to making earflaps.

EARFLAP

On both sides of the hat, right at the level of holes for ears, we’ll create earflaps. Turn at the end of each row (we no longer work around). First row is made into the last row of the hat.

FIRST FLAP:

Make 1 sc after you finished row 14 above. Chain 1, turn.

  • Row 1 and 2: 8 sc (8), ch 1, turn
  • Row 3: decr, 6 sc (7), ch 1, turn
  • Row 4: decr, 5 sc (6), ch 1, turn
  • Row 5: decr, 4 sc (5), ch 1, turn
  • Row 6: decr, 3 sc (4), ch 1, turn
  • Row 7: decr, decr (2), ch 1, turn
  • Row 8: decr (1)

Lastly, fasten off and cut yarn.

SECOND FLAP:

Count 13 stitches from any edge of the first flap, from either side of the first earflap and the next stitch will be your starting point for the second one. Hat is symmetrical and that is why it doesn’t matter if you go right or left from the first flap. 14th stitch is the first of the second flap. You need to attach yarn here (e.g. by tying a knot) and pattern remains same.

Then we ad hat decorations (Peru style 😊). Start at the tip of one earflap and finish at the tip of the other one. Additionally, leave long tails at the start and at the end of the row. Make 29 sc using orange yarn on one side of the hat, and 29 sc using brown yarn on the other side.

Then pull one piece of brown yarn and one piece of orange yarn through the tip. At this stage you should have 6 pieces of yarn hanging. Divide those into 3 ‘batches’, where each ‘batch’ has one orange and one brown piece of yarn. Lastly, make a braid, as long as you wish. To finish off, wrap around one piece of yarn and tie a knot. If need be, trim ends to even out.

Crochet Llama Poncho

Poncho is a striped rectangle with a V-shaped opening in a middle and 4 little pompoms added at the corners. Start with green yarn and turn at the end of each row.

  • Chain 31
  • Row 1: Beginning from the second chain from the hook 30 sc (30), ch 1, turn
  • Rows 2 through 4: 30 sc (30), ch 1, turn
  • Change to olive yarn.
  • Rows 5 and 6: 30 sc (30), ch 1, turn
  • Change to green yarn.
  • Rows 7 and 8: 30 sc (30), ch 1, turn
  • Change to olive yarn.
  • Rows 9 through 12: 30 sc (30), ch 1, turn
  • Change to green yarn.
  • Rows 13 and 14: 30 sc (30), ch 1, turn
  • Change to olive yarn.
  • Rows 15 and 16: 30 sc (30), ch 1, turn
  • Change to green yarn.

Now we create a V-shaped opening.

  • Row 17: 10 sc, chain 21, turn
  • Row 18: Beginning from the second chin from the hook 30 sc (30) ch 1, turn
  • Change to olive yarn.
  • Rows 19 and 20: 30 sc (30), ch 1, turn
  • Change to green yarn.
  • Rows 21 and 22: 30 sc (30), ch 1, turn
  • Change to olive yarn.
  • Rows 23 through 26: 30 sc (30), ch 1, turn
  • Change to green yarn.
  • Rows 27 and 28: 30 sc (30), ch 1, turn
  • Change to olive yarn.
  • Rows 29 and 30: 30 sc (30), ch 1, turn
  • Change to green yarn.
  • Rows 31 and 34: 30 sc (30), ch 1, turn

Lastly, fasten off and leave a short tail.

At each of the outer corners of the rectangle add 5 pieces of olive yarn, roughly 10 cm long, and one piece of green yarn, roughly 15 cm long (similar to what we have done already for hat earflaps to create braids). Afterwards, wrap one piece of green yarn at the root of the pompom and tie a knot. Finally, trim to even out.

Amigurumi Assembly

First attach head to the body, along the longer axis. It’s really up to you where you place it. In essence, feel free to experiment and  use pins to check out various options. Then attach muzzle to the head and tail to the back side. Same as above – play with it until you are happy with the outcome.

Note: You may want to/need to stuff up before finishing sewing. Assess if that is the case.

Now proceed to establishing where to attach ears. The easiest way to do it is to first place the hat in a desired position and then using contrasting yarn mark where the ear holes are. Then once you take off the hat you’ll see exactly where the ears should go.

Face embroidery

Once you have all parts completed and the toy is assembled, embroider eyes and nose using tapestry needle and black yarn. As can be seen on images, place eyes closely to the muzzle (right above sewing). Nose is a simple Y shape. If you want your lama to look a bit goofier then you can slightly tweak the position of the nose and direct it to the side.

Handmade animal amigurumi

Lastly, dress up our Lama Picchu – put on a hat and a poncho. Additionally, you can use a safety pin to secure the poncho on lama’s chest.

What I really like about this girl is that clothes are detachable so it’s a real fun for kids as they can dress and undress the toy. Moreover, you can make few sets of those, in different colors so that your loved ones can happily play with it.

In essence, this is it – our super easy and fun Lama Picchu.

Hopefully you find the pattern clear and friendly – if not then feel free to shoot me a note with questions!

If you are looking for other easy and fun crocheting projects to make then check out my Amigurumi Bunny Free Crochet Pattern or Free Crochet Baby Groot Pattern.

Have fun and stay safe!

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40 thoughts on “Crochet Llama | Free Amigurumi Crochet Pattern”

  1. This is such a cute little lama. And I first thought it would be challenging (when I first read the article). But then I read it again and felt I just needed to be careful with one or two things. I’ll sure give this lama a try. Mother’s day is around the corner and I would really like to give this cute present to my dear mother.

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  2. This is such an adorable crochet pattern, thank you for sharing! I really want to get back into doing crochet, my Grandmother had started teaching me basic stitches before she passed away. I’ve been trying to find free resources online to relearn how to do it and get back into it. This pattern is really cute, I’ll keep it in mind!

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