How to Crochet a Goldfish - Step by Step Tutorial

Hello everyone and welcome to Skane Spider. Today we're going to be making a crochet goldfish. We're going to begin by making the basic pattern and then at the end of the video I'm going to show you how to customize it. So if you would like to make a fancy little goldfish grab your hooks and let's get started. To make this pattern you're going to need a 3.5 millimeter hook, scissors, stitch markers, a needle, pins, stuffing, eight ply yarn in a color or colors of your choice and a pair of 12 millimeter safety eyes. What we're going to do today is start off with the basic goldfish pattern then at the end of the video what I'm going to do is give you some tips on how to customize your goldfish so you can have one that looks a bit like this or possibly one that looks like this. I don't know how well that black's showing up but there's several different things you can do to change up the appearance of your goldfish. But for now we're just going to start with the basic pattern and I'm going to do mine in gold because I'm interpreting this literally this time goldfish and we're going to begin round one by putting six single crochet, no that's the wrong size hook, I want my 3.5 millimeter hook and we're going to begin by putting six single crochet in a magic circle. So make your magic circle and then we're going to go into the magic circle one single crochet, two, three, four, five and last one six then close that up. Round two is going to be six increases and an increase is just two single crochet into each stitch of the previous round. So I'm going into stitch number one I'm doing one single crochet going to the same stitch second single crochet I'm going to do that in the second stitch too one two single crochet in the same stitch and then in stitch number three two stitch number four one and two five and six. For round three we're going to do one single crochet one increase and repeat this pattern six times. Begin with one single crochet and pop your stitch marker in if you're using one then we're going to do an increase, go away cat hair, and then we're going to do an increase in the next stitch and then just keep repeating. We're going to do one single crochet, increase in the next stitch, single crochet, increase, single crochet, increase and our fifth single crochet, fifth increase and then lastly our sixth single crochet and our sixth increase. Round four is also going to start off with one single crochet so I'm going to do that first and then we're going to increase in the next stitch and then we're going to repeat two single crochet one increase five times. Begin with one and then two single crochet, increase in the next stitch and you'll want to repeat this two single crochet one increase four more times for five in total. After you've done that fifth and final increase you should have one stitch remaining in your round and we're just going to pop a single crochet into that. At the end of round four we should have 24 stitches in our round and then round five is just going to be 24 single crochet all the way around. Round six is going to begin with six single crochet and then after that sixth single crochet we're going to repeat one single crochet one increase six times. So begin with one single crochet, do an increase in the next stitch and then just repeat that five more times. And sixth increase and after your sixth increase you should now have six stitches left in your round and we're just going to single crochet into all of those. After round six we should now have 30 stitches in total in our round and then rounds seven through to 12 are each going to be 30 single crochet. For round 13 we're going to start with 12 single crochet and 12 and then what we're going to do is repeat two single crochet one decrease three times. We're going to begin with the two single crochet one and two and then we're going to do an invisible decrease. To do that we're going to go under the front loops of the next two stitches, go under the first front loop, go under the second front loop, then you're going to yarn over and pull through both of those front loops and this will leave you with two loops on your hook. Yarn over again pull through those two loops and you have finished your invisible decrease. We're going to repeat that twice more, two single crochet one invisible decrease, decrease and then we're going to finish round 13 with six single crochet. Round 14 is 27 single crochet. Round 15 also begins with 12 single crochet and then we're repeat one single crochet one decrease three times and then finish off the round with six single crochet. Round 16 is just 24 single crochet. After you finish round 16 we're going to insert our safety eyes so just grab a stitch marker and secure your end and then I'm going to grab my eyes and we're going to place the eyes between rounds six and seven but we also want to place them in correct position on the head. So in round six we did that pattern repeat of one single crochet one increase six times. That's the top of the head so if you turn your piece to the side you can see the bottom of it is a little bit flatter where the top of the head curves a little bit. So this is the top of our goldfish here we have the top of the head and its back and what you're going to do is just face it towards you so you can see if we count out one two three four five and six this is where our repeat was of one single crochet one increase you're just going to flatten this piece so press it in half and then you're going to grab your first eye start from round one and count out one two three four five six seven and between rounds six and seven it helps if you don't drop your eyes but between around six and seven we're going to place the eyes one two three four five six and seven but I'm going to place one in first there we go and then keeping that pressed flat I'm going to try and line up the other eye on the opposite side in the same position so I'm just going to follow that around that looks about right once that's done you can open up your goldfish and just see if the eyes are level from the front and also if they're a good in a good position on the side so if you think they're a little bit too high you can move them down or vice versa so I like where my eyes are at the moment so I'm going to pop the backs on and then we're just going to reinsert our crochet hooks and continue on with round 17. Round 17 is two single crochet and an invisible decrease repeated six times. Round 18 is one single crochet one decrease repeated six times. After round 18 we're going to add our stuffings we're going to secure our ends again and then just add that and when you finish stuffing we're just going to reinsert our hooks for the final round no the second last round I've got two to go we're going to do one single crochet one decrease repeated four times and then round 20 which is our final round for the body is going to be two single crochet one decrease repeated twice and now we're just going to finish off so I'm going to snip a short tail pull up with my hook and remove the stitch marker as well and for this next step you'll want to grab your needle and we're going to thread the tail end through that and to close up this hole we're going to go under the front loops of the remaining six stitches so find stitch number one you're going to start from behind the front loop you're going to go under it and push the needle forward towards you one do the same in the second stitch so from behind under and forward and continue doing that for all six stitches and six you're going to tug firmly on that yarn so the hole closes up and then insert your needle straight back into the center and then just weave the yarn in through the body a couple of times to secure it snip off that excess yarn and then we can go on to making the fins for the rest of the pieces that we're going to make that would be the tail the fins and the dorsal fin we're going to be work entirely into the back loop for all of those pieces so please just keep that in mind because as we're crocheting if I do forget to say back loop only for one of the rows of the patterns just note that we are working in the back loop it's just I have to say it so many times that I may end up forgetting we're going to start with the tail and we're going to make a slip knot and then we're going to chain 10 and for this we are still using our 3.5 millimeter hooks starting in the second chain from the hook we're going to do four single crochet one and four in the next stitch we're going to do an increase that is one two single crochet in the same stitch and then we're going to finish off this row with four single crochet we're going to begin row two by chaining four one two three and four and again starting from the second chain in the hook we're going to begin row two with six single crochet but the first three stitches are going to be across the chain that we made so starting in the second chain from the hook that's one then the next chain two and the first chain that we made is three for the rest of the row we're going to be working in the back loop only so we're going to do number four in the back loop and we're working over our previous row now not in the chain anymore then five and six so to begin that row all up we did three single crochet down the chain that we made and three single crochet in the back loop over our previous row the next stitch is going to be an increase again in the back loop only one and two and then we're going to finish off this row with six single crochet which is once more worked in the back loop row three begins with a chain four again one two three and four and this time we're going to do eight single crochet one increase eight single crochet all worked in the back loops but again the first three stitches are going to be worked across this chain that we've made row four begins with a chain four one two three four and then we're going to do 10 single crochet one increase 10 single crochet in the back loops only and again working across our chain four space first row five chain four and then we're going to do in the back loop only 12 single crochet one increase and 12 single crochet row six is chain four and then we're going to do 14 single crochet one increase 14 single crochet all in the back loop our final row of the tail is row seven and we're also going to begin that with a chain four one two three and four and this time we're only going to do 16 single crochet and 16 and then we're going to stop there because it's at this midpoint where we're going to sew the tail onto the body later on so what you want to do is leave a tail for that snip that off and then you can make as many tail pieces as you like for this skullfish i'm going to make two but for some customization as i said at the start of the video i will be going over that at the end of this video so we'll get to that a bit later but for now we're going to go on to crocheting the dorsal fin for that we're also going to be starting with a slip knot and using our 3.5 millimeter hook and like with the tail this is worked entirely into the back loops we're going to begin this time by chaining six one two three four five and six starting in the second chain from the hook we're going to do five single crochet for both rows two and three we're going to chain one turn our work and in the back loop only we're going to crochet four single crochet both rows four and five are chain one turn your work and in the back loop only three single crochet and then rows six and seven which are our last two rows are chain one turn your work and in the back loop only two single crochet one and two for row six chain turn and then one and two for row seven and we are done with our dorsal fin doesn't take very long these little fins so we're going to leave a tail for sewing that on and then we're going to finish off with our other little fins here i forget what the actual name is for those so we're going to start again with a slip knot chain four one two three four row one starting in the second chain from the hook is three single crochet one two three and then both rows two and three are chain one turn your work and two single crochet so we're doing one and two in the back loop so that's row two and then for row three we're going to chain one turn our work and again do two single crochet in the back loop one and two and that's it for the fins i'm going to make another one of these and another tail usually i make my duplicate pieces in advance but i didn't do that this time i'm going to crochet one more each of those pieces and then we'll come back and assemble our goldfish when you finish crocheting all your pieces what we're going to do is take care of the ends before we attach anything so i'm going to take the end from our slip knot from the tail and i'm going to weave that in through the backs of my stitches now you can do this for both the dorsal fin and the little fins as well but what i do because i find it a little bit easier is i'll sew them on using the longer tail we left but then this end i'll actually weave it into the body to hide it so you can do that either way it's up to you but as i said i'm going to be weaving it into the body just because i find that a bit easier so we're going to start off with the tail and i'm just going to thread this slip knot end through that there we go and just weave it in through the backs of the stitches when you're done with that we're going to sew the tails onto the body so i'm just going to thread the longer tail end through there and i just sew these on for about four stitches you don't need to sew them on more than that but we're just going to pop them on the end of the body try and center them and begin sewing you can pin them in place if you want to but it's not super necessary you can do it without pins and the exact placement of the end of the tail here or the midpoint is going to depend on how many tails you do so if you're doing two like me i'm going to situate them sort of on either side of our final round here but if you've got one tail you can put it directly in the center if you've done four tails you can do what i suggested before either side around one and then one outside of that so if i did four tails i'd have one sitting here but it's entirely up to you and how many tails you've made and next we're going to do the dorsal fin so you're going to take the longer tail for that and then you're going to place this on the top of the head and make sure it's centered between the eyes for this one i am going to use one pin and i'm just going to use that to make sure the front stays in place now the front of the dorsal fin is the tallest part this section here we're going to sew along the flat side so put that in the center and you can put this as far up or far down the body as you like so i'm going to place it about there and just pin the front and then just begin sewing that and then when you finish sewing we're just going to deal with this end if you left it and didn't weave it in so just thread the slip knot end through your needle and weave it straight into the body like we do when we're finishing off with our sewing tail and the final things we're going to sew on are the little fins the longer end is the front like with the dorsal fin and this time i am going to use a few pins just because i want to make sure that the fins are sitting level on the body before i sew them so i'm going to grab a couple of pins and like with the other pieces you can choose where you want them to sit so i'm going to have mine fairly low down on the body and i am lining the front of the fin up with the round that's just behind the eye so this should have been round six and seven so we've got six seven eight and nine so between rounds eight and nine that's where i'm lining up my fin i'm going to flip that what's that about two stitches down from the eye so if i flip that over and one two ish and pin that in place and they they look pretty even so i'm going to begin sewing using the longer tail and when they're sewed on i'm just going to weave in these slip knot ends as well and that is the last bit of sewing that we need to do but there is one more step to just add a little bit of detail to our goldfish so what we're going to do is grab our yarn whichever color you're using and your 3.5 millimeter hook again and we're just going to crochet a little mouth all we're going to do is crochet around in between rounds one and two so i'm going to insert my needle here so that should be six stitches in total you're going to line up your yarn yarn over and pull through and then slip stitch to join we're going to go back into that same stitch we just worked into if i can get my hook in there this is going well there we go and we're going to do one single crochet continue crocheting around in a circle for six single crochet two number three and again i'm working in between rounds one and two four five and six that's our final stitch and then what we're going to do is slip stitch into the first single crochet that we made and then when you're finished we're just going to weave in these two ends that we've got and we're just going to do that in the same way that we finished off all the pieces we sewed on and there we go goldfish finished now as i said at the start of the video i will show you how i customize some of my other ones so these ones this one i did the exact same thing as the gold one i've made so we don't really need to go over that but with these other two this one all i did was add in some random color changes so i did the little things in different colors and i just threw in some color change rounds in the body the dorsal fin and the tail so i didn't write this down it just at random however i wanted or wherever i wanted some color so that is one option i would like to do one that's got a little bit more color so maybe orange white and black or gray and this one is a little bit fancy it's a black moor goldfish and i added four tails but when i did the tails i did the inner tails in a four millimeter hook and i did the outer parts of the tail in a three millimeter hook so it's a bit hard to see but it actually is a size difference if i did this again i'd probably make it a little bit more pronounced the difference so i might do like a five millimeter hook and a three millimeter hook something like that and i also added the googly eyes to do that all i did was start with six single crochet in a magic circle round two was 12 single crochet or six increases to get to 12 single crochet and then rounds of three and four were 12 single crochet each so that's all i did for those and i inserted the safety eyes into these googly eyed parts that i crocheted rather than the body itself so if you would like to make one of these guys just crochet the body don't add the eyes into the body instead crochet the eye parts separately and add the eyes there before you sew them on so that is a couple of ways you can customize your little goldfish but with that we are finished for today so i will see you all next week with another pattern