Scheepjes very generously offered to sponsor me with yarn for a pattern, and we agreed that Calliope the Caterpillar would be a good fit! This is my first time trying Scheepjes, I was so excited to get my hands on some and I really enjoyed working with it. I used Soft Fun, Soft Fun Denim and Furry Tales for this project. I found the yarn very smooth and easy to work up with a small hook, and it has great stitch definition for the step-by-step photos in my patterns – which I appreciate as a designer. They’ve also got these really handy ‘easy start’ tabs which I’ve never seen before but now that I have, I wish it was on all yarns! Don’t you hate having to rummage inside the ball for that starting thread and inevitable pull out a handful of guts to unravel?!

Furry Tales is my favorite of the batch though, it’s like actual fur fabric but made in a very thin strip for crocheting! And it’s just as soft and lush as it looks in the picture!!! Calliope loves it too…

The research phase of this pattern was loads of fun, scrolling through endless Pins of brightly coloured caterpillars, trying to pick which sorts of features I wanted to add to mine, how many body segments she should have, which ones would have legs, what shape her eyes and mouth should be, and planning how I’d made her look chubby and cute. The fun part about the pattern is that you can customize her by adding as many segments as you like, and choosing whether you want spines, scales or legs on them. Everything is crocheted on as you go so there’s no sewing in the whole pattern except for attaching her big shiny eyes.

Calliope’s design might look complex and intimidating but I promise it’s not that scary. Her decorative spines and scales work up quickly, and you can even exclude them if you’re short on time. I’ve also made a video to demonstrate the tricky parts of the pattern so you don’t need a whole lot of experience to be able to make her – she’s quite beginner friendly!

This pattern is free to download and the video is free to watch! I wanted to make Calliope as accessible as possible, so that everyone can make her. You should definitely give this pattern a try, enjoy the freebie and pay it forward by sharing this pattern with someone else. If you like demo videos, remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more of them, and if you like free patterns, join my mailing list to be notified of new releases.

Thanks for stopping by! Keep scrolling to see Calliope meeting new friends, Helium the Hippo and Lunar the Lemur.

PIN IT!