Crochet Eyeballs: Make Creepy Amigurumi Eyes in About 30 Minutes
Make a creepy crochet eyeball with a bulging iris and a red-veined sclera in about half an hour.
A crochet eyeball is just a small stuffed sphere with a color change in the middle, and you can finish one in about thirty minutes.
Crochet eyeballs are small stuffed spheres, not flat circles. The shape is what makes them read as eyes instead of buttons.
You need three colors, one hook and about half an hour. The whole thing is single crochet in a spiral, so there is no joining and no turning.
Work a single crochet ball in white, switch to your iris color for the last few rounds, then close it around a small bit of stuffing. Add red surface stitches for veins and a black pupil. One eyeball uses about 15 yards of yarn and a 3.5 mm hook.
What you need
Worsted weight yarn in white
About 15 yards per eyeball. Acrylic holds shape best and is cheap enough to practice with.
Worsted weight yarn in one iris color
About 3 yards. Green, blue, brown or a bright unnatural color all work.
Scrap of black yarn
Less than a yard. Use it for the pupil and the outline, not for stuffing.
Scrap of red yarn
Less than a yard. Thin yarn makes better veins than thick yarn.
3.5 mm crochet hook
A 4 mm hook works if you crochet tightly. Go down to 3 mm for a denser fabric.
Polyester fiberfill
A small handful per eye. Cotton balls clump and show through the stitches.
Yarn needle and stitch marker
The needle needs an eye wide enough for worsted yarn. A bobby pin works as a marker in a pinch.
What size hook and yarn make a good eyeball
Use worsted weight yarn with a 3.5 mm hook. That combo gives you a firm fabric that holds its round shape instead of going floppy.
A 3.5 mm hook with worsted yarn makes an eyeball about 1.5 inches across. Go up to a 4 mm hook and you get closer to 1.75 inches, but the stuffing shows through more.
- Worsted weight acrylic or cotton for the sclera
- Sport weight for a smaller, neater eye
- Polyester fiberfill, not cotton balls, which clump
If your stitches look loose enough to see light through, drop one hook size.
Abbreviations used here
These are the standard US terms. If you learned UK terms, your dc is my sc, so read the list carefully before you start.
- sc – single crochet
- inc – two single crochet in the same stitch
- dec – single crochet two stitches together
- st – stitch
- ch – chain
- sl st – slip stitch
- FLO – front loops only
Write the round numbers on a scrap of paper and cross them off as you go. Spiral rounds are easy to lose track of.
The eyeball pattern, round by round
Work in a continuous spiral. Do not join rounds and do not turn. Mark the first stitch of each round with a stitch marker or a scrap of contrasting yarn.
The whole ball is 18 stitches around at its widest. That is small enough to finish fast and big enough to show the iris clearly.
Count after every increase round. A missed increase early throws the whole sphere off and you will not notice until round 6.
Closing it up so the stuffing stays in
Leave a 6 inch tail after the final decrease. Thread it on a yarn needle and run it through the front loops of the last 6 stitches.
Pull tight and the hole disappears. Push the needle through the middle of the ball and out the other side once, then trim. That anchors the tail so it does not work loose.
Understuff by a hair. An eyeball packed too full turns into a golf ball and the pupil stitches pull out of shape.
Adding the iris, pupil and blood vessels
The color change round is where most eyeballs go wrong. Work the last white stitch until two loops are left on the hook, then pull the new color through both loops. That gives a clean edge with no white peeking into the iris.
For the pupil, use black yarn and a yarn needle. Make five or six straight stitches across the center of the iris, then go around the outside of those stitches to thicken it.
Veins are the fun part. Thread red yarn and take three or four wandering stitches from the iris edge toward the outside of the ball. Keep them thin and uneven. Perfect symmetry looks fake.
Do the pupil before the veins. If the pupil sits off center, you can hide the mistake with a vein.
Where crochet eyeballs go wrong
The most common problem is a visible color jog where white meets iris. That happens when you change color mid-stitch instead of on the last pull-through.
The second is a lumpy sphere. Usually that means your increases are stacked in the same spot each round instead of spread out. Shift the marker by one stitch on alternating rounds.
Loose stuffing poking through is a gauge problem, not a stuffing problem. Go down a hook size rather than adding more fill.
If the eye looks like a lemon, you skipped the even rounds between increases. Rip back to round 4 and start again.
Step
Make a magic ring with 6 sc
Pull the ring snug but not tight. You should be able to fit your hook through the center before you close it.
Round 2: inc in each stitch
You end with 12 stitches. Count them before moving on.
Round 3: sc, inc around
That gives 18 stitches. This is the widest point of the eyeball.
Rounds 4 and 5: sc in each stitch
Two plain rounds with no increases. This is what makes the sphere round instead of flat.
Round 6: change to iris color, sc around
Change on the last pull-through of the final white stitch. Work 18 sc in the new color.
Round 7: dec around
You drop to 9 stitches. Stuff the ball firmly before the hole gets too small.
Round 8: dec around, then close
Six stitches left. Cut a 6 inch tail and thread it through the front loops of all six. Pull tight.
Add pupil and veins
Straight stitches in black for the pupil, wandering red stitches for veins. Bury the tails inside the ball.
Ways to change it
Glow in the dark sclera
Swap the white for glow yarn. Charge it under a lamp and it glows green for a few minutes.
Bloodshot oversized eye
Use bulky yarn and a 5 mm hook for a 3 inch eyeball. Add eight or nine veins instead of four.
Cat slit pupil
Stitch a vertical black line instead of a round pupil. Works best on a yellow or green iris.
Keychain version
Use sport weight and a 2.5 mm hook, then add a split ring through the top before you close the ball.
Two-tone iris
Work two rounds of a lighter shade before the darker outer round. Gives a hazel effect with no extra effort.
The short version
- One eyeball takes about 30 minutes and 15 yards of worsted yarn.
- The widest round is 18 single crochet, which makes a ball about 1.5 inches across.
- Change color on the last pull-through of a stitch to avoid a visible jog.
- Understuff slightly so the pupil stitches keep their shape.
- Red veins look better when they are uneven and thin.
- A missed increase early will show up as a lopsided ball by round 6.
Questions people ask
How much yarn does one crochet eyeball use?
About 15 yards of worsted weight for the white part and 3 yards for the iris. The black and red scraps are under a yard each. One skein of white makes a lot of eyeballs.
Can I crochet an eyeball without a magic ring?
Yes. Chain 2 and work 6 sc into the first chain instead. The center hole is slightly bigger, so pull your starting tail tight before you stuff the ball.
Why does my crochet eyeball look lumpy?
Your increases are probably landing in the same column each round. Move your stitch marker one stitch over on every other round so the increases spiral instead of stacking.
What can I do with crochet eyeballs?
They work as amigurumi parts, Halloween bowl filler, keychains, or a garland strung on black yarn. Sew them onto a plush toy if you want a matching pair.
Do I need safety eyes for this?
No. The pupil is stitched in black yarn, so there is no plastic hardware to buy. That also makes the eyeball safe for toys meant for small children.
Grab your white yarn and make the first one tonight
Start with one eyeball in plain white and black. Once the sphere comes out round, add the iris color and the veins. Keep it quick and cute!
