Today is Ground­hog Day and we have a snow­storm, just like in the movie. And because of the snow­storm I got to stay home all day. Since I have all that free time I thought I should cel­e­brate the day by mak­ing a ground­hog. But I could­n’t find any free pat­tern, so I decid­ed to make my own.

For this ground­hog I used some tan acrylic yarn and some fuzzy brown wool, the 2 strands of yarn held togeth­er. Both appear to be sport weight, but I can’t be sure because they were giv­en to me with­out labels. I used a 5mm hook. I think 1 strand of bulky weight yarn with 5mm hook would also work.

I also used 2 4mm beads for eyes, some white felt for teeth, and some nee­dles and thread for sewing.

Ground­hog is about 3 inch­es tall. Not very big and does­n’t take long to make.

Head and Body:

Row 1: ch 3, 5 sc in 3rd ch from hook, sl st. in top of begin­ning 2 ch.

Row 2: ch 2, [2sc in next sc, sc in next sc] 3 times, sc in top of begin­ning ch.

Row 3 and on: sc around until desired height (mine’s about 2 inch­es), end with last st in cen­tre front (I just eye­balled it, but one could count the stitch­es to make sure it’s cen­tered if desired). Take hook off stitch, keep loop on mark­er and don’t fas­ten off.

At this point it would be a good time to sew on eyes, embroi­der nose and mouth, and attach ears.

To make ears:

I made the ears with one strand of the acrylic yarn with a 3mm hook. One could prob­a­bly use a thin­ner yarn in a sim­i­lar shade and small­er hook, or if using 1 strand of bulky yarn con­tin­ue to use same yarn but use a 4mm hook.

With a sep­a­rate ball of yarn attach yarn at top of head where you’d like to posi­tion ear, ch 1, sc in st where yarn is attached, ch 1, sl st in st where yarn is attached. Fas­ten off, weave in ends. Repeat for the oth­er ear.

Legs:

Place hook back in loop at the end of body, ch 2, bring the ch across the open­ing of the body and sc in a st in cen­tre back (I just eye­balled it, but one could count the stitch­es to make sure it’s cen­tered if desired), like so…

Then, sc in each sc until the ch 2 in the mid­dle, sc in each ch, then sc in each sc for 2 more rounds, sl st. in each of next 2 sc, fas­ten off.

For the oth­er leg, attach yarn to the same st in cen­tre front at the base of the oth­er leg, ch 1, sc in next sc, sc in each sc until the st in cen­tre back at the base of the oth­er leg, sc in the st in cen­tre back, sc in each ch of the ch 2 in the mid­dle (one would have to cro­chet in the back loops of the chain), sc in the begin­ning ch 1 of this leg, sc in each sc for 2 more rounds, sl st in each of next 2 sc, fas­ten off.

Now would be a good time to stuff the ground­hog through the open­ings at the bot­tom of the legs. After stuff­ing, close the bot­tom of the legs by weav­ing through the inner loops of the open­ing with yarn and nee­dle, like so…

Pull tight, tie off, and weave in ends.

Arms:

Attach yarn to where you’d like to posi­tion the arm, ch 3, sl st in 2nd ch from hook, sl st in next ch, sl st in st where yarn is attached, fas­ten off, weave in ends. Repeat for the oth­er arm.

Tail:

Cut mul­ti­ple lengths of yarn (I used around 8) about 4 inch­es long each. Thread a sep­a­rate piece of yarn and use it to tie the lengths of yarn togeth­er in the mid­dle, like so…

Then sew the tied strands of yarn to the back of the ground­hog, like so…

Trim tail to desired length, and unrav­el the indi­vid­ual strands, so it’s all fuzzy.

And we’re done! We took some pho­tos on the bal­cony, which was cov­ered in snow…

“No shad­ow in sight. An ear­ly spring this year, I pre­dict. Now, must we linger in the cold outdoors?”

When we came back inside I thought he might look good with some buck­teeth, so I sewed on some white felt for teeth. Now he’s patient­ly wait­ing at Mike’s desk for him to come home, because Mike is an enthu­si­as­tic cel­e­bra­tor of Ground­hog Day but he does­n’t get to stay home for snow day today.

Hap­py Ground­hog Day everyone!

 

p.s. I real­ize that the leg part of the pat­tern may be a bit con­fus­ing — please leave a com­ment if you need any clar­i­fi­ca­tion or if you spot any mis­take and I will get back to you as soon as I can.