Samuel the Koala

I wanted to try one of my other pattern books so I could crochet Samuel the Koala, and I had the perfect excuse!

One of my closest friends in Australia was about to give birth to her third child, so I thought I’d make a little something for the newborn baby.

I decided to go with a little Koala, and I think he is super adorable. I can’t wait for my friend and her newborn baby to receive him in the mail. But first, I need to crochet two other amigurumi for her other children so they get something too.

Meet Samuel the Koala

Don’t let this little cutie fool you. He is super cute, but he is also super cheeky! Typical Aussie, right? 

His favourite pastime is running around the house and hiding uneaten food under cushions. Eh oh, my friend is going to have some fun when she receives him.

Other than being cheeky, Samuel is super loving and enjoys cuddling very much. He is looking forward to meeting his new best friend too. I think they’ll get along great!

Details to crochet Samuel the Koala

If you’d like to crochet a Samuel too, I’ve listed below all the tips, tricks, and resources I used to make this little koala. I hope you find them helpful.

Crochet pattern for Samuel the Koala

I was so extremely excited to get to use one of my other new pattern books! This pattern came from the book Edward’s Menagerie: Over 40 soft and snuggly toy animal crochet patterns by Kerry Lord. You can find the pattern for Samuel on pages 60 – 61.

This book was great. The majority of patterns use standard patterns for the amigurumi body, legs, arms, and head (well, Samuel’s pattern did), which meant flipping the book back and forth a little bit, but it was worth it. The patterns included in this book are absolutely adorable, with Samuel being no exception. Plus, there are actually four different sizes of each animal that you can make! So it is well over 40 patterns that you’re getting overall. Click here if you’d like to check out this book on Amazon.

Yarn for crochet project

As per usual, I didn’t use the yarn specified in the book. I wanted to support a local business in our area due to the COVID-19 lockdown, so went ahead and contacted Mei from Be Inspired Fibres in Edinburgh who hooked me up with some gorgeous yarn from Denmark called CaMaRose DK.

The yarn I used consisted of 50% Llama fibres and 50% Peruvian Highlands Wool, and is called CaMaRose Lamauld ½. The colours I chose were Coke Grey (No. 6075) for Samuel’s main body, Grå Brunmeleret (No. 6940) otherwise known as Grey Brown for Samuel’s nose and eyes, and Råhvid (No. 6000) otherwise known as off white for Samuel’s outter ears. If you fancy purchasing some CaMaRose yarn, you can check out their website here, or if you’re Edinburgh based I’d highly recommend checking out Be Inspired Fibres who also stock this gorgeous fibre locally.

Crochet resources

Since most of the stitches were all quite standard in this pattern, I didn’t need to look up many hints and tricks to complete this pattern. However, there was one thing I did need to look up…

What crochet hook size should I use?

Since the yarn I was using for this project only specified knitting needle sizes, I wanted to double check that these were the same as the crochet hook size needed. All I can say is, thank goodness I checked! Knitting needle sizes are not the same as crochet hook sizes, or so I’ve read. The article I found that helped me a lot with this is by Thread Bear and is called, Conversion chart for crochet hooks and knitting needles Metric/UK/US. Just click here to check it out.

Crochet lessons learned

With every new crochet project, you always learn something! Although this pattern didn’t challenge me technically, it did challenge me in other ways.

When using a new yarn, persistence pays off.

Since I haven’t really mixed up the types of yarn I’ve been using for my projects so far (I’ve mainly been using 100% cotton), using a new yarn challenged me. The texture took some time getting used to. Even though it felt amazing and soft, it was new and different, and well, strange at first. I’d say after about seven rounds in, I was good to go and on a roll. It is something to be aware of though when you are using a new yarn. Persistence does pay off in this case, for sure.

Size of yarn

I haven’t really paid a lot of attention to the various sizes of yarn I’ve been using before, however for this project since the book specifies various yarn types for various sizes of the amigurumi, I was forced to pay attention to it. Overall, this was great because I thought myself a bit more about the various yarn sizes and what each of them meant.

Final thoughts on crocheting Samuel the Koala

Samuel is one cheeky little koala, but he sure is adorable.

I really enjoyed this project, using Kerry Lord’s pattern book Edward’s Menagerie, and using a new yarn type. It challenged me, I learned, and I loved the outcome in the end.  I can’t wait for Tiarna and Zack to receive Samuel to find out what they think too.

If you’ve made Samuel before, what was your experience? I’d love to hear from you. Just drop me a message in the comments below, or you can get in touch with me here.

Until next time, happy crocheting,

Cilla x