Belted Kingfisher Keychain

And now for my final bird keychain (for now) and my entry to #amigurumishowcase ! Kingfishers used to be my favourite bird before they were usurped by magpies. They're a fascinating bird, looming on branches overlooking ponds before diving down into the water to catch fish. This keychain is a female thanks to her orange belt that gives the species its name; males lack the belt.

This little keychain is about the same size as my cardinal, standing about 3" (~7.6 cm) tall excluding the keychain and 2.75" (7 cm) from belly to tailtip. There will special instructions to work the keychain directly into the crest, but you can easily skip the keychain if you'd like a little perching buddy.

You can buy a PDF copy of this pattern in a little ebook here on Ravelry! The book contains eight patterns: four coasters and four amigurumi keychains (including this one). It's the exact same pattern as you'll see here, but I bundled them up for $5 CAD to provide an easier-to-print PDF or for if you wanted to show me some support.

Here's some quick guff on the ways you can use my pattern:

• do not redistribute the pattern - just link to this page
• your results are free for personal use - but I ask that you don't sell your finished product. just hand them out as gifts, ok? your friends will love you for it

With that out of the way, on to the pattern!

ad

Materials

• Size E (3.5mm) Crochet Hook
• Worsted Weight Yarn
  • I used Red Heart Super Saver in:
    • Country Blue
    • Soft White
    • Carrot
    • Black
• Yarn Needle
• Stuffing
• 2 6mm safety eyes
• Keychain (optional)

Abbreviations

• ch – chain
• sc – single crochet
• hdc - half double crochet
• dc – double crochet
• tr – treble crochet
• sc2tog - sc 2 together
• inc – two single crochet in same stitch
• dec – invisible decrease
• ss – slip stitch
• cc – colour change
• blo – back loop only

Techniques

I have a useful guide on all the different techniques I use when I make amigurumi. Obviously, you should stick with whatever techniques you are comfortable with when making amigurumi, but I still recommend checking it out if you wanna get a result as close to mine as possible!

This pattern will ask you to work invisible decreases while working in BLO. To do this, work the invisible decrease the same as your would regularly, but use the back loop instead of the front loop.

Body

Using blue. (Red Heart Super Saver Country Blue).

To start off, you'll have to choose whether you want a keychain or not. Here's how to attach the keychain as you're crocheting. If you'd like to make a kingfisher without a keychain, simply sc 3 in magic ring.

Thread the keychain onto your yarn. Ignore it for now as you work.

Create a magic circle and sc 1 in it.

Push the keychain up until it's flush against the sc you just made.

Working over the keychain, sc 1.

Now you have an sc with the keychain embedded in it.

Make one more sc in the circle and tighten. We'll be working in a spiral, so do not join to first.

And that was round one of the amigurumi! If you don’t want to make a keychain, you can simply do 3 sc in a magic circle. Now continue on with the amigurumi.

Rnd 2: sc, inc, sc. (4 sc)
Rnd 3: sc, inc 2, sc. (6 sc)
Rnd 4: inc around. (12 sc)
Rnd 5: (sc, inc) around. (18 sc)

Use a tiny bit of stuffing to stuff the crest. You might need something like a pen or the end of your crochet hook to force it in there.

In the next round, we'll be adding little white spots the will go next to the eyes.

Rnd 6: sc 7, cc to white, sc, cc to blue, sc 2, cc to white, sc, cc to blue and drop white, sc 7. (18 sc)
Rnd 7: sc around. (18 sc)

Use the invisible finish technique (here's a guide) to fasten off. Attach the white yarn to the second stitch of the round, after the false stitch. I recommend leaving a marker in the first stitch of the round (below the false stitch) for reference later. Then proceed with the next round as written.

Rnd 8: sc around. (18 sc)

Now use the invisible finish again. This time, attach the blue yarn first stitch of the round (the false stitch). Then continue as written.

Now we’ll start on rounding the back to create that classic bird shape.

Rnd 9: sc 2, inc, sc 12, inc, sc 2. (20 sc)

Now we’ll take this opportunity to attach the safety eyes and stuff the head. Use this placement for the eyes:

Basically, use the space on the outside side of the white spots, below that round.

Now stuff the head. I like to place some stuffing above the posts of the safety eyes then add more stuffing underneath.

With the next round, we’ll start with the belly pattern. It might be tough to work with some many colours at once and in such a small space, but I think the results are great. If you want, you could make a male kingfisher by leaving out the orange belt and just have a pure white belly.

Here’s a stitch chart to help you visualize how the colours change. We already worked the first two rounds of the diagram.

Rnd 10: sc 3, inc, sc, cc to white, sc 2, cc to blue, sc 6, cc to white, sc 2, cc to blue, sc, inc, sc 3. (22 sc)
Rnd 11: sc 4, inc, sc 2, cc to orange, sc, cc to white, sc 2, cc to blue, sc 2, cc to white, sc 2, cc to orange, sc, cc to blue, sc 2, inc, sc 4. (24 sc)
Rnd 12: sc 8, cc to orange, sc 2, cc to white, sc 4, cc to orange, sc 2, cc to blue, sc 8. (24 sc)
Rnd 13: sc 8, cc to orange, sc 8, cc to blue, sc 8. (24 sc)
Rnd 14: sc 8, cc to orange, sc 2, cc to white, sc 4, cc to orange, sc 2, cc to blue, sc 8. (24 sc)
Rnd 15: sc 8, cc to orange, sc, cc to white, sc 6, cc to orange, sc, cc to blue, sc 8. (24 sc)
Rnd 16: (sc 2, dec) twice, cc to white, (sc 2, dec) twice, cc to blue, (sc 2, dec) twice. (18 sc)

Start stuffing the body.

Rnd 17: BLO: (sc, dec) twice, cc to white, (sc, dec) twice, cc to blue, (sc, dec) twice. (12 sc)

Finish stuffing the body.

Rnd 18: dec twice, cc to white, dec twice, cc to blue and leave white tail to be hidden later, dec twice. (6 sc)

Fasten off. Hide the white tail in the body then do a weaving finish with the blue tail.

ad

Wings

Make 2. In blue.

ch 5. ss in 2^nd. sc. hdc. 9 dc in last. Now you will work along the back of the chains. hdc. sc. ss in last.

Fasten off, leaving a tail for sewing.

Now we’ll bring the tail up in preparation for sewing.

Working along the wrong side of the wing, bring the tail up to the 2nd dc. For one wing, work in the same direction as the stitches and work in the opposite direction for the other.

Bring the tail to the front of the wing through the 2nd dc.

Attaching the Wings

Attach the wings using the 3^rd to 7^th dc, basically 5 stitches. Use the placement as follows:

The farthest point will be one stitch away from first white edge of the belly, right below that row. The next point is one stitch inwards towards the belly, right after the white edge. The next point is one diagonal stitch down and inwards, on the orange edge of the belly. The next is also one stitch diagonal and inwards, one stitch into the belly. The next is one row below. The final point is one stitch diagonal and down towards the back, on the edge of the belly again.

You’ll be sewing following the arrows. Enter into the 3^rd dc to start sewing.

After sewing to the final point, enter the 8^th dc and make a knot along the next stitch towards the back.

Tail

Mark 2 stitches along the BLO round that are roughly in line with the crest. Depending on how twisted your seam is, this could be 2 stitches after the seam or 1 stitch on either side of the seam. Like so:

Attach white yarn to the first stitch, working in whatever direction is most comfortable for you. ch 1, sc in that stitch. sc in the next stitch and cc to blue. This is the first row of the tail.

Row 2: ch 1, turn. sc 2. (2 sc) cc to white on last sc.
Row 3: ch 1, turn. sc 2. (2 sc) cc to blue on last sc.
Row 4: ch 1, turn. sc 2. (2 sc) cc to white on last sc.
Row 5: ch 1, turn. sc 2. (2 sc) cc to blue on last sc. You can leave the white tail free to be hidden later.
Row 6: ch 1, sc2tog. (1 sc)

Fasten off. Hide the yarn tails along the edges of the tail towards the body. For the white tail, when you enter the body exit on the white portion to tie a knot there. For the blue tail, tie a knot in the blue portion, then hide the tail in the body.

Beak

You’ll be attaching the black yarn in the middle of the face, one stitch away from the white spots next to the eyes. Insert your hook right above the white round, then exit one row above. Like so:

ch 3, then tr in this stitch. Fasten off, leaving a moderately long tail as we will be doing a bit of sewing.

Hide the tail from attaching into the body. Get the tail from fastening off over towards the body by weaving it through the top and bottom of the beak. This will attach the ch 3 and tr together so there is no gap. Try to have the tail coming out of the top of the beak when you reach the body. Hide the tail into the body. If you pull the tail too tightly, the beak will get smushed. Pull on the beak until you get the desired shape, then trim the tail.

And you're done!

I hope you'll enjoy your little kingfisher buddy! I have some other bird-themed patterns if you'd like to check those out! Or you could see all of my patterns here.

Happy birdwatching!