Free Jungle Animal Finger Puppets Crochet Pattern

I hope you enjoy this free crochet pattern for jungle animal finger puppets! My farm animal finger puppets have gotten so much love from my niece! This year, she turned three, so I expanded her menagerie! This is a kind of “expansion pack” from my farm animals pattern. Please give a warm welcome to Elephant, Lion, Monkey, Frog, and Wolf!

This pattern is designed to be flexible. First you make the head for each animal. Then attach the face/ear details and embroider some eyes. Then you finish the neck and body. I’ve added a table of contents below to help you jump to an animal if you’re ready to get started!

Materials Required:

• Small amounts of dk or light worsted yarn in the following colors:
  • Elephant: grey, black (for eyes and nostrils)
  • Wolf: grey, white, black and pink
  • Lion: yellow, orange, white, black and pink
  • Monkey: brown, white (or light pink or light brown) and black
• Size 3.5mm/E crochet hook
• yarn needle and sharp needle with large eye (for attaching details and weaving ends)
• pen or pencil (for measuring loops on lion’s mane)

Instructions to Crochet a Standard Body:

This pattern uses the exact same basic head, neck and body as my farm animal finger puppets, and should fit on smallish adult fingers and kid fingers. The only animal with some changes to the head and neck is the frog below. You need to work some sections in white for the little froggy throat!

Crochet the Jungle Animal Finger Puppets

Elephant

Work the standard head in grey, adding details below before you work the neck:

Elephant Trunk

Start with a magic loop

Round 1: ch 1, 5sc in magic loop (5 st)

Embroider nostrils and knot starting end

Round 2-3: working continuously, sc in each sc around (5)

Round 4: 1sc, 2sc in next st, 3sc (6)

Round 5: sc around (6)

Round 6: 1 sc in same st as end of last round, 1sc in next 2 st, sc2tog, 1sc in last 2 st (6)

Round 7: 2sc in next st, 1sc in next 2 st, sc2tog, 1 sc in last st (6)

Round 8: sc around (6)

Round 9: 1 sc in next st, 2sc in each of next 2 st, sc in next st, sl st in last 2 st (8)

End off, leaving a long tail and lightly stuff if desired. Sew to the very bottom of head pointing down, with the bend curving back upward

Elephant Ears

Right ear (when looking at Elephant’s face)

Round 1: ch 8, 1 sc in second ch from hook, 1 sc in next ch, 1 hdc in next 2 ch, 1dc in next 2 ch, 10 trc in last ch, turning around the last chain and working down the back (see tip below), dc in first back of ch, hdc in next ch, sc in next ch, sl st in back of remaining chs (19 st + 3 sl st)

Tip: while working across the back of the chains, carry along the starting end across the back of the stitches and crochet around it for extra support. If you need an illustration of working along the back of the chain, check out the Farm Animal Finger Puppet pattern here.

Round 2: sl st in back loop only of each stitch in previous round, sl st into back loop of starting sl st, cut yarn and leave a long tail (21 st)

Note: the second round makes the ear concave. If you skip this round, the ear will be more flat!

Left ear:

Round 1 : sl st in second ch from hook and next 2 ch, sc in next ch, hdc in next ch, dc in next ch, 10 trc in last ch, turning to work down the back of the chain, 1dc in back of next 2 ch, 1 hdc in next 2 ch, sc in last 2 ch (3 sl st + 19 st)

Round 2: sl st in back loop only of each stitch in previous round, sl st into back loop of starting sl st, cut yarn and leave a long tail (21 st)

When you sew the ears to the head, leave the narrow part at the bottom a little below the head.

Embroider eyes and weave in all ends before continuing to the body

Lion

Caution: Budget plenty of time for the lion. The loop crochet for the mane takes a few tries to get it right, and it takes a while to complete the mane.

Special stitches: loop sc, loop sc2tog

Loop sc: please use this video for the basic instructions. I can’t do it any better! When you make the loop, replace your finger with a pen and pull on the working yarn until just snug. Finish working the stitch and remove the pen. This will give you the smaller, uniform loops for the mane.

Loop sc2tog: insert hook in next st and make loop as in video (pulling through stitch once), insert in next st, make another loop (pulling through stitch again), yo and pull through all 3 yarns on hook. You can put both loops on your pen while you finish the stitch to keep them uniform! This is the same as sc2tog, except you make the loop before you pull the yarn through each stitch.

Lion Instructions

Using yellow, crochet a standard head. Using white, make a snout as follows:

Snout

Round 1: Ch4, sc in second ch from hook, sc, sc3 in final ch

Working across back of original chain, sc in next ch, 2 sc in last ch, join to starting sc with a sl st.

Embroider a pink nose. Sew snout to head and embroider eyes.

Mane

Using Orange:

Round 1: ch 20 and join in circle, being careful not to twist (this circle goes around the lion’s face)

Round 2: ch1, using a loop sc in each ch around, sl st in first st of round, turn (20)

Round 3: ch1, loop sc in each sc around, sl st in first st of round, turn (20)

Round 4: ch1, loop sc in next 14 sc, ch8, sl st in first st of round (you are making a hole for the neck!) (21)

Now start closing up the back of the mane by decreasing over the next 3 rounds:

Round 5: ch1, *loop sc in next 2 st, loop sc2tog over next 2 st* repeat between * until you reach 2 st before ch stitches, loop sc in last 2 st, loop sc in each of the 8 ch, sl st in first sc of round (18)

Round 6: ch1, *loop sc in next st, loop sc2tog over next 2 st* repeat between * around, sl st in first sc of round (12)

Round 7: ch1, loop sc2tog around, slst in first sc of round (6)

Cut thread and sew the back of the mane closed.

Sew mane to head. The initial 20 ch circle goes around the lion’s face, and the 8 ch from round 4 created a hole for the neck.

Embroider eyes. If desired, make the following ears:

Lion Ears

Round 1: Using smaller crochet hook, ch 1, 5 sc in magic circle, do not turn or join (5st)

End off, leaving a long tail for sewing to the head. Weave in the starting yarn. Then pinch the circle together with the ending tail before sewing within the mane on the sides of the head.

Monkey

Make a standard head in brown, adding the details below before you work the neck:

Snout:

Monkeys have sort of heart shaped face markings, so we’ll make a snout, then a white marking for the eyes. Work the following in white, light pink, or light brown.

Round 1: Ch4, sc in second ch from hook, sc, sc3 in final ch

Working across back of original chain, sc in next ch, 2 sc in last ch, join to starting sc with a sl st

Round 2: Ch1, Sc around, join in first sc of the round with a sl st

End leaving a long tail to sew to head. Embroider nose before sewing to body.

Eye markings:

Start with a magic loop

Round 1: ch1, 6sc in magic loop

Cut yarn, leaving a long tail for sewing and use an invisible finish.

Embroider eyes and eyebrows (very important for monkey look!) on eye markings.

Sew eye markings to head first, then add snout, overlapping at the top of the snout.

Ears

Round 1: 6sc in a magic loop

Round 2: 2sc in each sc of previous round. Cut yarn leaving a long tail for sewing. Finish with an invisible finish and sew to head.

Frog

The frog body has some color changes between green and white to help make the appearance of a frog.

Frog Instructions

Work the first 5 rounds of the animal head in green.

Round 6: work sc in green to last stitch. Make an invisible color change to white by using white as the last yo on the last stitch. Cut green yarn.

Round 7: 1 sc in white in back loop of next 7 st. Make an invisible color change to green. Sc with green in both loops of previous round to the end, making an invisible cokor change to white on the last stitch.

Round 8: sc 7 in white, switch to green, finish round in green and leave yarn attached for neck and body. Weave in ends created so far before you add the rest of the face.

Frog Eyes

Start with a magic loop

Round 1 (green): ch1, 6sc in the magic loop. Cut yarn leaving long tail for sewing, and finish using the invisible finish.

Round 2 (white): attach yarn in first sc of round 1, then pull through the loop of the slip knot, leaving knot at back. Slip st in each of the next 5 sc, then sl st in the first sc. Cut yarn leaving a long tail for sewing, then use the invisible finish again to keep the circle clean. Finally, whip stitch the white stitches closed with loose stitches to fill in the center of the ear. Weave in the white ends by tucking them between the white and green layers. Sew to head using green yarn.

Embroider black pupils in center of white and sew to head.

Finish Frog

Embroider mouth along line between green and white at front of head.

Round 9: For first round of neck, make an invisible color change to white, weaving in ends immediately. Sc2tog 3 times, sc, switch to green (weving in ends immediately), sc2tog for rest of round

Round 10: work according to instructions, but only work in the back loops of white stitches

Work rounds 11-17 according to standard body pattern in green

Wolf

Work the standard head in grey, adding the details below before you work the neck:

Snout:

Work the same snout as the monkey, with the first round in white and the second round in grey. Embroider the nose in black (a big one!) before attaching to the head.

Add some embroidered eyes.

Ears

Row 1: Ch 4, leaving an extra long tail for sewing to the head.

Row 2: Sc in second ch from hook, sc in next 2 ch, ch1, turn

Row 3: Sc, sc2tog, ch1, turn

Row 4: sc2tog

Finish off by chaining one, cutting thread and pulling through the loop. Leave an extra long tail for sewing to the head.

Then, embroider some inner ears in pink. I chose a more minimal zig-zag embroidery for mine.

Sew to head using both ends, the turning point from row 3 is the “point” of the ears

Final step: make sure you play with the finger puppets first if you are planning to send them off as a gift!

Please click below to save this pattern for later on Pinterest.