January 18, 2008

Crochet Goldfish Pattern

crochet goldfish


I made a goldfish this week, and I actually kept track of what I did and wrote a pattern for it. Since I'm kind of experimenting with writing patterns, I'm giving it away for free:

Crochet goldfish pattern in Acrobat PDF format (right-click: Save Target As... in Internet Explorer)
I would love feedback from anyone who makes this. I'm thinking the yarn i used is a little too dark orange, I may go looking for another color yarn before i make another one.
All the photos are courtesy of my wonderful husband. Yay Chris!

Update: When I wrote the pattern I didn't have a lot of time, so I didn't spend much time trying to format it to specific rows or testing it for typos. So a lot of people are mentioning having trouble with it, which probably means it has typos, and would probably also be easier if I reformatted it. Since I don't have any time to do any of that, I'm just removing the pattern until some later date when I can reformat it and get a couple of testers. I did all of that (good formatting, a few testers to verify it all works) with the Sea Creature Mobile, so if you're looking for some goldfish, there's a pattern for a different style of goldfish there.

Update 5/18/2010: Okay, enough people have been asking me to post it, so it's back up. Most of the people who have asked for it also promised to send me feedback, but no one has, so if you are the rare person who actually goes through the pattern and wants to send me notes/suggestions/feedback to make it better, I will forever be in your debt. At any rate, you've been warned that the formatting is weird, plus I just did some strange things to get it to look the way it is supposed to and sometimes that's hard to explain, but I do think that if you can look past that you can get it to turn out okay. Good luck!

37 comments:

Kimberly said...

You are a crochet goddess k-dawg. The goldfish is so great!

Anonymous said...

Thanks :)
I've discovered your "goldfish" on the voting contest of Lion brand and you are my fav ! So I voted for you ++++
I download your fish and will try it for my son, a big lover of the undersea world... plus it does look very good Feng Shui and Asian !
Good job !

Way Out Wear said...

That's awesome! Thanks, I can't wait to make it.

Carol Browne said...

Hey, this is great! I'll try making it this week. Thanks for the free pattern!

Anonymous said...

You rock!

Missing you guys all the way from freezing Baltimore!

-Jaime

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the birthday idea for my Pisces sister.

Anonymous said...

it will not come up when downloading

kendra said...

anonymous: I tested it just now and it downloaded just fine. maybe there's a problem with your Adobe Reader? Without more information I don't know how to help you. Sorry.

Anonymous said...

I really want to make this pattern but my adobe reader wont load it can you send it my way at MomTina2E@aol.com please that would be great i love this idea good job

Anonymous said...

freakin awesome pattern. thanks.

Anonymous said...

was wondering if ya could email me the fish pattern as well as for my adobe reader wont load it either and I'd love to try to make one.......please!!
doj_jade@hotmail.com

thanks so much!!

Anonymous said...

Terrific fish! I'm learning crochet so I can do clever things like this. Thanks for sharing the pattern! Off to try it.

Anonymous said...

This is absolutely fantastic! I would love to try my hand at it, but as it is with other people, the pattern won't load into Adobe. Perhaps there is a way to email the pattern? I would love to make this as a gift for my roommate from Hong Kong. She absolutely loves goldfish.

kendra said...

Be sure to right-click and choose to Save Link As... to download the PDF. It works, I promise... I've tested downloading it on many computers. (btw, Anonymous, you didn't leave me any contact info so that I could respond outside of this comments section).

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the pattern! I had a bit of hard time keeping track of which row I was on (but that was probably due to my inexperience). It'd really help if you could give the number of stitches per row.

kendra said...

Thanks for the feedback, Anonymous. That's a really good point. I will need to revisit this pattern and add stitch counts. I'll post an update when I do.

Anonymous said...

Very cute pattern. The instructions for the fins, head, and mouth were straightforward and easy to understand, but I'm having some trouble starting the body. It doesn't seem like it starts with the 'magic' ring, and I'm confused as to where to form the ring after Ch4. Is there a step missing? Or am I missing something? (just a beginner!)

gabby said...

Can anyone make this pattern work..i cannot get the face or fins to work...maybe more pics to help follow????

Lea H. Stretch said...

I found the pattern very difficult to read and follow. I got lost and fed up a lot and after trying a number of times, I had to give up. I really love this fish! I wish I could do it D:

If I could make a suggestion: It is much easier to keep track of what you are doing if the lines of a pattern coincide with each Row of work, especially if you add how many stitches you should have at the end of each row.

I might try my hand at this again, and if I can figure it out and it's alright with you I can try to write the pattern in more of a beginner-friendly way ^_^;;

kendra said...

Lea, I just updated this blog post and removed the pattern. I've been really distracted with pregnancy and then my new baby, and kept meaning to review the pattern and re-write it, but I just haven't had time to do either. So I figured the best thing to do is just remove the sub-par pattern until I have time in the future to revisit it and rewrite it. If you do get time and want to work on a rewrite, I would love to see what you come up with! I can "pay" you with a free copy of the Sea Creature Mobile pattern if you're interested. That one is written much more clearly, and has been tested.

Kristen said...

Hi! I was wondering if I could have the pdf of your goldfish. I don't mind if it is not corrected. I think that I can manage. : ) I love him, he's so cute!!

Thanks!
Kristen
browderk@comcast.net

Bronowyn said...

My friend saw this goldfish and asked for it for Christmas, but she only found the picture. I found your blog! But no pattern. :(

Could I have the pattern, even if it's not rewritten?


I'll figure it out!

Katy said...

i found your goldfish while looking for amigurumi patterns, and yours is my favorite. the only problem is no pattern! O_o could i please get it anyways??? i dont mind if it has issues! Please??? i love him and even a pattern with some typos will help me tons.

sabertooth32187@aol.com

Anonymous said...

Hey guys. The pattern's on Instructables. No PDF unless your a premium member, but you can still copy/paste.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Crochet-Goldfish/

Anonymous said...

Hey, guys, there's a pattern on Instructables. No PDF, but you can copy/paste.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Crochet-Goldfish/

Anonymous said...

I could not find the pattern to copy and paste from Instructables, only PDF for premium members. This is by far my favorite fish I've found. Does someone else have the pattern? Thanks!

Mayra said...

Hi, I was looking for goldfish patterns, and I became in love with yours. I want to send it to a friend studying abroad, because she is having rough times. Can you send me a copy of your old pattern, and I´ll figure out ;D. Thank you in advance for your help. Best regards from Guatemala, May
mmaldonado1975@yahoo.com

Chemmy said...

I, like many of the previous comments, find this pattern to be adorable and was wondering if you would send me a copy of the pattern, even if it's not perfect. I couldn't find the pattern on instructables either. This would be perfect for a wedding gift for one of my friends and since I can't find any other patterns like it I am willing to fight with the pattern and figure it out. Thank you (if you decided to send it :))!
akutenshishu@aol.com

kendra said...

Okay, so to clarify, the pattern has never been posted on Instructables. That was a contest they held a while back just asking people to post photos of completed projects, but did not require the patterns.

However, I did just post it back up on this page. Enjoy!

Chemmy said...

Yay! Thank you! :)

Nancy Reyes said...

linked and borrowed a photo to illustrate it. Is this okay?

kendra said...

That's perfectly fine, Boinky. Thanks for the heads up!

Hard Nut said...

Hey - thanks for your pattern, I made one for my girlfriend's mum for her birthday, because there was a goldfish in the cover illustration of the book she wrote. It turned out really well (although I had to freestyle a bit with the tail fins and dorsal fin) and she loved it!

Heather Johnson said...

Hey, My grandmother made this goldfish (minus some fins) for our baby's mobile. Thanks for posting it! You can check out our nursery here on my blog:
http://heatherpj.com/?p=916

Dee Gonzalez said...

Love your fish!!! Although right now I'm swamped with wip's I'll be sure to try this in the next two weeks. As soon as I do, I'll send you my formula for your formula. LOL! At first it seems complicated. But I'm such a determined so & so that I might just get it. You have my solemn oath as a dedicated crocheter that I will get back to you by the 17th of March. Ok?

kendra said...

Dee, that would be great! I'm SO looking forward to your feedback!

Erica said...

Here's my attempt: http://goo.gl/aTn3N

Generally went well although I got slightly confused a couple of times and think I didn't quite get the shape right in the top fin.

I used a smaller yarn than recommended (Lion Brand: Vanna's Glamour, Bronze). Doesn't show well in the photo but it's slightly metallic. It's also a bit stretchy and hence the stuffing shows through despite my not putting much in. :P

Thanks so much for posting this!