I've been wanting to design a chameleon for ages — those curly tails and independently-swiveling eyes are basically made for crochet — and this week Coco finally came together!
The idea
Chameleons change color depending on their mood, so I decided Coco should too — sort of. Instead of one color, I worked her in a gradient: cool teal at the tail, shifting into warm lime green by the head, with little mismatched button eyes because chameleon eyes are genuinely one of the weirdest, best things in nature.
The details
- Size: about 18cm nose to curled tail tip
- Difficulty: intermediate — the tail spiral takes patience, but nothing here is technically hard
- Yarn: worsted weight cotton, four colors for the gradient body plus a scrap of black for the eye pupils
- Hook: 3.5mm
- Stuffing: the trickiest part honestly — too little and the tail droops, too much and she loses that lizard-ish lean look
What made this one fun
The curled tail is worked as a separate long tube, stiffened lightly so it holds its spiral shape instead of flopping. The feet took three tries before I found a shape that actually looks like it could grip a branch rather than just... stubby mitten hands.
Small Green Frog with Red Cap...
Small Green Frog with Red Cap...
What's next
I'm deciding whether Coco becomes a one-off or turns into a full pattern others can make too — let me know what you'd want to see if I write it up as a proper tutorial.