Colorful Crochet Balls

Having a son has taught me many things. One of them is that spherical shapes are awesome! A little boy can, apparently, never have enough balls to throw around… and they will throw them and kick them and hit them with things… sometimes for hours! This year I crocheted some balls for a family of 4 boys that I know. These boys are boys through and through and I think their mama will be happy that these colorful balls are stuffed with stuffing making them the perfect indoor balls. They are so lightweight even when launched indoors they don’t break precious things. Filled with beans they would make great juggling balls or hacky sacks.

Sneak peak into my working environment… this is what happened while I was taking these pictures. The balls are so squishy and irresistible and fun to play with, that the  baby, who had been very happy playing with my lens cap before, tried to get them…

She knows. She’s a stinker…

And when I told her no…

Oh yes, already doing the “I can’t believe you said no to me!” cry. Way too cute!

After doing the designs on this I MAY have gone a little crazy and make a few more sets of them. I had a lot of fun playing with the colors and patterns. I made some for my nephews, for my own boy, then for my girls.

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A sunflower was appropriate for my biggest girl who told me the other day that she was just made to love sunflowers.

And a big embroidered S and hearts for the baby. Israel picked out the colors of these last two, stuffed them, and paid me in kisses for them for his sweet sister’s Christmas presents from him.

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The pattern for the balls is super simple and a good beginners pattern. I hope you’re inspired to try some fun colors and patterns. While super fun, they are a bit more advanced though… The trick to making the color changes look good is below.

Ball Pattern

Pattern

When changing colors with sc:
— Insert hook into stitch below, yo and pull through the stitch, yo with the new color yarn and pull through the 2 loops on your hook to finish the sc.

Row 1-6 sc in a loop, tighten
Row 2- 2sc in each around (12 total)
Row 3- *sc, 2sc* repeat around (18 total)
Row 4- *sc, sc, 2sc* repeat around (24 total)
Row 5- *sc, sc, sc, 2sc* repeat around (30 total)
Row 6-8- sc even
Row 9- *sc, sc, sc, sc2tog* repeat around (24 total)
Row 10- *sc, sc, sc2tog* repeat around (18 total)
Row 11- *sc, sc2tog* repeat around (12 total)
Stuff
Row 12- sc2tog repeat 8 times
Finish off and sew up

For the girl’s balls I just added one more increase and one more decrease to make them a little bigger.

Ball Pattern
Row 1-6 sc in a loop, tighten
Row 2- 2sc in each around (12 total)
Row 3- *sc, 2sc* repeat around (18 total)
Row 4- *sc, sc, 2sc* repeat around (24 total)
Row 5- *sc, sc, sc, 2sc* repeat around (30 total)
Row 6- *sc, sc, sc, sc, 2sc* repeat around (36 total)
Row 7-10- sc even
Row 11- *sc, sc, sc, sc2tog* repeat around (30 total)
Row 12- *sc, sc, sc, sc2tog* repeat around (24 total)
Row 13- *sc, sc, sc2tog* repeat around (18 total)
Row 14- *sc, sc2tog* repeat around (12 total)
Stuff
Row 15- sc2tog repeat 8 times
Finish off and sew up

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