Let your inner wild child out with the Leopard Stitch! If you’re looking for a unique crochet stitch to use for blankets, garments, and more, this stitch will add a wild flair. By using this free animal print tapestry crochet stitch pattern, you can add leopard spots to any crochet project. By just using tapestry crochet (or intarsia crochet if your prefer), you are able to create leopard spots by changing colors in crochet! Soon you’ll want to add crochet leopard stitches to every crochet pattern!
Scroll down for the free crochet stitch tutorial and video tutorial, or read up on my inspiration and some of the techniques used in this stitch in the following paragraphs. You can also grab the printable version of this stitch pattern in the Stitch Exploration Bundle!
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Inspiration
I don’t know what it is about leopard spots, but there give such a fun flair and style to everything. Whether it’s a pillow, sweater, blanket, or anything else, they look so cool! I’ve been wanting to recreate them for awhile in crochet, but I could never find a crochet stitch tutorial or crochet stitch pattern that made leopard spots. When I was getting ready for the Stitch Exploration event, I knew I had to create a tapestry crochet leopard stitch pattern!
New to Tapestry Crochet or Crochet Crochet Color Work?
When I was first learning how to do crochet color work, I often felt so lost having to learn how to do color changes and reading crochet graphs. It can seem so intimidating to learn a new crochet skill! If you’re new to tapestry crochet or color work, then I’ve got just the resource for you.
Here on my blog, I’ve got a two free crochet tutorial for how to do tapestry crochet and intarsia crochet, which are the two most common crochet color work techniques. They’ll walk you through what each technique is, how to read crochet graphs, how to change colors in crochet, and a bunch of other tips I have for color work! You can find them here on my blog at:
– The Beginner’s Guide to Tapestry Crochet: (This technique is used when you would like to carry your yarn, and the color work is close together. I used this technique for the Leopard Stitch.)
– The Beginner’s Guide to Intarsia Crochet:This technique is used when you don’t want to carry your yarn, and instead would like to use yarn bobbins.)
I’ve also created a step by step video tutorial for this stitch pattern on my Youtube Channel! You can watch it at: Leopard Stitch Crochet Tutorial.
Stitch Exploration Event
This crochet stitch pattern is a part of the Stitch Exploration Event with Joy of Motion, Knitting With Chopsticks, and I! Throughout the month of June, we have put together 30 crochet stitches, with one releasing each day. They are all designed to help you grow your crochet skills, and range from lace stitches, to simple, to color work ones! You can find the post with all of the stitches at: Stitch Exploration Crochet Stitch Event.
Want to get all 30 stitches before they release?
As a part of the Stitch Exploration event, we’ve put together a bundle of all 30 stitches as printable pdfs! This way you’ll be able to have all of them before they even release, and can reference them anytime! Plus, with all 30 stitches, you can make a blanket! Within the pdfs, you’ll find photo tutorials, charts, and lots of written instructions walking you through each stitch. There are so many awesome stitches within the bundle that you will be able to use for lots of crochet designs and projects!
Click here to get your copy of the bundle for just $9! That’s a savings of over 90%!
Supplies:
- Worsted Weight Yarn in 3 colors
- Main Color (MC)
- Black (Contrast Color 1 – CC1)
- Brown (Contrast Color 2 – CC2)
- US Size J (6mm) crochet hook
- Yarn needle for weaving in ends
Abbreviations:
- Ch = chain
- Sc = Single Crochet
- St = Stitch
- RS = Right Side
- WS = Wrong Side
Pattern Notes:
- This pattern is made using US crochet terminology.
- Ch 1 at beginning of row does not count as a stitch.
- The pattern involves color changes using tapestry or intarsia crochet. Experience with color work is recommended, but if you’re a beginner to tapestry crochet than you can totally do it! For a tutorial on how to do tapestry crochet, check out my Beginner’s Guide to Tapestry Crochet. For the tutorial for how to do intarsia crochet, check out my Beginner’s Guide to Intarsia Crochet.
- Want to avoid crochet mistakes while crocheting this pattern? Learn how to avoid them with my post on my blog: 10 Mistakes Common Mistakes Crocheters Make and How to Avoid Them.
- Color changes happen in the middle of the rows in this pattern. The color changes are indicated in the written pattern by a new color in parentheses (for example: (MC) sc 1, (SC) sc 2
Chart Notes:
- Each square on the chart represents 1 stitch.
- The chart is read starting from right to left, and alternating starting on each side of the chart.
- All odd numbered rows are right side rows, and all even rows are wrong side rows.
Leopard Stitch Video Tutorial:
Leopard Stitch Graph Pattern:
Leopard Stitch Crochet Pattern:
For the printable version of this pattern, along with 29 other stitches, grab a copy of the Stitch Exploration Bundle!
Row 1 [RS]: (MC) ch 25, starting in the 2nd ch from the hook, sc 24
Row 2 [WS]: (MC) ch 1, turn, sc 24
Row 3 [RS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 3, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 4, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 4, (CC1) sc 4, (MC) sc 5
Row 4 [WS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 4, (CC1) sc 2, (CC2) sc 2, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 2, (CC1) sc 1, (CC2) sc 2, (CC1) sc 1, (MC) sc 2, (CC1) sc 1, (CC2) sc 1, (CC1) sc 1, (MC) sc 3
Row 5 [RS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 3, (CC1) sc 1, (CC2) sc 1, (CC1) sc 1, (MC) sc 3, (CC1) sc 1, (CC2) sc 1, (CC1) sc 1, (MC) ch 1, turn sc 3, (CC1) sc 2, (CC2) sc 1, (CC1) sc 3, (MC) sc 3
Row 6 [WS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 4, (CC1) sc 4, (MC) sc 4, (CC1) sc 3, (MC) sc 4, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 3
Row 7 [RS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 24
Row 8 [WS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 24
Row 9 [RS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 2, (CC1) sc 4, (MC) sc 13, (CC1) sc 1, (MC) sc 4
Row 10 [WS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 3, (CC1) sc 1, (CC2) sc 1, (CC1) sc 1, (MC) sc 5, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 4, (CC1) sc 2, (CC2) sc 1, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 2
Row 11 [RS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 2, (CC1) sc 1, (CC2) sc 3, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 3, (CC1) sc 1, (CC2) sc 1, (CC1) sc 1, (MC) sc 3, (CC1) sc 1, (CC2) sc 2, (CC1) sc 1, (MC) sc 3
Row 12 [WS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 4, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 5, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 4, (CC1) sc 1, (CC2) sc 3, (CC1) sc 1, (MC) sc 2
Row 13 [RS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 2, (CC1) sc 1, (CC2) sc 2, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 17
Row 14 [WS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 18, (CC1) sc 1, (CC2) sc 1, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 2
Row 15 [RS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 2, (CC1) sc 4, (MC) sc 4, (CC1) sc 5, (MC) sc 4, (CC1) sc 1, (MC) sc 4
Row 16 [WS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 3, (CC1) sc 1, (CC2) sc 1, (CC1) sc 1, (MC) sc 2, (CC1) sc 2, (CC2) sc 2, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 10
Row 17 [RS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 9, (CC1) sc 2, (CC2) sc 4, (CC1) sc 1, (MC) sc 2, (CC1) sc 3, (MC) sc 3
Row 18 [WS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 8, (CC1) sc 2, (CC2) sc 3, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 2, (CC1) sc 3, (MC) sc 4
Row 19 [RS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 3, (CC1) sc 1, (CC2) sc 2, (CC1) sc 1, (MC) sc 2, (CC1) sc 3, (CC2) sc 1, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 4, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 3
Row 20 [WS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 2, (CC1) sc 1, (CC2) sc 1, (CC1) sc 1, (MC) sc 5, (CC1) sc 4, (MC) sc 4, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 4
Row 21 [RS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 19, (CC1) sc 2, (MC) sc 3
Row 22-23 [WS-RS]: (MC) ch 1, turn sc 24
Repeat Rows 2-23 till your swatch reaches the desired length.
I hope that you love getting to use this crochet avocado stitch pattern! If you create anything with this stitch pattern, be sure to tag me on social media, @eclairemakery and use #eclairemakery so that I can share your projects. I can’t wait to see what you make!
Happy stitching,
Claire
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