Leukocyte, the white
blood cell
A crocheted amigurumi by Nunu Crochets
© 2020 Nunu Crochets
Leukocyte, the white blood cell
Information
This cute, giant white blood cell is easy and fast to crochet, and will bring a smile to any biologist,
hematologist or scientific who owns it!
What do you need?
- White yarn for the body and on a contrasting color for the eyes. For my sample, I used white
and black mercerized cotton threads, size 5 (415 m per 100 g ball), and held double the white
yarn. I spent a total of 43 m of white thread and less than 1 m of the black thread.
- Two suitable hooks. I used a 2 mm hook when working the two strands (body) and a 1.5 mm
hook when working with one strand (eyes).
- Stitch marker or a contrasting piece of yarn to mark the beginning of each round.
- Polyester fibrefill stuffing.
- Sewing needle.
- Optionally, you can use security eyes of an appropriate size
What do you need to know before starting?
- The basic crochet stitches used in amigurumi (see the section below).
- To start crocheting in the round with a magic ring (you can substitute it by 2 chains and make
the stated number of stitches on the second chain from the hook).
- To crochet in the round in a continuous spiral.
- To do invisible decreases (you can substitute them by crocheting two single crochet stitches
together).
Gauge and measurements
Exact gauge is not important for this pattern, as long as you crochet thigh enough so there are no holes
between stitches, and the stuffing does not show.
Exact measurements will depend on the yarn and hooks used, and on your gauge. My sample is 4.5 cm
tall.
1 © 2020 Nunu Crochets
Leukocyte, the white blood cell
Stitches and terminology
Here I use US terminology. Please, use the following table if you are used to UK terminology:
Abbreviation US UK
ch Chain Chain
sc Single crochet Double crochet
sl st Slip stitch Slip stitch
inc Increase (2 sc in one stitch) Increase (2 sc in one stitch)
invdec Invisible decrease * Invisible decrease *
* You can substitute the invisible decreases by crocheting 2 sc together, or go to the “Helping materials
and tutorials” section to learn how to do invisible decreases.
Notes
- Do not join at the end of each round; the pattern is worked in continuous spirals.
- All the pieces are started using a magic ring.
- You can use a stitch marker to mark the beginning of each round and move it for each row (or
wave in and out a piece of yarn in a contrasting color when you start a new round).
- Stitches in parentheses are to be repeated as many times as indicated after the parentheses
(for example, “(1 inc, 1 sc) x6” means that you have to crochet 1 inc and 1 sc six times).
- Numbers in square brackets indicate the total number of stitches in that round.
Pattern
Body R14: (1 invdec, 3 sc) x6. [24]
R15: (1 invdec, 2 sc) x6. [18]
Make a magic ring, 1 ch.
If you prefer, you can sew now the eyes and
R1: 6 sc in the magic ring. [6]
some of the bulges, or leave them to the end.
R2: 6 inc. [12]
If you are using safety eyes, place them now
R3: (1 inc, 1 sc) x6. [18]
between round 7 and 8 and secure them.
R4: (1 inc, 2 sc) x6. [24]
Stuff through the hole.
R5: (1 inc, 3 sc) x6. [30]
R16: (1 invdec, 1 sc) x6. [12]
R6: (1 inc, 4 sc) x6. [36]
R17: 6 invdec. [6]
R7-12: 36 sc. [36]
Finish stuffing, close and fasten off, hiding the
R13: (1 invdec, 4 sc) x6. [30]
tail inside the ball.
2 © 2020 Nunu Crochets
Leukocyte, the white blood cell
Eyes (make two eyes) Bulges (make 7 bulges or as many as you want
to place)
Working with only one strand of black yarn,
make a magic ring, 1 ch. Leave a long tail and make a magic ring, 1 ch.
R1: 6 sc in the magic ring. [6] R1: 5 sc in the magic ring. [5]
Join with a sl st to the first stitch and fasten off, R2: 5 inc. [10]
leaving a long tail. Join with a sl st to the first stitch of the round
and fasten off, leaving a long tail.
Finishing
Place the eyes on the top half of the body, between rounds 7 and 8, and sew them using the long black
tails; hide both tails of each eye inside the body. With a scrap of white yarn, embroider the white
sparkle in each eye.
Place the bulges around the body as you like (you can pin them to the body to decide where you like
them most); I placed them randomly around the body (except for 3 on the bottom so it stands up on
its own), as you can see in the following pictures. Once you like how they are placed, sew them to the
body using the long tails and hide both tails inside the body.
Where can you find more of my patterns?
Visit my Ravelry shop: https://www.ravelry.com/stores/nunu-crochets-designs
And you can follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nunucrochets/ (@NunuCrochets)
3 © 2020 Nunu Crochets
Leukocyte, the white blood cell
Helping materials and tutorials
You can see front (upper panel), side (middle panel) and down (lower panel) views of the amigurumi,
to guide you on how to place the bulges.
1.
4 © 2020 Nunu Crochets
Leukocyte, the white blood cell
How to invisible decrease (right-handed version)
1. Identify the front loop of the first stitch (the front loop is highlighted in blue, and the back loop
is highlighted in red), and of the second stitch (the front loop is marked in purple) that you are
going to decrease.
2. Insert the hook only in the front loop of the first stitch to decrease and do not yarn over (you
will have 2 loops on your hook).
5 © 2020 Nunu Crochets
Leukocyte, the white blood cell
3. Insert the hook in the front loop of the second stitch to decrease (you will have 3 loops on your
hook); you will need to swing your hook to get it under the front loop.
4. Yarn over and draw through the first two loops, i.e. the two front loops (you will have 2 loops
on your hook).
6 © 2020 Nunu Crochets
Leukocyte, the white blood cell
5. Yarn over and draw through the two loops to complete the invisible decrease.
7 © 2020 Nunu Crochets
Leukocyte, the white blood cell
How to invisible decrease (left-handed version)
1. Identify the front loop of the first stitch (the front loop is highlighted in blue, and the back loop
is highlighted in red), and of the second stitch (the front loop is marked in purple) that you are
going to decrease.
2. Insert the hook only in the front loop of the first stitch to decrease and do not yarn over (you
will have 2 loops on your hook).
8 © 2020 Nunu Crochets
Leukocyte, the white blood cell
3. Insert the hook in the front loop of the second stitch to decrease (you will have 3 loops on your
hook); you will need to swing your hook to get it under the front loop.
4. Yarn over and draw through the first two loops, i.e. the two front loops (you will have 2 loops
on your hook).
9 © 2020 Nunu Crochets
Leukocyte, the white blood cell
5. Yarn over and draw through the two loops to complete the invisible decrease.
10 © 2020 Nunu Crochets
