11 Planets Amigurumi Free Crochet Patterns: Your Complete Guide to Crocheting the Solar System

There is something genuinely magical about holding the entire solar system in the palm of your hand. Whether you are a seasoned crocheter looking for your next ambitious project or a beginner who wants to dive into the world of amigurumi, crocheting a set of planet plushies is one of the most rewarding journeys you can take with a hook and some yarn. These soft, squishy, endlessly charming little spheres make perfect gifts, educational toys, nursery decorations, and shelf displays. Best of all, you do not need to spend a single dollar to get started, because the free patterns for crocheting all eleven planets — yes, eleven — are right here.

This guide covers everything you need to know: the tools and materials you will use, the basic techniques that apply to every planet, and detailed instructions for each one. We are including the eight classical planets of our solar system, the beloved dwarf planet Pluto (because the people have spoken and Pluto deserves to be in the set), Earth’s Moon as a bonus companion piece, and the gorgeous ringed Saturn which always steals the show in any planetary collection. By the time you finish reading, you will have all the knowledge you need to bring the solar system to life in yarn.

What Is Amigurumi and Why Are Planets Perfect for It?

Amigurumi is the Japanese art of crocheting or knitting small stuffed animals and creatures. The word itself is a combination of the Japanese words for “knitted” and “stuffed doll.” While amigurumi traditionally refers to animals and characters, the technique translates beautifully to any round or three-dimensional object — and planets, being spheres, are arguably the most natural shape in the entire craft.

Planets are perfect amigurumi projects for several reasons. First, they are fundamentally simple in structure. Every planet starts the same way: with a magic ring and rounds of single crochets worked in a continuous spiral. Second, they are highly customizable. You can make them as small as a golf ball or as large as a basketball depending on your yarn weight and hook size. Third, they are forgiving. Since you are largely working in a solid color or adding surface details, small mistakes in your tension are easy to hide. Fourth, they are educational. A set of planet amigurumi makes a wonderful teaching tool for children learning about astronomy, and they are far more engaging than a poster or a diagram.

Materials and Tools You Will Need

Before diving into the individual planet patterns, gather your supplies. Having everything ready before you start makes the process much smoother.

For yarn, you will want worsted weight (size 4) acrylic yarn in the following colors: orange and brown for Mercury, pale yellow and white for Venus, blue and green for Earth, red and brown for Mars, orange and red with some cream for Jupiter, golden yellow with brown rings for Saturn, icy blue for Uranus, deep blue-purple for Neptune, brownish gray for Pluto, gray and white for the Moon, and white or silver for any star-shaped accent pieces you want to add.

For your hook, a size 3.5mm or 4mm crochet hook works well with worsted weight yarn and gives you a tight enough tension to prevent the stuffing from showing through. If you are working with a lighter yarn, scale down accordingly.

You will also need polyester fiberfill stuffing, yarn needles for sewing pieces together and weaving in ends, stitch markers to keep track of your rounds, and scissors. For Saturn specifically, you will need a piece of cardboard or stiff felt to create the ring structure, or you can crochet the ring as a flat oval.

Optional but lovely additions include embroidery floss for surface details like Earth’s continents or Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, fabric paint for adding texture, and safety eyes if you want to give your planets a little personality.

Basic Techniques Used in Every Planet Pattern

Every planet in this collection uses the same fundamental construction method. Mastering these few techniques means you can crochet all eleven planets with confidence.

Magic Ring: Every planet begins with a magic ring, also called a magic circle. This technique allows you to start crocheting in the round without leaving a hole in the center of your work. To make a magic ring, wrap your yarn around two fingers, pull a loop through, chain one, and then work your starting stitches into the ring before pulling it closed.

Single Crochet in the Round: All planets are worked in continuous rounds of single crochet. You do not join or turn at the end of each round — you simply keep working in a spiral. This is why stitch markers are important; place one at the beginning of each round and move it up as you go.

Increases: To grow your sphere, you work two single crochets into the same stitch. The standard amigurumi pattern works six increases in each increase round, giving you a smooth, even sphere.

Decreases: To close the sphere and create the bottom of your planet, you work invisible decreases, which involve inserting your hook through the front loops of two consecutive stitches before completing the stitch. This creates a tighter, less visible decrease than a standard one.

Stuffing: Always stuff your planet firmly before closing it completely. You want it to feel solid and hold its spherical shape. Add stuffing a little at a time rather than all at once.

Planet 1: Mercury

Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system, so your Mercury amigurumi should be notably smaller than the others. Use a lighter gray-brown yarn or a combination of brown and orange to capture Mercury’s rocky, crater-covered surface.

Start with a magic ring and work 6 single crochets into it. Round 2: increase in every stitch (12 stitches). Round 3: alternate one single crochet and one increase (18 stitches). Round 4: single crochet in 2, increase in 1, repeat (24 stitches). Round 5: single crochet in 3, increase in 1, repeat (30 stitches). Work 4 rounds even on 30 stitches. Then decrease symmetrically until closed, stuffing as you go. For Mercury’s craters, use a darker gray yarn to embroider small circular outlines on the surface after finishing.

Planet 2: Venus

Venus is the brightest object in our night sky after the Moon and is famous for its thick, yellowish atmosphere. Use a pale golden yellow yarn as your main color, with streaks of creamy white added using surface embroidery or yarn carried loosely across the surface to suggest cloud layers.

Follow the same basic sphere construction as Mercury but work a few extra increase rounds before the even section to make Venus noticeably larger. Venus is very similar in size to Earth, so these two should be your largest or second largest spheres. Add swirling lines with white embroidery floss after completing the sphere to suggest the planet’s atmospheric bands.

Planet 3: Earth

Earth is everyone’s favorite planet for obvious reasons, and it is also one of the most fun to decorate. Work your sphere in a vibrant ocean blue, then use green yarn to embroider or appliqué simplified continent shapes onto the surface. You can keep the continents very abstract — a rough suggestion of shape is more than enough to make Earth immediately recognizable.

For extra charm, add a small white yarn cloud or two scattered across the surface. Some crocheters like to use a variegated blue-green yarn for Earth, which automatically creates a natural look with minimal effort. Either approach works beautifully.

Planet 4: Mars

Mars is the Red Planet, and your yarn choice does most of the work here. A deep brick red or rusty orange is ideal. You can add a touch of brown for the darker regions and a tiny dot of white at one or both poles to suggest the Martian ice caps, which you can create with a small circle of white yarn sewn flat onto the surface.

Mars should be noticeably smaller than Earth and Venus but larger than Mercury. Keep your increase rounds at four to keep the size proportionate. For an extra touch of realism, use a slightly darker yarn to embroider a rough circular shape representing Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system.

Planet 5: Jupiter

Jupiter is the king of the planets and the most visually dramatic amigurumi in the set. Use a striped approach with alternating bands of burnt orange, cream, and reddish brown. The easiest method is to change colors every two rounds to create the characteristic horizontal banding of Jupiter’s atmosphere.

Make Jupiter the largest planet in your collection — it should dwarf the inner planets when the whole set is displayed together. After completing the sphere, use a contrast color to embroider a large oval shape on the surface to represent the Great Red Spot, the enormous storm that has been raging on Jupiter for centuries. A deep rose or brick red color works perfectly.

Planet 6: Saturn

Saturn is the showstopper of any solar system amigurumi set. The planet itself is a slightly flattened golden sphere, and then you add the rings, which are the element that makes this piece truly spectacular.

For the planet, work your sphere in golden yellow or warm cream. Work the same sphere construction but aim for a size between Jupiter and Uranus. For the ring, there are two approaches. The first is to crochet a flat oval using chain stitches and single crochets worked in rows, creating a flat disc with a hole in the center large enough to slip the planet through. The second approach is to cut the ring shape from stiff felt or light cardboard and wrap it in yarn. Thread your finished ring through or around the planet sphere and secure it invisibly with a few stitches so it sits at a slight angle, the way Saturn’s rings are famously tilted.

Use a cream or pale tan yarn for the ring with a few thin brown lines embroidered on to suggest the distinct ring bands.

Planet 7: Uranus

Uranus is an ice giant with a gorgeous pale blue-green color, and it has the distinction of rotating on its side, giving it a unique axial tilt that you might want to reference in how you display it. Use a soft aqua or seafoam blue yarn for the main body. Uranus has faint ring structures as well, which you can either omit or add as a thin, subtle ring worked in dark gray.

The sphere construction is standard. Uranus is slightly larger than Neptune in reality, though they are very close in size, so these two should be closely matched in your amigurumi set.

Planet 8: Neptune

Neptune is a deep, vivid blue — one of the most striking colors in the solar system. Use a rich cobalt or royal blue yarn. Neptune has storm systems similar to Jupiter, and you can represent these with a small oval worked in white or lighter blue to suggest the Great Dark Spot.

Neptune and Uranus are the ice giants of the solar system, and in your amigurumi set they should be noticeably smaller than Jupiter and Saturn but larger than the terrestrial planets. Make them the same size as each other for visual accuracy.

Planet 9: Pluto

Pluto may have been reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006, but no planet amigurumi set is complete without it. Pluto holds a special place in the hearts of space lovers everywhere, and its distinctive heart-shaped nitrogen ice region, Tombaugh Regio, makes it one of the most charming planets to crochet.

Use a warm grayish-brown or tan as your main color for Pluto. Make it the smallest sphere in your collection. After finishing the sphere, use pale pink or peach yarn to embroider a simple heart shape on one side of the planet. This heart is Pluto’s most iconic feature and guarantees that everyone who sees your amigurumi set immediately recognizes the little dwarf planet.

Planet 10: The Moon

The Moon is technically not a planet, but no crocheted Earth would feel complete without her companion, and a Moon amigurumi makes a wonderful addition to any display. Use a soft gray yarn with subtle variations of white to capture the Moon’s pale, cratered surface.

Make your Moon about one quarter the size of your Earth sphere, which reflects the rough proportional relationship between the two bodies. Add small circular craters using a slightly darker gray yarn embroidered in rings on the surface, and perhaps a suggestion of the dark mare regions using a deeper gray-blue.

Planet 11: A Dwarf Planet Bonus — Eris or Ceres

For your eleventh piece, you have the option to crochet either Eris, the distant dwarf planet that actually triggered the reclassification of Pluto, or Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt and the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system. Both are excellent choices for rounding out a comprehensive solar system set.

Eris is very similar in size to Pluto and should be worked in pale gray or icy white to suggest its frozen, reflective surface. Ceres is slightly smaller and best worked in a rocky brownish gray. Adding either of these pieces to your collection instantly elevates it from a casual craft project to a genuinely educational display piece.

Tips for Displaying Your Planet Amigurumi Set

Once you have crocheted all eleven pieces, display them thoughtfully to get the maximum visual impact. Arranging them in order from the Sun outward — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and then the dwarf planets — creates an immediately recognizable solar system layout.

A simple wooden shelf works beautifully, or you can suspend them from a length of twine at varying heights to create a mobile. For a nursery or child’s bedroom, a hanging mobile of crocheted planets is one of the most enchanting decorations you can make. You can attach small labels with each planet’s name if you want to use the display for educational purposes.

Making the Set Your Own

One of the greatest joys of working from free amigurumi patterns is that they are a starting point, not a set of rigid rules. Once you have made one set at the standard size, consider making a miniature set using fingering weight yarn and a 1.5mm hook, which produces planets small enough to fit in a child’s pocket. Or scale up dramatically and make Jupiter the size of a basketball, stuffed with extra fiberfill until it is perfectly taut and round.

You can also add personality by giving each planet a small face with safety eyes and an embroidered smile, transforming your scientific display into a whimsical character collection that children will love to play with. Or lean fully into realism by adding detailed surface features using needle felting, surface embroidery, or even careful airbrushing with fabric paint.

The yarn colors suggested in this guide are recommendations, not requirements. If you have a specific palette in mind for a nursery or a themed room, adapt freely. A set of pastel planets in soft lavender, mint, and blush would be just as charming as a scientifically accurate one.

Why This Project Is Worth Your Time

Crocheting a full set of planet amigurumi is a project that pays dividends far beyond the hours it takes. It builds your skills with color changes, surface embroidery, and proportional sizing. It produces a finished set that is striking enough to display proudly in any home. It creates a deeply personal, handmade gift that no store-bought toy can replicate. And for anyone who has ever looked up at the night sky with a sense of wonder, there is something profoundly satisfying about recreating that vast, luminous universe in soft, tangible yarn.

Pick up your hook, choose your first color, and start with a magic ring. The solar system is waiting.