Don’t miss the Ravellenic Games discount on this pattern until Aug 11 – keep reading for details!

It feels like forever since I designed a new amigurumi mammal – my latest designs have all been plants, birds, and reptiles – so I had to get back to my PlanetJune roots and make a new cute and realistic amigurumi animal for you. And here’s the result: my Raccoon crochet pattern!

Raccoon Fun Facts

• Raccoons are naturally found throughout North America, but they’ve also been introduced into Europe and Japan.
• They are named for their dexterous hands, from the Algonquian word aroughcun. At night, they can ‘see’ their food by touch.
• Raccoons are very adaptable and thrive in both wild and urban environments. As omnivores, they can eat any available food.
• Urban raccoons are nicknamed ‘masked bandits’ and (my favourite) ‘trash pandas’ for their black face markings and habit of scavenging garbage!

About the Design

I’m shocked it’s taken this long for me to design a raccoon pattern – I’ve had a soft spot for trash pandas since we first moved to Canada and had occasional raccoon visitors to our birdfeeders, and once a litter of adorable babies playing on the garage roof!

My very old photos, from 2006-7 (sorry about the quality – this was before the days of cellphone cameras with low-light modes!)

Before I started this design, I thought it’d be pretty easy – cross the colours of my Badger with the markings of my Red Panda, and boom! instant Raccoon! – but every single part of the Raccoon needed to be a different shape and size from my previous patterns, so I didn’t get to take any shortcuts with this pattern 😀

The iconic striped tail gives you a perfect opportunity to practice my Ultimate Stripes technique. (I also include alternatives in the pattern, if you prefer speed to perfection.)

And although the all-important face mask has detailed colour changes, they’re limited to just 5 rounds, and the rest of the pattern is fast and easy, with realistic shaping built right in.

In real life, raccoons can come in many shades of grey and brown. I chose to make mine pale grey, and used a very dark grey instead of black for the mask to help the eyes stand out. But you can go with the classic black/white/grey combo, or make a raccoon with a warmer colouring by using a warm grey or even brown for the main colour and cream or off-white for the face. That’s one of the great things about amigurumi: it’s so easy to make a unique animal just by choosing different yarn colours!

Buy Now

Are you ready to get started on your Raccoon? If so, you can pick up the Raccoon amigurumi crochet pattern right now from my shop (but check for the discount below first!)

Or, if you’re not quite ready to buy, why not favourite/queue it on Ravelry so you don’t forget about it?

Ravellenic Games Discount!

The 2024 Ravellenic Games start this Friday! If you’d like to challenge yourself to crochet anything from any of my patterns during the timeframe of the Olympic Games (July 26 – Aug 11 2024), join Team PlanetJune and compete along with us to earn virtual medals and laurel awards.

If you’d like to make a Raccoon for Team PlanetJune, look out for the exclusive Team PJ discount code in the Ravelry or Discord PlanetJune Community groups.

From this year, I’ll be awarding our team laurels via the new Team PlanetJune microsite, where you’ll find all the info for how to join, plus links to the Team PJ project archives for every games since 2012! (If you don’t use Ravelry, you can still join in via the Team PJ site and I’ll award all your Team PJ laurels, but note that you’ll only be eligible for event medals if you cross the official Ravellenic Games finish lines on Ravelry.)

Whether or not you decide to join us for the Rav Games, I hope you’ll enjoy my Raccoon pattern! And if you make a raccoon, I’d love to see it – please share it in one of the PJ groups, or tag me (I’m @planetjune on all the socials) if you post a pic anywhere else 🙂