Donkey Joe Toy in Hoooked Eco Barbante - Downloadable PDF

Donkey Joe Crochet Toy Pattern by Hoooked – Full Pattern Summary

This downloadable PDF pattern from Hoooked guides crafters through creating Donkey Joe, an adorable amigurumi-style stuffed donkey toy worked entirely in crochet. The pattern is rated intermediate difficulty and is a wonderful project for those who have moved beyond basic crochet and are ready to tackle three-dimensional toy construction with multiple joined components. The finished donkey features four individual legs, a body, and a separately crocheted neck, all assembled into a charming, huggable figure.

What Is Being Made

The finished project is Donkey Joe, a crocheted stuffed toy donkey (Ezel Joe in Dutch). The pattern constructs the donkey in separate sections — four legs, a body, and a neck — which are then joined and sewn together. The toy is stuffed with fiberfill to give it a soft, three-dimensional shape. It is suitable as a children's toy, a decorative piece, or a handmade gift.

Materials Required

• Yarn: Hoooked Eco Barbante – one ball (50g / 200m) in the main colour, plus a contrasting colour for the hooves/lower legs, and leftover yarn in black for detail work
• Hook: A 5mm or 6mm crochet hook is recommended throughout the pattern
• Stuffing: Fiberfill of your choice, used to fill the body and legs for a firm, rounded shape
• Finishing: A yarn needle for sewing components together and weaving in ends

Hoooked Eco Barbante is a 100% recycled cotton yarn with an aran weight, making it sturdy and well-suited to toy construction. Its firm structure holds the shape of amigurumi pieces beautifully and is free from harmful substances, making it a thoughtful choice for toys intended for children.

Techniques Used

• Working in continuous spiral rounds – The pattern explicitly states that no slip stitch round closure is used; instead, rounds are worked continuously in a spiral (zonder toerafsluiting in spiraalvorm), which is the standard amigurumi technique for seamless, smooth construction
• Magic ring / foundation chain start – Each leg begins with a 2-chain foundation, with the first round of single crochets worked into the second chain from the hook
• Joining separate pieces mid-round – A key intermediate technique used in this pattern is joining the four separately crocheted legs into a single continuous round to form the body, requiring careful stitch counting and management of yarn tails
• Colour changing – The lower portion of each leg (rows 1–5) is worked in a contrasting colour to suggest hooves, with a colour change introduced at round 6
• Crocheting a closed ring for the neck – The neck is constructed by chaining 20 stitches and joining them into a ring with a slip stitch, then working rounds of single crochet to build the neck tube
• Decreasing (two stitches crocheted together) – Used to shape the body, reducing stitch counts at specific rounds to taper the form naturally
• Increasing (two single crochets in one stitch) – Used in the early rounds of each leg and in the neck section to expand the circumference evenly
• Sewing and assembly – Yarn tails left on the legs are used to stitch the legs together at the centre of the body, and the neck is sewn to the head using a length of yarn left specifically for this purpose

Stitches Used

• Chain stitch (losse / ls) – Used for foundation chains and the neck ring
• Slip stitch (halve vaste / hv) – Used to join the neck chain into a ring
• Single crochet (vaste / v) – The primary stitch used throughout the entire pattern for all sections of the toy
• Single crochet increase (2 v in volgende v) – Two single crochets worked into the same stitch to increase the round count