Crochet Clown Keychain Pattern Free With Spiral Arms And Legs

Spiral arms and legs swing loose every time your bag moves, which is what makes the crochet clown keychain so hard to walk past. A painted wooden bead forms the head, and cream and red pom-pom hair anchors the gold keyring on top.

Red and cream spirals with a pointed tassel hat put the Crochet Clown Keychain straight into Christmas market territory, hanging off gift bags or tucked into stockings. Makers run these through November. No stuffing, quick turnaround, and a crochet clown keychain uses up the holiday yarn already sitting in the basket.

Crochet Clown Keychain

Packing three double crochets into every chain is the single technique that turns flat strips of yarn into tight coiled spirals, and those spirals are the entire body of this crochet clown keychain. Four parts come off the hook: two cream spiral legs, two red spiral arms, and a pink crochet bow. A painted wooden bead with a printed face becomes the head. Cream and red yarn wrapped together makes the pom-pom hair, which also anchors the gold keyring. The whole thing assembles with a hot glue gun and two yarn tails knotted at the centre, then hangs from a gold chain ring.

Why I Love This One

It takes about an hour, and people genuinely stop to look at it on a bag. The spiral limbs do something that most keychains never manage: they move.

Materials And Tools

• Size 2 or size 3 yarn in cream for the legs and arms
• The same weight yarn in red for the arms and the hat cover
• The same weight yarn in pink for the bow tie
• A mix of cream and red yarn for the pom-pom hair
• A 2.0 mm crochet hook
• A large painted wooden bead with a clown face, or a plain bead you paint yourself
• A gold keychain ring with a short chain section
• A hot glue gun and glue sticks
• A tapestry needle, scissors, and jewelry pliers

The Story Behind This Version

Mine came out with two colours on the spirals rather than one solid colour per limb. The legs spiral in cream, the arms spiral in red, and the whole thing reads as a candy cane colour scheme when the spirals swing together. The bow is pink against the red body, which gives the front of the clown a clear focal point. Looking at it hanging from a bag, it reads instantly as a clown even from a distance, which is more than most novelty keychains manage.

The Pattern

Legs In Cream, Make Two Spirals

• Foundation: Using cream yarn, chain (ch) 33.
• Spiral: Starting in the 3rd chain from the hook, work 3 double crochet (dc) into each chain all the way across. Working three stitches into each single chain is what forces the fabric to coil into a tight spiral as it comes off the hook.
• Finish: At the end of the row, work ch 3 and then 5 single crochet (sc) to close off the centre of the spiral. Fasten off and leave a long tail for tying. Both legs should coil into matching spirals of roughly equal length.

Arms In Red, Make Two Spirals

• Foundation: Using red yarn, ch 23.
• Spiral: Work 3 dc into each chain all the way across, exactly as for the legs but on a shorter chain.
• Finish: Work ch 3 and 5 sc to close off the centre. Fasten off and leave a long tail. The arms come out noticeably shorter than the legs, which is what gives the clown its proportion.

Bow Tie In Pink

• Foundation: Make a magic ring.
• First half: Into the ring, work ch 3, 2 dc, ch 3, slip stitch (sl st). This forms one lobe of the bow.
• Second half: Into the same ring, repeat ch 3, 2 dc, ch 3, sl st to form the second lobe.
• Shaping: Pull the magic ring tight so both lobes sit close together. Fasten off leaving a long tail, then wrap that tail tightly around the centre of the bow several times to pinch it into the bow shape, and knot the tail firmly at the back. The bow should now stand as a clear two lobed shape with a cinched waist.

Pom-Pom Hair In Cream And Red

• Wind a thick bundle by wrapping cream and red yarn together around your fingers roughly 30 to 40 times. Holding the two colours together as you wrap naturally mixes them into the pom-pom.
• Slide the bundle off carefully and tie a separate, strong piece of string tightly around the exact centre of the bundle. This tie must be very firm, because the keyring will attach to it and the pom-pom will carry the full weight of the clown.
• Cut all the exterior loops all the way around, then trim the cut ends to shape the bundle into a round, dense pom-pom.

Assembly

• Fold both leg spirals in half at their centre bends and fold both arm spirals in half at their centre bends. Stack the legs and arms on top of one another at their fold points and use the leftover yarn tails to tie all four pieces together securely at the centre. This tied bundle becomes the body of the clown, with legs hanging below and arms extending to the sides.
• Thread the top yarn tails from the body bundle upward through the bottom hole of the wooden bead. Pull firmly so the head sits flush against the body with no gap, then apply a dab of hot glue inside the bead hole to lock the strings in place permanently.
• Apply a ring of hot glue to the top hole of the wooden bead and press the centre of the pom-pom firmly down onto it. Hold for a few seconds until the glue sets.
• Open the jump ring on your keychain hardware with pliers, hook it through the strong centre string of the pom-pom, and close it completely with the pliers. The keyring should now attach directly to the pom-pom string rather than to the bead.
• Apply a small dot of hot glue to the back of the pink bow tie and press it onto the front of the clown directly below the wooden bead head, centred on the body join.

Tips And Troubleshooting

• Keep your tension even and fairly loose when working the spirals. If you crochet too tightly the three dc stitches will not fit cleanly into the chain and the spiral will resist coiling. A looser hand lets the fabric curl naturally as you move down the chain.
• Tie the centre of the body bundle with at least three knots, not one. A single knot under the weight of a hanging keychain will eventually loosen, and the limbs will slide apart.
• Let the hot glue cool completely before pulling on the pom-pom or the head. Hot glue sets in seconds but stays soft for longer than it looks, and pulling too early will break the bond.
• Use pliers rather than fingers to close the jump ring. A gap in the ring wide enough to see is wide enough for the ring to catch on fabric and pull open under stress.

Customization Ideas

• Swap the cream legs for a second contrasting colour and work a fully multi-coloured clown.
• Paint a custom face on a plain wooden bead so the expression matches any character you want.
• Add a tiny crocheted hat instead of a pom-pom by working a simple cone from the top of the bead upward.
• Use rainbow variegated yarn for the pom-pom so it shifts through multiple colours.
• Make the bow in the same colour as the legs for a more coordinated look.
• Chain a longer or shorter leg and arm foundation to scale the clown up or down.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do I work into every chain including the starting chain? Most patterns skip the first one or two. The chain 33 foundation skips the first 2 chains and starts in the 3rd chain from the hook, exactly as written. Those 2 skipped chains form a neat turning edge rather than a working stitch. Working 3 dc into every remaining chain from there is what generates the volume that forces the spiral. My spiral will not coil. It just lies flat. What went wrong? Almost always tension. If your dc stitches are tight, three of them cannot fit into one chain stitch without fighting, and the fabric ends up bunched instead of coiled. Try going up half a hook size or deliberately loosening your grip. The coil appears on its own once the stitches have enough room. Can I use a crochet bead instead of a wooden one? Yes, and for a fully crocheted version that is a natural alternative. Work a small amigurumi head in skin tone yarn and embroider the face. The assembly stays the same: thread the yarn tails through the bottom of the head and glue or sew to secure. How do I stop the bow from flipping sideways on the clown? Apply the glue to a flat section of the bow back rather than to the wrapped centre knot, and press it against the body at a slight angle so the weight of each lobe balances. A small tacking stitch through the bow centre and into the yarn body beneath the bead adds extra hold if glue alone is not enough.