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The Big Little Pet Bed, a Round Cat Bed made with Jumbo Yarn

Pet Bed

Make your tiny pet feel like a king or queen while they dream away in the Big Little Pet Bed!

I’m a proud cat-momma of two cat babes – Sir Peanut Butter and Sheba the Queen. Peanut loves to lounge on the couch with me, but Sheba prefers the comfort of my bed upstairs. To entice her to stay in the living room, I teamed up with Yarnspirations to make the Big Little Pet Bed from their Bernat Maker Big yarn. And Sheba loves it!

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Make the Big Little Pet Bed, a FREE crochet pattern made in partnership with Yarnspirations. Made with Bernat Maker Big, a jumbo size yarn, you can work up a customizable crochet cat bed in just an afternoon. Practice the spike stitch, working in the round, working in a spiral, and the crochet invisible join. Find the free pattern and links to all of my favorite tools in the post. |TLYCBlog.com

I’ve been a big fan of the Yarnspirations brand, which includes Bernat, Patons, Caron, and many more, for years. I especially love the variety of fibers and weights as well as how accessible they are. I often find my Yarnspirations yarns at my local JOANN or I can easily order them from Yarnspirations.com.

Make the Big Little Pet Bed, a FREE crochet pattern made in partnership with Yarnspirations. Made with Bernat Maker Big, a jumbo size yarn, you can work up a customizable crochet cat bed in just an afternoon. Practice the spike stitch, working in the round, working in a spiral, and the crochet invisible join. Find the free pattern and links to all of my favorite tools in the post. |TLYCBlog.com

Many moons ago, I made a collection of three Tunisian crochet pillow patterns using Bernat Maker Home Dec. I still have those pillows on my couch to this day! When I saw that Bernat made a new yarn called Maker Big that was similar to Home Dec, I was so excited! This CYC Category 7 (JUMBO!) yarn is made with a buttery soft cotton shell and filled with bouncy nylon. The resulting yarn is vibrant and perfect for home decor projects.

Make the Big Little Pet Bed, a FREE crochet pattern made in partnership with Yarnspirations. Made with Bernat Maker Big, a jumbo size yarn, you can work up a customizable crochet cat bed in just an afternoon. Practice the spike stitch, working in the round, working in a spiral, and the crochet invisible join. Find the free pattern and links to all of my favorite tools in the post. |TLYCBlog.com

I decided to try out the Amber colorway, which is a rich and warm orange. I needed 2 balls of Bernat Maker Big for my project and went with a 10mm crochet hook instead of the recommended 15mm. I knew this would give me a much sturdier construction without straining my hands too much.

Make the Big Little Pet Bed, a FREE crochet pattern made in partnership with Yarnspirations. Made with Bernat Maker Big, a jumbo size yarn, you can work up a customizable crochet cat bed in just an afternoon. Practice the spike stitch, working in the round, working in a spiral, and the crochet invisible join. Find the free pattern and links to all of my favorite tools in the post. |TLYCBlog.com

The Big Little Pet Bed starts out with a flat circle worked in half double crochet stitches. To make sure I made a circle and not an octagon, I staggered my increases on each round. (Keep scrolling for the full FREE pattern!)

You can decide how large your circle needs to be based on your cat. For Sheba, who is pretty tiny (about 8 pounds), I measured around her while she was sleeping and decided I wanted a circle that was about 38″. I used this nifty calculator to determine that the circle needed to be 12″ across, which I was able to reach once I’d completed 8 rounds.

Make the Big Little Pet Bed, a FREE crochet pattern made in partnership with Yarnspirations. Made with Bernat Maker Big, a jumbo size yarn, you can work up a customizable crochet cat bed in just an afternoon. Practice the spike stitch, working in the round, working in a spiral, and the crochet invisible join. Find the free pattern and links to all of my favorite tools in the post. |TLYCBlog.com

From here, I needed to start working the sides. To make sure my sides stood up and weren’t saggy, I worked single crochet stitches through the back loop AND the 3rd loop of the half double crochet stitch. You can find the 3rd loop of the stitch just below the back loop on the back side of the stitch. By working my single crochet stitches through both of these loops, the stitch feels more secure and is more likely to stay in place.

Make the Big Little Pet Bed, a FREE crochet pattern made in partnership with Yarnspirations. Made with Bernat Maker Big, a jumbo size yarn, you can work up a customizable crochet cat bed in just an afternoon. Practice the spike stitch, working in the round, working in a spiral, and the crochet invisible join. Find the free pattern and links to all of my favorite tools in the post. |TLYCBlog.com

Now comes the really fun part! I’ve always been intrigued by spike stitches, which involve working a stitch in the base of stitches in the rows below your current working row. This is a fun way to play with texture in projects and moves the eye around the stitch pattern in a whole new way.

After some experimenting, I decided to do a stitch pattern that alternated normal single crochet stitches with spike stitches worked one row below. Watch the video below for a quick demo.

Since I had an odd number of stitches, I was able to work my pattern in a spiral without joining the rounds. This makes the project completely seamless and means we don’t have to fiddle with any ugly seams.

I finished things off with a simple slip stitch border and an invisible join. And that’s it! I finished my Big Little Pet Bed for Sheba in just one afternoon. I had just a couple grams of yarn left from my second ball of Bernat Maker Big. Since I don’t like to let yarn go to waste, I put a few drops of catnip oil on the leftover ball and gave that to Peanut.

Make the Big Little Pet Bed, a FREE crochet pattern made in partnership with Yarnspirations. Made with Bernat Maker Big, a jumbo size yarn, you can work up a customizable crochet cat bed in just an afternoon. Practice the spike stitch, working in the round, working in a spiral, and the crochet invisible join. Find the free pattern and links to all of my favorite tools in the post. |TLYCBlog.com

Sheba loved her new bed from the moment I put it on the floor (the few drops of catnip oil I put in the bottom might have helped)! She’s a squirrely little thing, so she flipped and flopped in it for a while before settling in. She still uses it to this day when she lounges with us in the living room.

Personalize your own Big Little Pet Bed by using the FREE pattern below and share your projects with me on Ravelry!

Make the Big Little Pet Bed, a FREE crochet pattern made in partnership with Yarnspirations. Made with Bernat Maker Big, a jumbo size yarn, you can work up a customizable crochet cat bed in just an afternoon. Practice the spike stitch, working in the round, working in a spiral, and the crochet invisible join. Find the free pattern and links to all of my favorite tools in the post. |TLYCBlog.com

Big Little Pet Bed Pattern

FINISHED SIZE: 12″ wide x 4″ tall

MATERIALS:

  • 2 balls Bernat Maker Big in the Amber colorway
  • US Size N/15 10mm crochet hook (try this one!)
  • Scissors
  • Yarn needle
  • Stitch marker
  • Heavy books (optional)

ABBREVIATIONS:

  • Ch = chain
  • Hdc = half double crochet
  • Inc = increase (2 hdc in same st)
  • MR = magic ring
  • Sc = single crochet
  • Sl st = slip stitch
  • Spike = sc in the base of the sc one row below
  • St(s) = stitch(es)

NOTES:

  • As you’re crocheting the base, your piece may start to cup or curl. If this happens, steam it with an iron or garment steamer and lay a book on top of it to flatten it. Allow to dry, then continue.
  • When adding your second ball of yarn, drop the current working yarn when you have 4″ left, and complete the stitch with the new ball of yarn. This will prevent any obvious knots.
  • Parts of this pattern are written in crochet shorthand. For example “hdc 2” means to hdc in each of the next two stitches while “hdc 3” means to hdc in each of the next 3 stitches.
Make the Big Little Pet Bed, a FREE crochet pattern made in partnership with Yarnspirations. Made with Bernat Maker Big, a jumbo size yarn, you can work up a customizable crochet cat bed in just an afternoon. Practice the spike stitch, working in the round, working in a spiral, and the crochet invisible join. Find the free pattern and links to all of my favorite tools in the post. |TLYCBlog.com

BASE

Round 1: Hdc 8 in MR, pull tail to close ring. Continue working in a spiral. Place stitch marker in the last stitch of the round and move up at the end of each round. (8 hdc)

Round 2: Inc in each st around. (16 hdc)

Round 3: (Hdc 1, inc) around. (24 hdc)

Round 4: (Hdc 2, inc) around. (32 hdc)

Round 5: (Inc, Hdc 3) around. (40 hdc)

Round 6: (Hdc 4, inc) around. (48 hdc)

Make the Big Little Pet Bed, a FREE crochet pattern made in partnership with Yarnspirations. Made with Bernat Maker Big, a jumbo size yarn, you can work up a customizable crochet cat bed in just an afternoon. Practice the spike stitch, working in the round, working in a spiral, and the crochet invisible join. Find the free pattern and links to all of my favorite tools in the post. |TLYCBlog.com

Round 7: (Inc, hdc 5) around. (56 hdc)

Round 8: (Hdc 6, inc) around. (64 hdc)

SIDES

Round 1: Sc in back loop AND 3rd loop of the next 63 sts. Place 2 sc in the next st. DO NOT JOIN – continue to work in a spiral and move maker as needed. (65 sc)

Round 2: (Spike 1, sc 1) around for 64 sts, spike in last st. (65 sts)

Rounds 3 and 4: Continuing to work in a spiral, sc each spike st and spike each sc.

Make the Big Little Pet Bed, a FREE crochet pattern made in partnership with Yarnspirations. Made with Bernat Maker Big, a jumbo size yarn, you can work up a customizable crochet cat bed in just an afternoon. Practice the spike stitch, working in the round, working in a spiral, and the crochet invisible join. Find the free pattern and links to all of my favorite tools in the post. |TLYCBlog.com

Round 5: Sl st loosely in each st around. Finish with an invisible join.

FINISHING

Weave in any remaining ends.

Share your Big Little Pet Bed with me on Instagram using #TLYCMakers in your post for a chance to be reposted. Then show off your project in the TLYC Makers Facebook group! And don’t forget to share your projects on Ravelry, too!

CLICK HERE TO PIN THIS POST!

Make the Big Little Pet Bed, a FREE crochet pattern made in partnership with Yarnspirations. Made with Bernat Maker Big, a jumbo size yarn, you can work up a customizable crochet cat bed in just an afternoon. Practice the spike stitch, working in the round, working in a spiral, and the crochet invisible join. Find the free pattern and links to all of my favorite tools in the post. |TLYCBlog.com

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Comments

  1. AvatarShelley Wallace says

    Awesome project!! going to try for my two big boys, Maine Coons, can you make it printer friendly? it saves printer paper and ink to have the condensed version with only the pattern details. THANKS for sharing!!!!

    • Toni L.Toni L. says

      Hi Shelley! I’m so glad you’re going to try out this pattern. It’s so fun 🙂 I won’t be making a printer-friendly version of this pattern, but some creative copying and pasting should do the trick!

  2. AvatarBeverly Youngberg says

    Hi Toni! Tried watching the demo video, but the link isn’t working. Is there ant place else you posted it to see? I tied your YouTube page and didn’t see it.

    • Toni L.Toni L. says

      Hi Beverly! The video is embedded in the post, so you might want to try watching it on another device, maybe a desktop. Hope that helps!

  3. AvatarJenny says

    Hi Toni I really want to give this a go for my crazy kitten. I’m in Australia so it can be hard to find yarn but I found a supplier and they were going to order it in for me. However they just found out it has been discontinued and they will not be able to get it for me 🙁 Do you have any suggestions for a different yarn?

    • Toni L.Toni L. says

      Hi Jenny! That’s such a bummer. That yarn was so lovely – I’m sad it’s been discontinued. I’ve seen some folks make this pattern holding two strands of super bulky yarn together – so maybe hold two strands of Wool Ease Thick and Quick (or something comparable) together to get about the same gauge.

  4. AvatarGrace says

    Hi. I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your pattern. It was super easy to follow and adjust the sizing. Plus they are super quick to make. I have 3 BIG cats (a Maine Coon, a Ragdoll, and a 22 lb tabby). I made mine out of 2 strands of bernat blanket yarn and made the circle 2 rows larger and I added 3 to 4 rows on the walls. It is very sturdy and cushy. I’ve had to make 6 of these to have all over the house because they love them so much and I didn’t even put catnip oil on them!!

    Thanks again for taking the time to put this together.

  5. AvatarMarlene Kelleher says

    Thank you for your time in making the patterns for everyone. I’m going to make the cat bed. I’m legally blind and only see a little in each eye. I had an eye stroke 5 years ago and lost my balance and sight in 15 minutes. My granny taught me how to crochet when I was very young about 5. An still love to make items for our veterans at our local hospital. I make a lot of lap blankets for the vets. in wheel chairs and homeless in the area. God sure has blessed me and you for your wonderful gift of giving. thank you for the free patterns. Have a blessed 2021 and be safe. God bless and keep you safe. M

  6. AvatarKatie says

    I saw this design while watching your Hobbii stash video and immediately ordered their Bungee Mini. I ordeed 3 skeins which I’m thankful I did because I needed the 3rd one! The sides of my bed seemed to open outwards and I’m not sure what the error on my part was. Any advice? I will definitely want to make another as I have 2 cats. Thank you!!

    • Toni L.Toni L. says

      Hi! So glad you gave this pattern a try. If the sides are bowing out, it’s likely that your tension wasn’t quite tight enough or your hook was too big. I’d recommend pulling the sides out and switching to a smaller hook to re-do them 🙂

      • AvatarKatie says

        I ended up seeing how it would look making the SC in the back and third loop in-between the spikes and that helped with the bowing! I used a Prym 10 hook

  7. AvatarViswabarathi says

    Hi Toni,thank you so much for this pattern..its sturdy for my Siberian cat who is about 11lbs..I just added extra 2 rounds on the base..I used t-shirt yarn from Hoooked.very pleased with the outcome and approved by my cat..

  8. AvatarDesiree Marineau says

    Your big little pet bed calls for two balls of a kind of yarn that is no longer available. So I don’t know the actual yardage needed for the project

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