Create your own adorable capybara with this easy no-sew crochet amigurumi pattern! This PDF pattern also includes a tiny orange accessory to go with your capybara. These capybaras work up quickly and would be great for market prep or handmade gifts!
Create your own adorable baby capybara with this easy no-sew crochet amigurumi pattern! This PDF pattern also includes a tiny orange accessory to go with your capybara. These baby capybaras work up super quickly and would be great for market prep or handmade gifts!
As a crochet business owner, I use a LOT of yarn. I design crochet patterns and make plushies to sell at markets and in my Etsy shop. In 2025 I decided to keep track of how many skeins of yarn I finished.
The yarn I use the most is Premier Yarns Parfait Chunky. I am an affiliate with Premier Yarns so I earn commission on purchases through my link at no extra cost to you 🙂
I finished a total of 74 skeins of chenille yarn in 2025. These are the exact yarns I used up and where to get them:
In 2026 I plan to track more than just skeins finished, as I have a LOT of open yarn skeins that I started in 2025 or before and didn’t finish yet. So my actual total yarn usage is more than 74 skeins, as partial usage wasn’t tracked. I use a lot of different colors, and the plushies I make are so small that I can make a lot of plushies with the same skein before finishing it. For example, my tiny birds crochet pattern uses a ton of colors in such small amounts, or really anything in my market minis basket.
The number 1 thing I crochet the most are rats, so it’s no surprise to me that most of the top colors used were for rats. Check out my rat crochet pattern, and my rat statistics post from last week. I also use the ballet pink as the base color of pink axolotls. In 2026 so far I’ve already finished skeins of ballet pink and seal.
What yarn colors do you think you use the most?
Looking at my yarn usage per month was interesting to me. I think January’s usage was high because I probably ended 2024 with a lot of almost-empty skeins, the same way I did December 2025. In February I was mostly working on my Banner Letters crochet pattern, which doesn’t use chenille yarn (and I didn’t track my acrylic yarn usage). Check out all the crochet patterns I released in 2025.
My usage in May was likely so high because of market prep, but my first market of the year was in April so I would have thought April to be larger to match. I don’t do markets over the summer, so that explains why July was so low in yarn usage, but then in August I did my best to crochet as much as possible to prepare for my move (so I had less messy partial skeins to pack up, and I was trying to finish my box of polyfil).
And in November and December I was so busy making rats for Etsy orders.
In 2025 I set a goal for myself to use up more yarn than I purchased. I definitely failed, but I’m actually blaming Premier Yarns for this one because they kept releasing new colors of Parfait Chunky last year! The new greens and browns especially are SO GOOD.
Also, after I moved I was able to buy more shelves for yarn storage! I previously had only a small bookcase and the rest stored in plastic bins, but now I have two Ikea Billy bookcases with glass doors to store yarn in. And since they’re so big I had to place another Premier Yarns order to fill them in a bit more LOL.
Are you trying to use up more of your yarn stash in 2026? I think that I’m just going to track my yarn usage and just try not to go overboard with yarn purchases, without setting a specific goal. But I am very curious if I will use more yarn in 2026 than I did in 2025.
Handmade crochet rat plushies are the biggest seller in my Etsy shop. In the 2025 holiday season, I was making multiple a day. It felt like a never-ending stream of rat orders, which is a great problem to have. 😆 So let’s look at some statistics for November and December 2025. I want to know which rats are most popular so I can be prepared for 2026.
The #1 color ordered: dark gray! I always thought light gray would be most popular, but I sold 15 of these dark gray rats in November and December. This is may more than any of the 11 other color options I offer.
The second most popular color was cream. Almost half of the cream rats were ordered with red eyes instead of black.
Did you think dark gray would be most popular? Which color is your favorite? Let me know in the comments!
I think I will be using the bar chart to prepare inventory for the 2026 holiday season. It seems I could benefit from having a few dark gray, cream, cream with red eyes, cloudy gray, and light gray rats in stock ahead of time. My rat listing is made-to-order, but if I have them prepared ahead of time I can ship sooner.
Speaking of red eyes, 10 of the 65 total rats were ordered with red eyes. 5 cream, 2 marshmallow, 1 cloudy gray, 1 black, and 1 dark brown. I was surprised to see these ordered with the darker rat colors, but I actually love how the red eyes look against the black rat.
Another surprising stat is that I sold rats in groups of 3 more frequently than I sold them in groups of 2. Of course, the most were sold individually.
The busiest weeks for rat plushie orders were as expected: the week of Thanksgiving and the week after. And rats were practically the only plushies I sold this holiday season, unlike previous years that had more variety.
These statistics were for just November and December of 2025, as I sold way more rats in those two months than the rest of the year. But made to order rat plushies can be ordered from my shop at any time, and they make excellent gifts! Get yours here.
As a crochet vendor at markets, my best-seller is always the cheapest: plushies from my minis basket. I sell these minis for $6 or 2-for-$10.
This minis basket was new for my market booth in 2025. Let’s see how well it performed at markets over the course of the year. I’m going to show you which patterns I use to make these miniature plushies, how many of each one I make, and how many sold at each market.
April 2025 Mini Plushie Basket
I started putting together this minis basket in March. Some of the tiny plushies, like the baby leggy frogs, I had been making already for a few years. But I wanted to add more variety, so I asked for pattern suggestions on my Instagram stories. So to start I had baby leggy frogs, whales, mini bees, octos, baby birds in 2 styles, and strawberries.
In April I attended the Bristol Borough Sunday Stroll. It was a pretty good market, and I ended up selling 33 of the 65 mini plushies. The whales sold the most, and my tiny birds sold out entirely.
I spent a few weeks restocking before my next market in May. This time, I added way more styles of tiny birds, as I was working to design all 16 styles for my Tiny Birds Pattern. I also restocked whales and octos, and added sharks.
The May Bristol Borough Sunday Stroll was my best market in 2025. I sold a total of 50 mini plushies out of the 87 I brought with me. I was happy to see the tiny birds were so popular, so after this market I finished all the styles and released the pattern. I also sold out of strawberries.
In June, I restocked the most popular mini plushies, but I also experimented with a few new mini plushie styles. I added the carrots, frog heads, boba, and cherries.
The June Bristol Borough Sunday Stroll was not as well attended as usual due to some unexpected rain during the setup hours. So this time I brought even more mini plushies than ever before (95 total), but only sold 20. The tiny birds were still most popular, and none of my new additions (like the carrots) sold.
I had 75 mini plushies left in June. Which turned out to be a good thing, as I didn’t have time to restock before my next market.
September 2025 Mini Plushie Basket
My usual markets skip the summer (which I’m happy about because I don’t want to sit out in the heat lol), so the next market was in September. I moved in the beginning of September, so I really did not have time to market prep at all. I was still painting and unpacking in my new house. Because of this, I completely forgot to take all my before pictures to make my usual minis basket update posts. But I started with the 75 minis I had left in June, and sold 33 of them.
November 2025 Mini Plushie Basket
I had more time to restock in October and November. I made plenty of the tiny birds, focusing on the styles I thought would sell most. I started November with 87 plushies in the minis basket.
I had two markets scheduled for the same weekend in November: the Bensalem High School Craft Fair and the Bristol Borough Sunday Stroll.
The Craft Fair went as expected, but the Sunday Stroll did NOT. We showed up to set up on the street as usual, but it was so windy that the fire department shut down the event. Luckily, the organizers managed to reschedule it for the next Sunday.
Between the two markets, I sold 40 mini plushies. Nearly half of those were tiny birds.
At this point, I’m sure you’re wondering: what sold best overall?
Here’s the top 5:
5. Strawberries
Strawberries seemed to be a hit or miss in the minis basket. Some times I sold a few, and other times I sold none. I sold a total of 15. Get the strawberry pattern by crochetwbay here.
4. Octos
Octos were more popular in the beginning of the year than the end. I sold a total of 20. The octo pattern is based on several patterns by All From Jade.
3. Baby Leggy Frogs
I was not expecting this to be one of my top sellers, considering how I didn’t make a single additional baby leggy frog from the initial batch of 22 I started with in April! But I ended the year with just one left, selling a total of 21. Get the baby leggy frog pattern by knotjaded here.
2. Whales
Whales were quite popular – I sold a total of 34. Get the whale pattern from All From Jade here.
1. Tiny Birds!
I’m sure you saw this one coming, but tiny birds were the most popular in the minis basket. I sold 59 of them!! Across all 16 styles, the top sellers were the chick (14), mallard duck (9), and the call duck (7). Get the tiny birds pattern here.
Meet Frank Fungi, the most helpful little mushroom guy crochet pattern you’ll ever make! This unique amigurumi mushroom features looped arms so he can hold onto your crochet hook, a pencil, a tiny plushie, or a small trinket! What will you give Frank to hold? With zero sewing required, Frank would also make a great market prep pattern!
Spice up your autumn markets with this tiny pumpkin crochet pattern! This quick amigurumi pattern is the perfect stash buster for Stash Bust September. In only minutes you can have a whole pumpkin patch! This tiny size would be perfect for keychains for fall.
Cook up some fun with this 2-in-1 fried egg crochet pattern! Make these fried eggs in two sizes, and embroider silly little faces! The tiny size would make eggcellent keychains!
Looking for a quick market prep project? This no-sew squiggly snake crochet pattern includes seven different stripe styles in one PDF! These chunky snakes work up super quickly and are a great way to use up scrap yarn and fill up your market inventory. I just love the way the snakes hold their squiggle shape.
7 styles included: solid color, black & white stripes, thin stripes, medium stripes, wide stripes, rainbow #1, rainbow #2.
Create your own adorable no-sew lizard plushie with this easy amigurumi crochet pattern PDF! This chunky chenille reptile works up super quickly with zero sewing required, making it a perfect quick market prep project or a fun gift for reptile lovers. I just love their little legs and feet with three toes.
