ConcernedApe has just announced something that nobody really saw coming, and yet somehow makes perfect sense. The Official Stardew Valley Crochet Book is real, it’s coming out on January 26, 2027, and pre-orders are already live. If you’ve spent hundreds of hours in Pelican Town and you or someone in your life is into crafting, this one is probably going straight on a wishlist.
Published by Random House Worlds — the same publisher behind the Stardew Valley Cookbook — the crochet book is written in collaboration with ConcernedApe and features work from crochet designer Megan Lapp and returning Cookbook writer Ryan Novak. ConcernedApe confirmed it on the official Stardew Valley blog, noting that players can expect the same level of care and quality that went into the cookbook. Given that the cookbook became a New York Times bestseller, that’s a decent benchmark to be working from.
What Is Amigurumi and What’s Actually In the Book?
Amigurumi is the Japanese art of crocheting small stuffed figures — think handmade plushies. The crochet book leans fully into this format, giving you patterns to create miniature versions of Stardew Valley’s most iconic items and creatures. Here’s what’s been confirmed as included:
- 25 crochet patterns with variations for more than 45 unique projects total
- Junimos, Slimes, Eggs, and Geodes
- Parsnips, the Galaxy Sword, and the Lucky Purple Shorts
- Seasonal Junimo Huts with colour variations for each season of the year
- Multiple chicken colour options — White, Blue, Brown, Golden, and Void chickens, each with customizable beak, comb, and tail feather variations
- The Mermaid Pendant (listed as one of the more challenging patterns)
- Original illustrations throughout, plus tips and in-character headnotes from Stardew Valley’s cast
- Projects aimed at both complete beginners and more experienced crocheters
The range of difficulty is worth emphasising. Slimes and Eggs are described as good entry points for anyone picking up a crochet hook for the first time, while the Mermaid Pendant sits at the more demanding end. Most things in between have enough personality to make them worth the effort regardless of skill level, and the seasonal Junimo Hut variants alone seem like the kind of thing Stardew fans are going to be collecting every version of.
Who Made It?
The book is credited to ConcernedApe, Ryan Novak, and Megan Lapp. Novak has been the writer behind several official gaming companion books including the Stardew Valley Guidebook and the Hollow Knight Wanderer’s Journal, and he wrote the Stardew Valley Cookbook, so the voice and tone of the game’s world is in familiar hands. Megan Lapp of Crafty Intentions is a specialist crochet pattern designer with multiple published books under her belt — including Crochet Monsters and Crochet Creatures of Myth and Legend — so the technical side of the patterns comes from someone who actually knows what they’re doing.
The book is 240 pages and available in both print hardcover and ebook formats. Pre-orders are live now at the official Stardew Valley books site, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and most major book retailers.
How Does This Follow the Stardew Valley Cookbook?
The Stardew Valley Cookbook launched in May 2024 and hit the New York Times bestseller list, which tells you everything you need to know about how well the Pelican Town brand translates into real-world merchandise. That book featured over 50 recipes organized by season, written in the voice of in-game characters like the Queen of Sauce and Gus. It performed strongly enough that a follow-up in the same space from the same publisher was pretty much inevitable.
The crochet book follows the same playbook — official collaboration with ConcernedApe, in-character notes and illustrations throughout, thematic organization around the game’s world, and a range of difficulty levels so it works for casual fans and dedicated hobbyists alike. The idea is clearly to give people another way to spend time with Stardew Valley beyond just playing it, which lines up with how the franchise has been expanding for years now through board games, concerts, merchandise, and more.
What About Stardew Valley’s 1.7 Update and Haunted Chocolatier?
If you’re wondering where this fits into ConcernedApe’s broader workload — the crochet book is handled primarily by the team, so it doesn’t meaningfully impact the development timelines of either project. Both Stardew Valley’s 1.7 update and Haunted Chocolatier are ongoing. Update 1.7 is confirmed to bring two new marriage candidates in the form of Clint and Sandy, changes to how children work in the game, and potentially a farm map editor, though ConcernedApe has been upfront that the latter isn’t confirmed yet. No release date for 1.7 has been announced.
As for Haunted Chocolatier, ConcernedApe issued an update just recently confirming he’s “still here, still grinding,” focusing on getting the chocolate recipe systems in the game to feel right. He’s been clear that he won’t release it until it’s exactly what he wants it to be. The crochet book announcement is essentially a separate lane of Stardew Valley’s expanding universe — not something that replaces or delays the things players are waiting on.
Should You Pre-Order the Stardew Valley Crochet Book?
If you already know your way around a crochet hook, or you know someone who does, this is a very easy yes. The pattern count alone — 25 patterns yielding over 45 variations — gives you a lot to work through, and the project selection is smart. Junimos, Slimes, and the Lucky Purple Shorts aren’t just recognizable; they’re the kind of items that Stardew players actually have an emotional connection to. The seasonal Junimo Huts in particular seem like exactly the thing someone would display on a shelf all year.
For complete beginners, the fact that the book specifically includes beginner-friendly patterns and tips designed to help you learn the hobby as you go means you don’t need to be an experienced crocheter to get something out of it. It essentially packages the game’s “relaxing new hobby” energy and transplants it into the physical world.
The Official Stardew Valley Crochet Book launches January 26, 2027. Pre-orders are available now wherever books are sold, and more details can be found at stardewvalleybooks.com.
For more gaming news this week, check out our coverage of the AC Black Flag Resynced free code dropping right now, everything happening at Pokemon GO’s Global GO Fest 2026, the PS Plus Extra and Premium July 2026 games announcement, what’s dropping on Nintendo Switch 2 on July 23, and the full Diablo 4 Season 14 patch notes.
