Search "Amigurumi" on Pinterest and you will be inundated with an endless assortment of cute yarn animals, succulents, fairy tale creatures and more. So what is Amigurumi exactly? From Wikipedia, Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small, stuff yarn creatures. Amigurumis vary in size and there are no restrictions on size or look. Pictures above are all taken from Pinterest when searching "Amigurumi". The last image is what inspired my first successful animal.Many thanks to my cousin who got me on this craze. She started making Amigurumi first, and shared every step of her irresistibly cute projects. With each progress photo I found myself getting more and more excited, even a little envious. Once she was done her first one, a bear no bigger than 5 inches tall, I knew I needed my own. My cousin recommended that I become familiar with crocheting spheres as most animals require a sphere for their head. She even passed on a handy set of patterns for different sized spheres (found on Pinterest, of course). I may have gotten a little too ambitious in making my first bear. I also didn't brush up on my increases and decreases and ended up with spheres with holes through which the stuffing poked through. I shared my troubles with my cousin and she quickly got me back on track. I practised making some more spheres, but since I wasn't following an actual pattern for a bear, there were more frustrations when I made the bear's body, legs, ears...well, basically everything else. The whole process consisted of trial and error. I just wanted a cute little bear of my own and I let my impatience get the best of me. I did manage to make a little bear eventually, but boy, was I not proud of it. Yes, it did look like a bear but his body was uneven and the proportions were off. Fortunately, this didn't discourage me and actually fuelled me to get better and try making another one. Practice, practice and more practice led me to my first successful Amigurumi. And by successful, I mean it looks mostly how I wanted it to and I'm not afraid to share a picture of it. Say hello to Monkey! This monkey was created for a special little girl; monkey - for Year of the Monkey in which she was born, and black - for her surname. This time the experience was much more positive as I was determined to make this into a gift. It even became exciting as I saw my work come together and actually look like a monkey. Finally, I was proud of what I made. Monkey was created using Lion Brand yarn for the body and Bernat cotton yarn for the face. Yarn brand for the dress was not recorded. What did I learn from this process?
First: Patience is very important! Don't expect to immediately know how to crochet an animal just from looking at one; especially when not following a pattern. Second: Practising some basic crochet shapes such as spheres (head), circles (ears) and tubes (arms and legs) will help make the process easier. When in doubt, there is usually a YouTube video which can help with those key shapes. If you need a pattern, browse the web. Pinterest is a great place to start and there are lots of patterns on Etsy to purchase as well. Thirdly: The first one is always the slowest. This sort of goes along with patience. Don't be discouraged if it takes hours, or even days to complete your first Amigurumi project. All the long hours will be worth it and you'll be proud of your work!
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Melissa LuangsiripanyaHi there! I'm a self-taught casual crocheter. Here you will find more details on how I made my projects as well as stories of hardship, frustrations and success! Archives
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