Amigurumi Joy

New additions to my library

I forgot to mention I bought a few more Amigurumi books during my San Francisco trip. Actually, I really need to write about and post some pictures from the trip but maybe in the near future.

I shelled out a bunch of dough for crochet books in general. I’ve been finding myself more and more drawn to crochet as a craft.

I met some very nice folks at one of my classes during the Knit and Crochet show who were really interested in learning more about interpreting Japanese books.

I know I’ve posted these in an earlier link but I”ll do so again. I’ve also found a another great resource here http://craftlog.org/craftingjapanese/

• ABC’s of Knitting
• How to Read Japanese Charts in Patterns

I really adore the lamb from the Amigurumi book volume 6.

Amigurumi Sheep

Crafting an amigurumi menagerie

Happy little guys on the couch

I’ve been making Amigurumi (Japanese Crochet Dolls) animals lately.  I was able to crank out two over the week-end. Actually, I’m scheduled to teach a course on the subject at the Naked Sheep Knit Shop, so I’ve been busily crocheting away.  In the process, I’ve discovered that I really like the fact that you can sculpt so many shapes with single crochet. All of the dolls, I’m sharing here are based on a common design from a Japanese pamphlet book.  However, I adjusted the body parts and to create different animals.

Alfie the Amigurumi Chihuahua

Amigurumi Rabbit - Mortimer (named by Jeremy)

I’m currently finishing up a third doll, an elephant. The ears were an interesting little sub project. I realize now that I should take better notes while I’m designing these things. I’ve discovered that with crochet, I need to actually work the design out by hand before I can start writing things down.  For the ears on this elephant, I experimented with adding two flaps to a short chain of single crochet… the first attempt looked too much like butterfly wing that I ended up frogging it.

I’ve also discovered that I like working with mercerized cotton yarn better than 100% wool to make these toys. I suspect that a good sturdy acrylic yarn would also make a good choice for these types of project.

Amigurumi Elephant without the eyes