All About Ami

After making the koala bear from Ana Paula Rimoli’s second book, I started working on the bunny from the same series.  My sister Ashley requested that I make one for her after she perused the pictures of the entire book and deemed the bunny to be the cutest.  The bunny pattern is actually the same as the koala: the only difference in crocheting are the ears.  The bunny also has larger eyes and a different muzzle.

I made one for her a while ago before I ordered safety eyes on-line.  The bunny was so cute that I decided to make one for myself, this time with safety eyes!  These are what safety eyes look like with their plastic washer backings:

And I store them in this sleek container I got at the Muji store in SoHo while in New York City!

Now onto pictures of bunny!  I used 9 mm eyes: you can really see the difference between these eyes and the beads I used for Koala Bear’s eyes. Ryan then helped me sew embroidery floss onto felt for the muzzle.  He’s very precise!  He then glue gunned the muzzle onto the head. 

Then we cut pieces of felt and glue gunned them onto the ears.  I actually made my ears longer than the pattern found in the book.  I also forgot to leave out the ends of the yarn to sew them onto the head :P

With all the body parts completed, we were ready for assembly!  They look so funny when they’re in pieces like this, hey?

I attached the body, the arms, the legs, and then the ears!

Then I made a tail (not found in the book) and attached it to bunny so that she could sit more easily!

And here is the finished product!  She’s sooo cute with her big eyes!

 With some scrapbook paper for the background:

I kinda went photo crazy ‘cause the bunny was so darn cute.

And here she sits on my desk.  I can’t help but smile when I see her in the corner of my eye as I work at my computer!

Okay, one last photo: my favourite colour is pink (hence my “Pretty in Pink” bridal shower), so I couldn’t resist taking a photo of bunny with my nails.  We totally match!  Excuse my poorly-painted nails as I was in a rush when I did them :P

Well, this bunny certainly turned out very differently than the original stuffed animal I made for my sister many years ago.  Stay tuned because I’m working on another special bunny for Chinese New Year since it’s the Year of the Rabbit!  I can’t wait to show you guys my upcoming original design :)

During the summer, I had a “Pretty in Pink” bridal shower.  All the girls wore different shades of pink and brought pink food! 

I loved my bridal shower cake with the damask pattern, the pretty wedding shoe and the pearl necklace (despite the fact that one pearl kept falling off, as seen in the picture).  We also made cake pops, Bakerella-style!

Some friends made these cute ballerina cupcakes because they knew I love to dance and I used to take ballet :)

Well, one of the the friends who made the ballerina cupcakes then had her bridal shower.  I knew that I wanted to crochet her something special as a part of her gift.  Sooo, I decided to make her a cupcake bear!

I first saw cupcake bears on Amigurumi Kingdom’s flickr page.  I thought the idea was sooo cute, and they’d be quick to make since I didn’t have to crochet limbs or a body!  And so, I set about making my own.

I crocheted a round head and two ears.  Once again, I used beads as the eyes.  Ryan managed to wedge the beads between the stitches and then glue gunned the back so that they wouldn’t poke out as much.

Then I crocheted a little cherry and found a cute cupcake liner.

We then placed the bear inside the cupcake liner.  To make it stand well and have a firm base, we glued a piece of round cardboard on the bottom (inside the liner).  We then stuffed the bottom of the liner with some fiberfill and then placed the bear ontop.  Ryan used a glue gun to secure the bear in the liner.

And here’s the finished product!

Unfortunately, I don’t have any more pics of the cupcake bear since I gave him away at the bridal shower!  But I’ll definitely be making more in the future, ‘cause who doesn’t love cupcakes?

I’m not actually a coffee drinker but the pattern to make a little cafe con leche cup on Ana Paula’s blog was too hard to pass up.  This pattern can also be found in her first book.  I loved the rosy pink cheeks and cute little smile!

I used green worsted weight cotton yarn (4 ply), and since the stitches were so big, we were actually able to stick two beads between the stitches (rather than crocheting them into a row and crocheting around them).  Ryan used a glue gun to secure the beads in place.  I also modified Ana Paula’s handle to the following pattern:

Handle

Chain 2

Round 1: Work 4 sc in 2nd chain from hook

Round 2-10 (or to desired length): Sc in each sc (4 sts in each row)

Fasten off

And here’s the finished product:

I also couldn’t resist taking some photos of the little cup with some of my favourite home-made treats: Rice Krispy Squares!

I also found this photo of a coffee mug on Puchi.tomato’s flickr page.  I loved the sleepy expression of the mug!  There was no pattern, but I thought I’d try and make it by myself!

Here are pics of the assembly:

If anyone is interested in the pattern, let me know and I will try and write out what I did.  One important part is to sew the handle onto the cup so that it curves like half a heart.

And the finished product!

I haven’t made the cute little marshmallow yet, but I can always still add it on :)

Again, I couldn’t resist taking some photos of the mug with more treats: cinnamon buns this time (alas, not home-made though). 

Aren’t they cute together?

I have plans to make a cup cozy using this pattern in the future, so stay tuned for that!

When I went to Michael’s to pick up some new yarn and a smaller crochet hook, I found Ana Paula Rimoli’s book entitled “Amigurumi Two!: Crocheted Toys for Me and You and Baby Too”.  It was the second book that Ana Paula had written, but the first book was nowhere in sight.  I excitedly purchased the book after flipping through the pages and oohing and ahhing at every single picture.  I highly recommend Ana Paula’s books as the instructions are very clear and every single crocheted creation is so darn cute.  The little bear, bunny and koala bear on page 26 really caught my eye.  I was determined to make all three of them, so I started off with the little koala bear.

I excitedly crocheted all the body parts and laid them out.  I love how quickly it takes to crochet amigurumi since each body part is so small!

At this point in time, I had not yet purchased safety eyes (these are special eyes used for soft toys or dolls that have plastic washer backings).  It is much easier to use safety eyes as you can stick them into the head when you are ready just before you stuff it.  However, Michael’s did not sell safety eyes, so I used black beads instead. 

It is more challenging using beads as I had to place them in the row I was working on and then crochet around them.  They also don’t look as nice as they give the stuffed animals a “bug-eyed” look since they tend to stick out. 

Here are some pics of Koala’s assembly: attaching the body, the legs, the arms, and then the ears!

Here are front and back pics of Koala all finished, now with his felt nose (which Ryan glue gunned on)!

 Isn’t he cute?

 I was so happy with how Koala turned out!  He sits proudly on my desk and on my shelf.  Koala was a favourite among my friends when I showed them pictures of my amigurumi!

So there you have it!  My first amigurumi using one of Ana Paula Rimoli’s patterns.  I adore her patterns, and I can’t wait to show you the rest as I’ve made many now :)

I was so excited to begin working on my first amigurumi.  But what would I make?  I was in the process of moving from my family’s house to my new house, and I only had pink and black yarn with me.  Hmmm….who could I make that was pink?  I narrowed it down between two round, pink Nintendo characters: Kirby or Jigglypuff.  I ended up choosing Jigglypuff.

I used to play Pokemon Red on my Nintendo GameBoy back in 1996.  I used to love collecting and training my pokemon and watching the Pokemon anime series as well.  Jigglypuff was always so cute when she puffed up with anger and put people to sleep with her mesmerizing songs.

And so, I found this great Jigglypuff pattern on WolfDreamer’s blog.  I ended up altering the pattern here and there because I wanted to make a smaller Jigglypuff.  Here is how my Jigglypuff turned out:

And these are the materials I used to make Jigglypuff:

Pink and black yarn for crocheting.  White, red and blue felt for the eyes and mouth.  And kleenex?!?  Yes, that is what I used to stuff Jigglypuff.  I did not yet have polyster fiberfill, and I did not want to wait another day to go out and buy it or get it from my family’s house (the same polyester fiberfill I used to make my original amigurumi in 1995).  I was too eager to start assembling Jigglypuff.  So I used the only thing I could find around the house - kleenex.  That means it’ll be bye bye Jigglypuff if she ever gets dunked in water :S

Here’s a pic showing what was made out of the above materials:

Crocheting the parts was simple enough, particularly since the single crochet stitch is the only stitch that is typically used to make amigurumi.  Reading the crochet patterns came back to me.  However, assembling the parts together was a different story.  Placing and sewing the body parts together is key, and at times I got frustrated.

Curving and attaching the tuft of hair onto Jigglypuff’s head was challenging.

Sewing the black inner ear to the pink outer ear (without showing the black stitches and yarn from behind) was also difficult.

I was very happy with how Jigglypuff turned out though!  Ryan helped me cut the eyes and mouth out of felt (he’s very precise!) and used a glue gun to glue them to Jigglypuff’s face.  I was so proud after making my very first amigurumi as an adult!  There was no doubt in my mind that taking up crochet again to make these cute stuffed animals was going to be a fun challenge.

Let me explain.  It was September 2010 when we returned from a whirlwind honeymoon after our dream wedding.  My husband Ryan and I had been meticulously planning this wedding for two years as we wanted every aspect of it to have our personal touch.  I had been immersed in excel files, printer ink and modpodge with our DIY items (including 900 bubble magnets and 300 damask boxes for our favours). 

Now it was back to real life as we excitedly moved into our new house.  We took great joy in decorating our place, and whilst looking for the perfect pillows for our sofa, we stumbled upon some images of crocheted pillows.  That sparked the idea that I should take up crocheting again and re-engage my crafty side! 

You see, when I was younger, I used to make friendship bracelets, do beadwork, macramé, knit, crochet and scrapbook.  All that was placed on the backburner as I focused on school.  But now that my schooling was finished and there were no more wedding projects on the go, I knew it’d be the perfect time to start crocheting again!  And so, I looked through google images to see what types of things people were crocheting these days.

My eyes widened with delight when I saw images and images of little crocheted animals called “amigurumi”.  They were so incredibly cute!  I looked more into it and found out that “amigurumi” was the Japanese art of knitting/crocheting small stuffed animals.  Apparently, the fad for creating and collecting amigurumi began in 2003.  Although I was technically late in jumping on the bandwagon, my days of crocheting stuffed animals actually began wayyy back in 1995…

These were some of my previous crochet books. 

And these were some of my previous projects.  Keep in mind that most of these books were published in the mid-1990’s, so I was about 10 years old…

Here we have a purse made up of daisy squares.  I used to LOVE this pattern.  Also note the little flower beadwork up the sides and on the handle.  Yup, I was pretty proud about that.

I also used to knit and crochet clothes for my teddy bears.  Here we have a beret and sweater.  They’re a little rough around the edges, but hey, it kept my teddy warm and well-dressed :)

This book in particular focused on stuffed animals!  They look different than the current amigurumi because they didn’t use safety eyes and their body parts are proportional to one another.  Amigurumi nowadays have oversized heads and undersized extremities.

And here are some of my early crocheted stuffed animals that I made following their patterns (again, keep in mind that I was 10 years old).

Please don’t laugh.  These are a far cry from what I crochet now, believe me.  I think it’s cute how I tried to give the bunny and the cat eyelashes and chic bows around their necks.  The cat was actually a gift for my younger sister, Ashley.  She brought me to tears when she pulled it out during her maid-of-honour speech at our wedding. 

They are so floppy.  Look at how I attached the arms back then, ha ha. 

It’s fun to look back at my very first crocheted stuffed animals.  The ones I work on nowadays look considerably different: they are smaller (which means they’re also quicker to make), and I use a smaller crochet hook to get a tighter gauge.  I also now use beads, safety eyes, felt and embroidery floss for their faces.  I’ve also learned how to use a dog slicker brush to fuzz up yarn!

I’ve made quite a few amigurumi since I started a couple months ago, and I tried to take pictures of everything along the way.  I will blog about each project, writing why I chose to make it, where I got the pattern from, and showing pictures of their assembly.  Please join me along this journey as I rediscover my love of crochet in the form of ridiculously cute stuffed animals :D