All About Ami

Ryan and I have absolutely loved getting all your wonderful feedback about our Christmas teddy ornaments through our facebook page, twitter, tumblr and blog.  I’ve never received so many comments or tumblr hearts for a post before, and I want to thank each and every one of you who took the time to stop by and leave a kind message!  I know a lot of new people have been introduced to my blog through other sites and through Ravelry, so I would like to welcome you all here!  It’s wonderful seeing people explore all my previous projects and I really appreciate the support I’ve received for my blog overall :)

Within a day of my posting the pattern, people already started sending me photos of their own teddy ornaments!  We were absolutely blown away to see how popular they were!  It warms our hearts to know that these teddies are being made and hung on trees all around the world!  In this Crochet Corner post, we have a whopping twelve teddy ornaments to share with you :)

Catherine made her own rendition of the brown teddy complete with a festive red scarf and attached red bell!  He’s a perfect addition to her Christmas amigurumi set with her absolutely adorable snowman and penguin :)

Jill of Dapper Toad made a brown teddy for her tree as well!  See those cute little mini snowmen also hanging on her tree?  Jill provides a free crochet pattern for them here!  You can never have too much amigurumi for your tree, right? 

Grace also made a brown teddy for herself, and she might make some to give away as presents!  Cute brown and white loop to attach him to the tree! 

Emily made an adorable little matching hat for her brown teddy!  It’s cute how he’s posed with her cat :)  She says she’ll be making more for her co-workers as Christmas gifts!

Stephanie of the UK made her own panda ornament with a red scarf and has been requested to make another one for a friend’s tree!  These teddies are popping up everywhere :)

Camille said she saw my teddies and made her very own the same day!  Her panda has extra big eyes with her big eye roundies :)  I love how she positioned him next to an orange to show his relative size! 

Theaie of Micca Design from Germany also made a panda.  Doesn’t he look so sweet sitting in her mug?  Adorable!

Jourdan made both the brown teddy and the panda, and she tells me that the recipient of these teddies loves them both dearly!  Who wouldn’t?  Love their facial expressions with their cute smiles and big eyes.  I love how our teddies have similar scarf colours! 

Irina of the Ukraine made these teddies as presents for her friends.  Her teddies are so colourful with the variegated yarn and bright scarves!

Michelle’s koala is very unique: instead of crocheting her koala, she knitted the body and then turned it inside out.  She then placed the knitted piece around an actual ornament ball instead of filling it will stuffing!  What an interesting idea! 

Nng House Adm of Malaysia posted this pic of a Snowman ornament she made using my pattern!  It’s neat how you can easily adapt my teddy ornament pattern to make many other ornaments :)  Love his carrot nose, wide smile, and red scarf!

And lastly, Bunny of Malaysia made this sweet brown teddy complete with a Santa hat!  Love his big eyes and how she positioned him atop her furry white carpet and in front of the Eiffel tower in this photo.  The Eiffel Tower is getting me excited for Paris!

Thank you for sending me all your photos and for posting them on Ravelry, everyone :)  I see that the brown teddy and panda are popular to make!  Are there any others out there who have tried to make the koala?

It still amazes me that something we’ve worked on in our home is spreading to homes all around the world, and that people are following the patterns I’ve written up!  We’re very thankful for all your support and encouragement and we can’t wait to share more projects with you all and see where this journey takes us.  Hopefully you’ve been inspired to make your own teddies after seeing all these cuties too!  I know some people have already made plans to make them for next Christmas!  Check out my step-by-step photos here and the free pattern here!  And keep sending us photos of your ornaments because we absolutely love seeing them :) 

Get ready to “amigurumi-fy” your Christmas trees with these adorable round teddies all bundled up in their colourful scarves!  Whether you prefer pandas, koalas or ordinary teddies, they’re sure to add a touch of cuteness and craftiness to your trees this season!

Materials:

• Lightweight yarn (3): brown for the teddy, grey for the koala, black and white for the panda; turquoise, pink, green and white for the scarves (I used Patons Grace mercerized cotton all throughout except for the brown) 
•  2.00 mm crochet hook
•  Yarn needle
• Fiberfill
• Black felt (around eyes of panda and koala’s nose) and white felt (around eyes of koala)
• 6 mm safety eyes (for brown teddy) and 7.5 mm safety eyes (for koala and panda)
• Black cord
• Black embroidery floss (for brown teddy and panda nose)
• Metal ornament hooks

Note:  I worked in continuous rounds (vs. joined rounds). 

***Please follow along with MY BLOG POST HERE to see step-by-step photos.***  If you are new to crochet, please see my “Amigurumi for Beginners” and “How to Read Amigurumi Patterns” blog posts :) 

HEAD/BODY

Using desired colour,

R1: 6 sc in Magic Ring. (6 sts)

R2: 2 sc in each sc around. (12 sts)

R3: *Sc 1, 2 sc in next sc*, rep 6 times. (18 sts)

R4: *Sc 2, 2 sc in next sc*, rep 6 times. (24 sts)

R5: *Sc 3, 2 sc in next sc*, rep 6 times (30 sts)

R6: *Sc 4, 2 sc in next sc*, rep 6 times (36 sts)

R7: *Sc 5, 2 sc in next sc*, rep 6 times (42 sts)

R8: *Sc 6, 2 sc in next sc*, rep 6 times (48 sts)

R9-20: Sc 48  ***For Panda, change to black yarn after finishing Row 11.  Then switch to white yarn after finishing Row 19.

R21: *Sc 6, dec 1*, rep 6 times (42 sts)

R22: *Sc 5, dec 1*, rep 6 times (36 sts)

R23: *Sc 4, dec 1*, rep 6 times (30 sts)

Attach safety eyes (for panda and koala, cut eye roundies from felt, make a small x, and place safety eyes through before attaching).  Embroider nose and smile with embroidery floss.  Begin stuffing head.

R24: *Sc 3, dec 1* rep 6 times (24 sts)

R25: *Sc 2, dec 1*, rep 6 times. (18 sts)

R26: *Sc 1, dec 1*, rep 6 times. (12 sts)

R27: *Dec 1*, rep 6 times. (6 sts)

Fasten off and weave in end. 

(For Panda, R1-11 are white, R12-19 are black, and R20-27 are white).

SCARF

Using desired colour,

Ch 62

R1: Starting in third chain from hook, half double crochet (hdc) 60.  Fasten off.

R2: Join middle colour (white for my scarves) with sl stitch in first stitch.  Ch 1.  Sc 59. Fasten off.

R3: Join original colour (from Row 1) with slip slitch in first stitch.  Ch 2.  Hdc 59.  Fasten off.

Add fringe.  See my photos here or video here on how to do this.  Trim fringe to desired length.  Glue or sew scarf around bear just below mouth to make them cozy and snug.

TEDDY & PANDA EARS (make 2)

Using brown or black yarn,

R1: 5 sc in Magic Ring.

R2: 2 sc in each sc around. (10 sts)

R3-4: Sc 10.

Fasten off and leave long end for sewing.  Sew open end together.  Sew ontop of head.  

KOALA EARS (make 2) 

Using gray yarn,

 R1: 6 sc in Magic Ring.

R2: 2 sc in each sc around. (12 sts)

R3-5: Sc 12.

Fasten off and leave long end for sewing.  Sew open end together.  Sew ontop of head.  

* Loop black cord through top of teddy’s head.  Tie the ends in a knot and hide it in teddy’s head.  Attach teddy ornament to tree with ornament hooks.

* Or, make a series of chain stitches and use it to attach teddy to the tree.

Have a very blessed and Merry Christmas, everyone :)  May these teddies bring some warmth, joy and love into your homes this season!  I would love to see your versions of these teddies on your tree, so please send me photos of your work through my e-mail (all_about_ami@hotmail.com), facebook page or twitter!

[Update #1: People have been sending me photos of their own teddy ornaments, and I’ve compiled them all in a Crochet Corner post!  Check out everyone’s own rendition of my teddy ornaments here.]

[Update #2: Anne of “A Gamer’s Wife” has modified my pattern using thicker, worsted weight yarn.  She has clearly laid out her edits in her blog post here.  Check it out if you want your ornaments to remain the original size but you want to use thickern yarn!]

This pattern is an original pattern by Stephanie of All About Ami (December 2011). Please do not claim this pattern as your own. If you wish to share this pattern, you may link to this pattern but please do not reprint it on your site. You may keep a copy for your own personal use but you may not sell or distribute it, or sell items made from this pattern.

This was our first year setting up our Christmas tree in our new house.  We bought our tree last year at Walmart after Christmas when all the prices were heavily reduced, so we had to wait almost one whole year before we could set it up!  As we assembled our tree and placed the lights and ornaments upon the branches, Ryan and I thought how it’d be so adorable if we could somehow incorporate our love of amigurumi onto our tree.  I had been wanting to make some sort of Christmas-themed amigurumi, so we came up with the perfect solution: make amigurumi ornaments!  Our tree had round ball ornaments, so we thought of making round teddies- you all know how much I love my teddies!  To play up the Winter/Christmas theme, we talked about adding colourful scarves to show these teddies all bundled up!

Ryan did a preliminary sketch of our design.  I thought it was so cute how the scarf was positioned so high up!  We ended up omitting the arms since we thought they looked cuter without :)

I had ALWAYS been wanting to crochet a panda bear, so now was our chance!  I absolutely melted when Ryan sketched this little guy up!

And so we began!  I worked on crocheting a very round ball first starting with white, then switching to black, and then switching back to white. 

Ryan used his phenomenal attention to detail to help add the safety eyes by first placing them through oval pieces of black felt, and then stitching the nose and mouth.  Who could resist such a sweet face?  We then stuffed him up to give his full roundness :)

Next I worked on the scarf.  I started with a green row of half double crochets, a white row of single crochets, and then another green row of half double crochets.  These striped scarves add a nice pop of colour to the teddies!

I added some fringe to the ends of these scarves.  You can watch a video on how to do this here or follow this series of pictures below:

I added five strands of fringe on each side, alternating between green and white.  I then trimmed the strands to my desired length.

Then we wrapped the scarf around our panda, overlapping the ends and making sure it was positioned very close to his eyes, nose and mouth (adding to the snuggliness look)!  You can either sew or glue the scarf on.  It’s nice that the scarf covers the transition from the white to black yarn of the body.

I crocheted some ears and then sewed them onto his head.  We added the ears after the scarf to make the positioning easier.

Next we got ready to attach him to our tree!  We used this black cord and ornament hooks to do so…

We used a needle to thread the black cord through…

And tied a knot on the top.

We then hid the knot within the panda’s stuffing.  With this loop, he’s now ready to be attached to the tree with the ornament hook!  Of course, you could also attach these ornaments simply by looping some yarn through their heads or making a loop with a series of chain stitches.

Here are some step-by-step photos of the brown teddy.  I really like the colour of his scarf: it’s called “Aquifer”.

And here is the Koala ornament!  Ryan used white felt around his eyes, black felt for his nose, and also gave him a tiny smile.  Once again, I LOVE his scarf because pink is my favourite colour :)  Pink and grey make such a great colour combo!

Did any of you notice any differences in the quality of the sneak peek photos?  Up till now, I’ve been using my point and shoot camera to take photos for my blog.  But recently, Ryan and I got a digital SLR camera!  Ryan has taken a keen interest in photography and has been learning how to use it over these past few days, soaking up information like a sponge.  I have no doubts that he’ll be a great photographer as he is very creative and has a great eye.  He’ll have to teach me how to use it too!

Now, may I present to you these beautiful photos that Ryan graciously helped me take :)  First up, we have Panda!

Next is Brown Teddy!

And lastly we have Koala!  Koala has slightly bigger and more curved ears than the other two…

Here are my three teddy ornaments together!  I love their different facial expressions and their colourful scarves together! 

The actual ornaments from our tree are in the background.  Don’t you love the roundness of all these ornaments?

The overlapping scarf and fringe gives the side a cute look :)

This is one of my favourite shots.  I always try to take pictures of me holding my amigurumi so you can see the relative size.  I’m obsessed with this gold nail polish at the moment because it’s perfect for the Christmas season with its beautiful shimmeriness!

And now to finally hang our amigurumi teddy ornaments!

Using the black cord and ornament hooks adds a more discrete way of hanging them as the focus is more on the ornaments themselves (the cord and hook blend in).

They all stand out so nicely against our white tree!

Last week I tweeted a picture showing our very first Christmas tree, and now you can see it with our special additions!  Don’t the blue, silver and white ornaments + our new amigurumi teddies look stunning on our tree?

They all look so cute together!  Maybe we’ll have a new Christmas tradition where we design some new amigurumi ornaments every year :)  Then we’ll eventually have a fully “amigurumi-fied” tree!  How cute would that be?

I hope you all like these teddy ornaments we designed and created!  They’re relatively quick to make since you only have to attach ears and a scarf (no arms, legs or tails).  I wanted to post them in early December so you would all have enough time to make them for your own Christmas trees!  These crocheted ornaments would certainly add a splash of cuteness and craftiness to any tree.  They’d make pretty cute stocking stuffers as well!  ***The free pattern can be found HERE!***

I had to end off with a photo of me wearing a colourful scarf with these three cuties :)  Thanks for reading and for your wonderful response so far to these teddies!  Leave a comment below and let me know who your favourite teddy is and whether you’ll be making any for your own tree!  We love reading each and every single comment :)

[Update: People have been sending me photos of their own teddy ornaments, and I’ve compiled them all in a Crochet Corner post!  Check out everyone’s own rendition of my teddy ornaments here.]