All About Ami
a blog about me and my love for amigurumi
-
Who can resist Snuggles the Penguin with his sweet face all bundled up in his removable scarf? Crochet your very own and he’ll make a great friend every season of the year!
Tweet
-
Let me give you the background story of how Snuggles the Penguin came to be! Back when we were researching cute images of dragons for Chinese New Year, we immediately fell in love with this adorable drawing:
I couldn’t find the source of this image, but I went ahead and crocheted my amigurumi Dragon based on it.
Luckily for me, an astute tumblr follower recognized the artist of the drawing and directed me to Kim Rountree of Oborocharms. I immediately tried to contact her, letting her know that I had made an amigurumi dragon based on the baby dragon she had drawn six years ago. Kim was very quick to get back to me, and she was incredibly gracious, stating that she absolutely loved him and my blog! We developed a friendship from there as we checked out each other’s work: Kim is a very talented artist who makes kawaii stuffies and beautiful charms! Check out her store here!
As we continued communicating with one another, we thought it’d be a great idea to do an art trade, particularly since both of us love everything cute and our mediums of art are so different. I had never participated in an art trade before, but I’m so thankful that my very first one was with Kim! And so, we sent each other some suggestions of items we wanted the other person to make. Kim sent me three images of charms she had designed, allowing me to choose which one I wanted to make into an amigurumi. After carefully examining and thinking about the logistics of making each one, we went with this cute penguin wrapped in a scarf:
It’s always a fun challenge turning an image/drawing into a 3-D amigurumi! I already had white and yellow yarn at home, but we went out to find the perfect blue colour for his body and reddish-pink yarn for his scarf. Then, we delved right into crocheting his head/body! I crocheted around a series of chain stitches to begin with an oval shape and expanded outwards. He kind of looks egg-shaped as he is more narrow at the top and wider at the bottom.
Before closing up his body, I crocheted this round white piece for his belly. We attached this white part onto his body and then attached his safety eyes as we wanted them to be halfway on the blue and halfway on the white (as in the picture). Attaching the white belly was tricky as it ruffled up along the bottom. We ended up attaching the majority of the white belly (along sides and top), attaching the eyes, stuffing the body, closing up the body, adding some stuffing between the body and the white belly, and then attaching the rest of the bottom of the belly.
Next I crocheted a small yellow beak and attached it halfway on the blue and halfway on the white belly (just like the safety eyes).
Then we cut out two circular pieces of pink felt and added them for the cheeks! What a sweet face :)
I loved the luxurious scarf that Kim had placed around her penguin charm, and it looked somewhat tube-like. Thus, I decided to crochet around a ring to give a thick, sturdy scarf: it also made changing colours easier as I could hide the ends in the tube and make sure the colour changes were on the side of the scarf not showing. I switched between red and white yarn every five rows.
We actually wrapped the scarf around Snuggles and sewed the overlapping parts together.
Then I crocheted some little wings for Snuggles the Penguin. Rather than stuffing the wings, I flattened the pieces and sewed the open ends together. We attached them onto the sides of his body under the striped scarf.
Here is how our Snuggles the Penguin turned out! Do you think he looks like the charm that Oborocharms made?
Here is a side view…
Ryan got creative with the fiberfill stuffing as he photographed Snuggles in the “snow”! As we mentioned in the sneak peek, don’t pick a snowball fight with a penguin, because you’ll lose from cuteness overload! Haha, whenever I think of snowball fights, the scenes from “Elf” and “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” always bring a smile to my face :D
It’s nice that Snuggles’ scarf is removable as he might get too hot with Spring around the corner. And the solid scarf still holds its shape when removed!
Next up are some close-up shots of Snuggles. I looove this next photo of Snuggles’ sweet face!
Here you can see Snuggles’ wing and how it is concave, curving upwards and out!
Snuggles’ beak is attached halfway on the blue and halfway on the white belly!
I don’t think Snuggles appreciates having his bottom photographed like this, but we had to do it… As mentioned above, attaching the white belly was a challenge as it curves downwards along his body. We had to attach a flat white piece to a round body, so it definitely was not perfect.
As you can see, there is some bunching at the bottom. Ryan ended up inserting some stuffing between the belly and the body to decrease the ruffled appearance.
Ryan also had some fun posing Snuggles creatively with his scarf! Doesn’t he look like a sushi chef here?
And with his scarf rotated, Snuggles looks like a little rebel with his bandana…
And those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that Snuggles is not the first penguin I’ve made! Back in May 2011 (almost a year ago!) I made this little penguin (free pattern linked to in blog post) that required switching between black and white yarn for the face that posed an interesting challenge. Snuggles is much bigger!
And just to give you more of an idea of Snuggles’ relative size, here’s a pic of me holding him!
It’s always a little sad parting with an amigurumi you’ve worked hard on, but I’m so happy that he’s joining Kim’s family of kawaii stuffies!
Since I had extra red yarn left, I thought it’d be special to make Kim a Knotted Headband so she could match with Snuggles! I know it doesn’t get very cold in California, but hopefully you’ll find some occasion to wear it, Kim!
Ryan and I had a lot of fun turning Kim’s penguin charm into an amigurumi! What do you think of Snuggles? ***The FREE pattern for Snuggles can be found HERE.*** I’m so excited that I got to participate in this art trade with Kim of Oborocharms, and I can’t wait to show you what she made for me! If you follow me on facebook and twitter, you probably already know, but I will be doing a full blog post on it too. Be sure to check out her shop as she has oodles of cute items (if you end up crocheting Snuggles, it’d be cute ordering a matching Penguin charm!). Thanks for everything, Kim, and I hope you like your amigurumi Snuggles :)
Tweet
-
Sneak peek of surprise amigurumi for art trade with Oborocharms: Snuggles the Penguin!
**Warning**: Never pick a snowball fight with a penguin….you’ll lose from cuteness overload ;)
Tweet
-
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 :)
Tweet
-
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.
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.
Tweet
-
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.]
Tweet
- Tweet
- Tweet
- Tweet
-
My mom absolutely loved the beautiful puff stitches of the crocheted slouchy beanies I made for myself and my brother and sister. Because my mom does not wear hats, she asked if I could make her a scarf using puff stitches! I thought this was a great idea as I loved the texture and staggered rows of these stitches, so I knew that a scarf using them would turn out beautifully!
My mom and I went to Michaels together to pick out the yarn for her scarf. One of our biggest pet peeves is “itchy” material for scarves and sweaters: we went down the aisles in search of soft yarn that would not irritate the skin. She also wanted a neutral colour that would match with all of her outfits. In the end, we bought the wonderfully soft and luxurious Bernat Satin yarn in “Sandstone”.
I made up my own pattern for this scarf and started off making a series of 26 chain stitches.
Next I worked 12 puff stitches in the first row with ch-1’s in between.
Then I worked twelve puff stitches in the chain-1 spaces.
I continued with this simple pattern for a couple more rows…
And then many more rows…
Until the scarf was our desired length! If you want, you could always add some fringe to the ends of your scarf. See a simple video on how to do this here. My mom did not want any fringe, so we left it as is :)
Can you guess how many balls of yarn I used?
My mom wanted her scarf quite long. After three balls of yarn, it ended up being 94” long.
Here is the very simple pattern I made up for this Puff Stitch Scarf.
*****************
Materials:
- 5 mm crochet hook
- Yarn (medium weight)
Puff Stitch: Yarn over, insert hook in indicated stitch and draw up a loop (3 loops on hook), [yarn over, insert hook in same stitch and draw up a loop] 3 times (9 loops on hook), yarn over and draw through first 8 loops on hook, yarn over and draw through remaining 2 loops on hook. *Watch video showing how to make puff stitch here.
Chain 26.
R1: Work puff stitch in fourth chain from hook. *Ch 1, skip next ch, puff stitch in next ch*, rep 11 times (12 puff sts).
R2: Ch 3, *Puff stitch in next ch-1 sp, ch 1*, rep 11 times. Puff stitch in last ch-3 space (12 puff sts).
Repeat Row 2 until desired length (for my scarf, until Row 150 or 94”). Finish off and weave in ends.
*****************
Before I gave my mom her scarf, I thought I’d model it so you all could see what it looks like on! We went for lunch at a Japanese restaurant and I loved the beautiful floral pattern of this booth :)
It was a good thing I brought this scarf along because it turned out to be quite chilly and windy that day…
If you’re like me, you’ve probably been wearing your scarves in a limited number of ways. I highly recommend checking out Wendy’s “25 Ways to Wear a Scarf in 4.5 Minutes” video if you haven’t seen it yet! Who knew there were so many different ways to wear a scarf? Wendy of Wendy’s Lookbook is one of my favourite bloggers because of her exhuberant and quirky personality, impeccable style, and creative and beautifully-edited videos and photos. She also has a great story behind her as she overcame so much growing up in foster care to get where she is today. Check out Wendy’s inspiring blog and her helpful videos :)
Here I am wearing my scarf a number of different ways: this is “The Twist & Pull”!
Next up is “The European Loop“…
Here we have “The Basic Loop”:
And here I wrapped the scarf around multiple times since it’s long enough to do this :)
Another great option is to sew the ends together to create a circle or infinity scarf, which is very popular nowadays. The textured look of the many folded layers really frames the face nicely. I absolutely love wearing circle scarves this season! I just may have to crochet myself one of these, maybe in a bright pink or green or some other fun colour :)
Do check out my “Urban Jungle Slouchy Beanie” post here if you haven’t seen it! This beanie also uses the puff stitch, and a free pattern is available on-line. You can create a matching set with the puff stitch beanies and my puff stitch scarf :) They’d make great Christmas gifts!
Happy crocheting!
Tweet
