I was fortunate enough to pop into Daiso on Sunday while on a quick trip to Vancouver. For those who don’t know, Daiso is a big Japanese dollar store type place where everything is $2 that carries housewares, stationary, paper products and a crafts section. Oh yes… that’s right… a crafts section. They’ve got yarn, crochet hooks and knitting needles, buttons, felt, all sorts of stuff. Despite migraines, a very busy and overheated store and exhaustion all around, I picked up some neat things for the arsenal. I’ve always loved the Daiso polyfill stuffing so I got some more of that, also found some cute plastic links that will make great stitch markers and a few other knickknacks. In a better mental state I’d have browsed around more and probably spent way more money, but it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t. The best thing about the trip, aside from the figma and gachapons the kid scored, was my newly discovered love of Bunny King and a big score of hard to find color cotton mill ends of Lily Sugar & Cream and Bernat Handicrafter Cotton at a local craft store in Steveston Village. Top that off with coming home to a newly arrived order of exotic yarn from Herrschners and I was on cloud nine. Be sure to check out the awesome engrish warning label on the styro beads “Never use it”… uhhh yeah.

I’m wanting to go on a videogame themed amigurumi bender, and I’d like to hear from the masses. I get a lot of positive feedback from folks along the lines of “I’ve been looking for a free pattern for this guy!” or gleeful statements of that sort… which makes me wonder, what other sorts of bizarre, obscure and awesome characters are people looking and waiting for?

So riddle me this, what characters or game themes would you like to get a free Amigurumi pattern for? I’ll pick one and do it up to the best of my ability then post it free. Please leave a comment or tweet me or something along those lines

In other news, I am getting all social with a facebook fan page (you can join by clicking the buttonmajigg to the right, no pressure or anything… just saying is all ) and twitterings… come join me yes? So it’s not just a big empty room with like my mom sitting in the corner.

Little Big Planet is a great game that lets creativity drive a unique gameplay experience where anyone can make their own levels, their own content and give items they have crafted as prizes. The main character, much like many aspects of the game itself, is in many ways a blank canvas that can be decorated and manipulated in countless ways, yet even in his plainest most basic form, Sackboy is perfection. A floppy little cutie, clearly knitted, and yet screaming to be recreated in crochet, he is, the reason I pursued learning how to make amigurumi… I wanted a sackboy of my very own.

I’ve made him before, but this pattern is a refined version, a bit smaller than the previous, a bit more accurate to the character, and significantly less cretinous. The shaping is achieved with stitches increasing and decreasing versus strategic stuffing and sewing. I’ve tried a jointed version but couldn’t get the limbs to sit right (hanging limply downward), so his are stitched in place. Like in the videogame, you can make him any color, change his eyes, clothes, adorn him with accessories and tailor him however your imagination motivates you. Click the link after the gallery to get the free pattern.

Amigurumi Sackboy Pattern

I started working on this prototype pattern in hopes of finding a way to make the PS3 controller a bit more comfortable to clutch for hours on end. It’s a good start, though I did mess up the mirroring of the bootie part so that is why it’s taller on one side than the other. I will be fleshing it out a bit more, sorting out some bits and posting a finished pattern when I am satisfied that it looks good and is all evened out.

In terms of functionality, it’s more comfy than the naked controller, you can hold it in a sort of more relaxed way, but the cone parts slip around more than I’d like them to, so I think I’ll add some little teeny dabs of silicone, once cured they’ll be like grippy little nubs on the inside to give traction and keep things in place (think like the little traction bits they have on the bottom of some slippers/socks). It’s totally removable

In other news… I am off to go fetch the windex and cotton swabs to clean our game controllers. May these photos serve as a sobering reminder of the consequences of eating cheetos whilst going on videogame benders.

I made this little guy for the girl who has been teaching a manga drawing class at the local Comic Book store for the last year or so and has been awesome to my kid. She’s passed on some really cool drawing tips, always been friendly and patient with the kids, and that is super duper in my books. She’s going on to another job and won’t be there anymore so we wanted to do something sweet for her.

It was made with half strands of yarn and a 2mm crochet hook. The bottom is worked to be actually flat. I didn’t take good notes as I made it and just winged it, but I put up the pattern as best I recall and have sussed out from looking at the thing. If this is done with a bigger hook and full strands of yarn, it’ll just be bigger, like little pin cushion sized.

Get the Pattern for the Kawaii Amigurumi CupCake Keychain