If you’ve heard of Bioshock 2, chances are you are familiar with the iconic Big Daddy doll made with a baseball for a head and thumbtacks for eyes. This doll was feature in the teaser trailer as well as in the game and ending, and eventually marketed as a collectible. If you played through the game and were observant however, you likely recall the other Big Daddy dolly, a fabric one found in random apartments as well as Grace’s place in the Sinclair Deluxe hotel, and in the infirmary and pediatric wards of Persephone. That doll didn’t receive much attention, which is odd because it was always my favourite. I decided to make an amigurumi reproduction of it as a Christmas gift for my mom, since she loves the game and the Big Daddies.

The doll is proportionately sized, and though I skipped the orange screwdriver in the eye (I didn’t want to hurt Mr. Bubbles, and wanted him to be cuddly!), the recreation is quite similar to the original, though obviously in crochet and not fabric. Because of it’s size and the number of pieces to put together it is a time consuming project but the techniques are basic so with a little patience, anyone can do it. I took photos of him with my daughter’s Adam Needle from her Little Sister costume for effect. Sadly she has outgrown the dress so a Little Sister photo shoot was not happening.

Click to get the Bioshock Big Daddy Bouncer Doll pattern

This amigurumi Domo-Kun is around half the height (5 inches) of my previous one and is also made differently, using joined rounds so that the stitches are not offset by a spiral and the red of the mouth can be crocheted rather than applied as a felt panel. I wasn’t thrilled with the felt panel for the mouth and wanted to try a crochet mouth. If you would prefer not to join and work in a spiral, ignore the “Join and CH1” at the end of each round and work the entire piece in brown and apply a panel of red felt or a separate rectangle of red crochet fabric for the mouth at the end.

Because this ami is small, it can be completed in 2 or fewer hours which makes for good projects for people like me who have attention deficit issues with craft projects. As with all of my patterns, little Domo-Kun is free. If you have any questions or find any bits in the instructions confusing, please leave your query in the comments so all can see any clarifying responses provided.

Click to get the Small Amigurumi Domo-Kun Pattern

This pattern was the basis for the 2010 Amigurumi Workshops I did at Anime Evolution and Tsukino Con and is also the mascot for my website. It’s a fairly small and simple no-sew (for the body, the ears are sew on) pattern great for beginners that has step by step videos to help you on your way.

The videos were made to be shown at an in-person panel so they make references to “your kit” and things of that nature, but the techniques displayed remain relevant. There are different optional ears so you can make your peanut a cat, bear, dog or bunny or improvise things like hairdos or antennae to make any sort of weirdo or creature you like!

Click to get the Amigurumi Tutorial Peanut Pattern

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