I made this video to illustrate the differences in the final look of Amigurumi, depending on whether a person crochets in one loop or both, and whether the right side or the wrong side is facing out. I see a lot of Amigurumi that are done wrong side out, and it’s a shame because it can make the piece look more chunky, less flowing and “nice”, as it would had they been working right side out.
When I first started out making Amigurumi, I came across the unfortunate and in my opinion, incorrect advice that it is always best to crochet in one loop only, because you use less yarn and your stitches are taller so it takes less time to work a piece up. What they failed to mention is that this technique makes most of your shapes look like chunky messes and that they always stretch and get weird, are too long and you can’t do the invisible decrease. It took a lot of grief, pulled apart pieces, disappointed pieces and confusion on my part as to why I was so unable to make my final piece look anything like the pattern, and why my crocheting looks so Frankensteiny compared to what I was seeing online.
When I figured it all out, it was a lightbulb moment, but I made this video to pass on the wisdom. The balls, each having the same amount of stitches, increases and decreases arranged in the same way, same hook, same tension, yet looking so different. Have a look and figure out which one you’d like your piece to look like.
Because every Big Daddy needs a Little Sister to protect, and since it was requested and hinted many times by my awesome readers, I whipped up an amigurumi Little Sister for my Big Daddy. I took notes and will be publishing the pattern shortly but haven’t time to try to make sense of all the cryptic scrawlings together yet. It was just too exciting to hold off on posting the photos.
Her clothes and hair are in the style of the Bioshock 2 Little Sister, and though I think there is still some tweaking to do, I am pretty happy with it. The Adam needle is a separate piece with a yarn needle stuck in the end. I didn’t give her a face, because I thought about it and decided that anything embroidered or applied was likely to look cartoony and not as eerie and vacant as the Little Sisters are. Not having a face I think, speaks to the altered uniform states all of them are in, not really there at all. She’s not aged or bloodied, to match her Big Daddy, true to a yarn representation of something messy, bloody, dirty and worn, but made of yarn, so none of those things.
Keroro Gunso is easily my favorite anime character; cute, wildly screwy, moody, kind of a little creep, has ambitions to take over the world and appreciates a good WcDonald’s burger. An alien invader from the planet Keron, he and his troop of subordinates are here to take over or destroy Pekopon (earth), though he wouldn’t mind acquiring a few more Gundam models along the way. It was first a manga and has since been made into an anime and move. If you haven’t seen the anime yet, I suggest you check it out if you enjoy comedies and wacky ensemble shows.
Sassy pose
Gunso San is made with wired arms and legs that are jointed using 8mm safety eyes, so he is very poseable. The safety eye joint give something solid to anchor the wiring to as well so he is more solid than wired limbs that aren’t rooted into the body. He is all amigurumi crochet other than the felt star on his tummy which turned out kind of terrible and sadly misshapen. The main body parts are done is medium worsted weight cotton yarn using a 3.5mm crochet hook. The smaller detail parts like his eyes mouth and tummy were all made with half strands of the same yarn with a 2.75mm hook, but could be done in crochet thread or light yarn or felt even.
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.
Amigurumi Sackboy
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.
