Amigurumi is such a fun item to make! Here are 6 Useful Tips on Making Amigurumi that I gathered after spending two months of learning.
Beginner Amigurumi
I spent the whole of January and February 2016 learning how to make amigurumi. At first, dolls or stuffed toys aren’t my preferred items to crochet. But after being poisoned by those Pinterest images, I thought there’s no harm in trying to make amigurumi. I’ll consider this as an added skill to my crocheting world.
Amigurumi is such a fun item to make! I am hooked and can’t seem to stop making products after products. No, I don’t get to sell them (yet). But I gave them as gifts. During my time rummaging through Pinterest for easy patterns, I came across the owl amigurumi pattern made by Fukurou Crafts, and you have met Amelia, my widdle owl. My research shows that I prefer patterns that are non-English. Some of them even written in Turkish or Japanese—and I read neither of those languages.
But then I realised there’s a pattern within the pattern itself. Most of the patterns I found commonly use codes such as A and V to mark increase or decrease stitches. A is for the decrease stitch and V is for the increase stitch. Those codes make it easier to read the pattern from whichever language. It doesn’t matter anymore—there are no barriers here. During the month, I favoured more of Thai, Japanese, Turkish, and Spanish amigurumi patterns.
PATTERN SOURCES & CREDITS:
Top row (left-right): Little Lupita, pattern by Lanas y Ovillos; Foxy Fox, pattern by Lanukas; Heart pillow, pattern by Drops Design Garn Studio.
Bottom row (left-right): Bunny, pattern by Tiny Mini Design; Snowman, pattern by {I forget…}; Tekubi Pinki, pattern by Mis Pequicosas.
6 Useful Tips on Making Amigurumi
Spending those two months, I’ve come to several tips and tricks that I use to have a pleasant journey of making an amigurumi item. No brainer, use whatever yarns that are in your stash or buy new ones—I don’t care. We all need a reason to buy more yarns, right?
Don’t ever start with difficult patterns. Start making something easy and simple, then you can gauge your endurance in following a more difficult pattern.
Not everybody will agree with me, but I’ve found that using a smaller hook size than recommended keeps my stitch tight and even. Of course, trial and errors are expected during the learning phase.
I don’t recommend using yarns that are too stiff or too rough for your hands. As you crochet very tight, the index finger will suffer the most when you tug in too tight with a stiff yarn. I’d recommend using cotton—perhaps, simply because cotton is the easiest yarn type to obtain in Indonesia—or something with a soft texture.
PATTERN SOURCE: Tim the T-Rex by Kelsey Liggett
List of Awesome Amigurumi Sources
Don’t ever get cocky and wanting to leave out the usage of stitch markers. Believe me, I know how it feels to miscounted in the middle of a project, having to frog everything out and restart from the beginning.
For a neat and even stitch, this is the ONLY way to do amigurumi for me from now on. Amigurumi is known to have sections of decreased stitch and this is the best way to do it—nothing else.
Now, I still find this one challenging. I mean, how much stuffing is enough? The best thing I did was eyeballing the photographs of the finished product, and try my best to create the same shape. I had the most challenging stuffing experience when making the T-rex amigurumi.
Have Fun!
Another important tip is not to stop trying. Don’t ever stop trying. I am embarrassed about my first attempts, yes. But I thought quitting now would gain me nothing. My experience was that I enjoy the feeling I got when the item is starting to take shape. Usually, that happened after stuffing (sometimes too much) and after I attached the safety eyes. Suddenly their faces just pop out and materialised.
I have one more important note before making and selling your amigurumi: to avoid copyright infringement, please check and double-check the pattern that you have. Whether you buy a pattern or get them for free from Pinterest, amigurumi creators usually insert a statement in their patterns whether it’s okay to sell the finished products. If it’s not stated, please be wise, contact the respective creators, and ask nicely. I did this once or twice and had gotten a positive response.
It is always good to check about copyrights because we need to appreciate the hard work poured into making one amigurumi character. It is not easy making an amigurumi—at least not for me—and I pledged to appreciate the creators by giving them credits or link back or even purchasing their patterns.
PATTERN SOURCE: Tiny Mini Design
That’s it! Now that I shared my tips, I hope you can drop by Pinterest, find the pattern you like, and have fun making amigurumi. Be careful out there on Pinterest, it’s a jungle of no return.
