I’m excited to let you know that I’ve released 2 new YouTube crochet videos. In both of these videos, I share lots of tips and tricks to help you be successful in crocheting amigurumi animals.
In Part 1, you’ll learn how to read amigurumi patterns, crochet the pieces and do color changes.
In Part 2, you’ll learn how to stuff the pieces (how much fiberfill is enough?), 2 ways to sew the pieces together and how to embroider faces, spots, etc onto your amigurumi animals.
These are so much fun to make a play with! My grandchildren, grown children and I love them!
Just click on the video images below to watch these new videos!
I’ve enjoyed crocheting amigurumis for many years, especially during the past 4 years of crocheting for my grandchildren! Here are a few of the amigurumis that I’ve crocheted for my grandchildren, children and myself:
4 animals for my 2 grandchildren
Beach Bear and accessories for Ruru
Into the Jungle
Baby Yoda
Devin the Deer for me
Have you ever crocheted amigurumis? Do you enjoy crocheting them? Are you successful in crocheting them? If you’ve never crocheted amigurumi animals before or you don’t like how yours turned out, check out my 2 new videos to help you be successful with these adorable crochet projects!
Here’s a wonderful crochet stitch/technique to add to your crochet toolbox: the foundation double crochet (fdc). I’ve just finished a short YouTube video on how to do the fdc, along with where/why you’d want to use it.
I hope you enjoy this video and it helps you be successful with making the foundation dc. Thank you to Tammie on Facebook for suggesting this video!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and enjoying lots of sun, relaxation and a vacation or two! A few weeks ago, my husband, middle son, daughter-in-law, granddaughter and I went up to Idaho to visit my dad and step-mom. We stayed at Zion National Park on the way up and at Yellowstone National Park on the way back. It was lots of fun, we saw some beautiful animals and we made some great memories! One of the memories was more scary than fun, though! The 2 propane tanks came off our travel trailer while driving to Yellowstone! One of the tanks disappeared completely and the other was hanging on, scraping on the road and sparking! We feel very blessed that God had His angels keeping us safe. This could have had disastrous results, since propane can explode!
Now that I’m back from vacation, I’m busy getting ready for the CGOA Conference, where I’ll be teaching 5 (or 6) crochet classes next week! Since one of the teachers can’t make it to the conference, several of the teachers with sold out classes were asked if they could teach another class to fill in for her classes, which were cancelled. I said I’d be happy to teach my sold out Invisible Repairs class a 2nd time, so I’m scheduled to teach it both Friday morning and Friday afternoon at the conference! If you weren’t able to get into the Friday morning class, you are in luck! Now you can sign up at the conference for the Friday afternoon class (a repeat of the morning class) and pay the pre-registration price there! If you’re planning to take my new Friday afternoon class, please check out the homework for the class and get it done before the afternoon class. You can find the homework here. I hope to see you at the conference!!!
I thought I’d take a little break from printing class handouts today and share some fun baby toys to crochet with you! I crocheted 3 baby toys in the past few months for my granddaughter, Rubekah (Ruru for short)! They were all lots of fun to make.
Into the Jungle
First is the “Into the Jungle” stacking animal rings designed by Cindy Cseh. The pattern was available in the April, June and August 2013 issues of Crochet World magazine. I knew when I saw the pattern that I wanted to make it for a grandchild some day! So earlier this year, I set out to make it. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s a lot of fun to see my granddaughter play with it! You can see more photos of this fun project on my Ravelry project page here.
Amish Puzzle Ball and my granddaughter
The 2nd is the Amish Puzzle Ball by Dedri Uys. This pattern is so much fun to make and put together! This is a FREE pattern that you can find here. I LOVE this pattern and I’ll probably make several more, just for fun!
Crochet Dinosaur Puzzle Ball
The 3rd project that I crocheted for my granddaughter is also by Dedri Uys. It is the Crochet Dinosaur Puzzle that is in Dedri’s book, Amamani Puzzle Balls, by Annie’s. This project was somewhere between the complexity of the Amish Puzzle Ball and the Into the Jungle stacking animals! The pattern was great and easy to follow! You can see all of the patterns in this book here.
I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing these 3 crochet baby toy projects and are inspired to crochet some toys for your favorite baby very soon!
Have you seen the new Annie’s book called “Amamani Puzzle Balls” by Dedri Uys? I couldn’t resist adding this book to my collection! Here’s a photo of the front cover:
Amamani Puzzle Balls book front cover
I LOVE this book! It has the cutest crochet animals I’ve seen in a long time! There are 6 designs to make from this book and they’re all absolutely adorable! Each one is made up of 3 pieces that fit together like a puzzle. I can’t wait to finish up some designs for publication so I can make one of these adorable animals for a future grandchild, since my kids are all grown up and out of the house! I’m a puzzle lover and a crochet lover, so marrying these two loves is right up my alley! Let me show you the 6 animals in this book.
Dexter the Dinosaur
This is Dexter the Dinosaur. Isn’t he cute? This is what he looks like taken apart into the 3 pieces I was telling you about:
Dexter the Dinosaur pieces
It’s hard to tell exactly how to put him back together, isn’t it? To see how that happens, you can watch the video on the Annie’s website showing the puzzle ball coming apart and going back together again here.
This is the description of the book, directly from the Annie’s website:
“Amamani is short for Amigurumi Amish Puzzle Animals. They are based on the traditional Amish puzzle ball and, as such, come apart into three segments or rings, which have to be assembled to form the animal. Gauge isn’t important in these projects. However, it is important that you work as tightly as you comfortably can. Helpful tips and step-by-step photos are included. Each of the six projects are made using Deborah Norville Everyday worsted-weight yarns. Projects include a dinosaur, elephant, giraffe, turtle and two versions of the lion.”
Here are photos of the other 5 animals in this book:
Eleanor the Elephant
Gemina the Giraffe
Skillie the Turtle
Brill the Lion
White Lion
There are 62 pages in this book. The first 15 pages are instructions and photos for making the basic pieces of the animals. This book has written instructions and lots of step-by-step photos to show you how each of these animals is crocheted and put together, which is very helpful, since they’re somewhat complex to make! I’m looking forward to making one of these very much (as soon as I get some free time)! The book retails for $10.99 and can be purchased on the Annie’s website here.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at “Amamani Puzzle Balls” as much as I’ve enjoyed looking at the book. I’m itching to make one of these toys, aren’t you?
