amigurumi Archives - Page 18 of 19

Yipig Yipig

April’s Amigurumi Army theme was “let’s pig out!” I had been wanting to try Kristie’s Kids’ pig pattern for a while, so that gave me the excuse to make it a priority.

At first, the pig was a little pink egg with ears:

Then I found another skein of matching embroidery floss and made the legs.

Finally, I put that pig to work.

Long ago, I began crocheting a Sesame Street yip yip alien, as explained by wikiHow. I made one false start well before the new year and according to my Ravelry records I started a second one on February 20th of this year. I altered the pattern a fair bit – I was skeptical of it when it said to chain 2.5 to 3 inches in order to make a loop an inch in diameter, an endeavor that requires over 3 inches of chain; but really I changed it so the decreases for the “head” were in the middle instead of at the edges. I was hoping that would make the mouth a better shape, though I am unsure of the quality of the results. My version is also a fair bit bigger than the pattern’s. Finally, I did long chains slip-stitched into loops around the base instead of the individual chains lark’s-head-knotted in pairs onto the base.

Instead of making the straw-piece eyes recommended by wikiHow I made – well, a bunch of eyes that are now in my “to use as stuffing” bin. I settled on: with black, start a magic ring, make one full sc and begin a second. For the final loop of that second sc change to white, and then make four more sc in the magic ring in white. Pull the ring tight. Continuing in white, still, continue around the circle making 4 more sc in back loops only. Tie the loose ends of the black and white yarn securely to the end of the black yarn still connected to the skein, and cut all three close to the knot. With the remaining white strand, make two invisible decreases, but use the back loops instead of the front loops. Slip stitch if desired, cut yarn leaving a long tail, and sew to close off back end of eyeball. Put loose end through side of eye for sewing to head.

I don’t think I can recommend that method.

Without further ado, though:

Bonus Post: Iron Craft Challenge #17

I wanted to make Lion’s “Two Peas in a Pod” amigurumi (registration required to see pattern) as soon as I saw it, but when does someone who’s not planning a wedding or bridal shower have a reason to make an explicitly wedding-themed project? Well, as it turns out, when Iron Craft takes the British royal wedding as its inspiration and sets weddings as the theme of the week. Until I remembered this pattern I wasn’t going to participate, since I have a number of wedding gifts to make but they are either already in progress or items I can’t complete in a week.

I added some silver to the mix, in the form of a hatband and trim on the bridal veil. Crocheting with metallic floss gets a big thumbs down – the strands would either prefer to have nothing to do with each other, or they catch on each other. However, I am very happy with how it came out! (except perhaps for Mr. Pea’s mouth.)

Stumpy got his one-day license for this.

Smile for the camera!

You always need a silly picture.

I made them grinning and winking because I wanted joy. Long ago I cut a 50th anniversary announcement out of the paper – they had used a wedding picture for the announcement, and happiness shines out of it.

I cut it out as a reminder that unless I feel the way they look, I shouldn’t walk down the aisle. Also, they’re just darn cute.

Excellent ideas

Before I even began crocheting, I trolled Etsy for amigurumi patterns. My sister loves Peeps, so I was delighted to find Chiwaluv’s neon chickens pattern. Her chicks have exactly the right blobbiness to be Peeps.

Kate’s current Peeps, all official plushies, are named Peep, Megapeep, Gigapeep, and Terapeep, and she mentioned she was hoping for a Picopeep. I thought I could make her at least a Micropeep out of embroidery floss. Then I realized crocheting sewing thread with a 10 hook (1.3 mm) would be terrific for a Picopeep. I have a couple dozen tiny spools of thread, bought for no good reason in a large bag at the dollar store, and their odd colors included a few plausible Peep hues.

With my bionic vision and retractable tweezer fingers, I completed Picopeep in a mere five hours, a trivial 500% increase over the length of construction of Micropeep. Let’s see the results:

Roses say “I love you.” Sewing-thread crochet peeps say “I love you more than eyesight.”

It is a little-known fact that Peeps’ native terrain is rugged, and in fact they are semi-arboreal.

In seriousness, one difficulty is that, like floss, thread is inelastic. This makes, in particular, the first stitch of the second round very tight. It is also difficult to see the stitches – strong light makes a world of difference! The thread twisted up as I went, though I might have been able to fix that by unrolling it from the spool in advance. I found I would make unintentional increases because the new stitch takes so little room on the previous round’s stitch that it was hard to tell last-used from first-unused. I am curious to know whether a larger hook would be easier; I think the hook I use for embroidery floss is proportionally larger.

To note: Peeps are a registered trademark of Just Born, Inc.