I’m just a crafter and tea guzzler, whereas my husband is the smart software engineer guy. First, he asked for a Java Duke, which I quickly made (though it needs a revision). He then requested a Go Gopher to punt around the office. When I was telling some friends that I crocheted a Duke, they requested a gopher as well! Popular little rodent, isn’t he?
Even if you aren’t familiar with Go, their Go Gopher mascot is pretty cute. Making a gopher was entertaining as I’ve been watching Great Horned Owl nest cams and often they are eating golf course “pocket gophers”, so now I got amigurumi gophers that my Tea Owl amigurumis can peck at.
The pattern for Gopher Amigurumi is actually pretty straight forward, with shaping in the back to create an appealing bean shape. It was a refreshing break to work on a pattern that is easy going since the last few amigurumi I’ve designed have been on the complex side. I have also come to a mental block on the current, more complex, pattern I’ve been working on, so it was really cool to bang out a fun pattern.
Gopher Amigurumi measures 4.5″ tall, 2.5″ wide if made with worsted weight yarn. I’d say my Gopher Amigurumi crochet pattern is a fun beginner project with little sewing on parts. If you mess up placement of the eyes or limbs, that is okay as looking silly is totally what this gopher likes to be! These gophers crochet up quick as well. After a weekend, I had a three line up of derpy looking gophers on my desk and a husband anxious to take one to work.
To get this PDF format crochet pattern, purchase directly via Ravelry by clicking which will take you through Paypal. You do not need a Ravelry account to purchase, though advisable as your pattern purchases are stored there forever.
I am happy to announce a new pattern – Stegosaurus Amigurumi Crochet Pattern! My second dinosaur amigurumi crochet pattern to date!
It seems with every pattern I post, I always say “This is the most complex pattern to date”. The Stegosaurus amigurumi isn’t any more difficult than my Triceratops pattern, however due to the large number of parts to sew on, this pattern is a little trickier. I dislike sewing on parts and I try and make sewing easier, however there is no way around making Stegosaurus plates one piece. I make lots of amigurumi, but after making two Stegosauruses, I got much better at sewing on parts!
Designing wise, the Stegosaurus would of been fast if it wasn’t for me constantly changing stitch counter apps, so I was losing row counts thus had to work backwards, twice. I opted for a more “realistic” shaped body with a high tail, rather than the half circle cartoon-stylized dinosaur shape. I had some issues with the neck, but for someone working with this pattern, they can lengthen the neck if they wish.
My husband, the aspiring dinosaur paleontologist in his youth, told me apparently due to their tiny tiny brains, Stegosauruses were just a little smarter than plants. I discovered the small brain in my Steggy didn’t stop him from having adventures in his favorite device in the house – the salad spinner. Who knew Stegosauruses liked salad spinners?
The Stegosaurus amigurumi measures about 9″ from nose to tail tip, 5″ tall and 3″ wide. There is a bit of flexibility if you want to make a longer neck, legs and tail. I also listed different styles of plate layouts, so one can make as many or as little, Stegosaurus plates and thagomizers as they want or fingers would allow.
To get this crochet pattern, purchase directly via Ravelry by clicking You do not need a Ravelry account to purchase.
The Stegosaurus Amigurumi Crochet pattern goes well with the Triceratops Amigurumi and pretty close ratio wise to size. Despite Stegosaurus died out 90 million before Triceratops came around, but they can still be buddies, right? I’m planning to get a few more Dinosaur amigurumi crochet patterns out this year!
I’m a big Knitpicks fan, and love their Chroma yarn line, a wool/nylon blend, colour-transitioning yarn in worsted and fingering weight. It is a little hard to work with as it is single ply, but looks amazing with small amigurumi. I had to match the wing colours with other yarn, as if I tried to pool the wings that would of been too much precious Chroma yarn wasted. The price for this colorful ombre yarn is competitively priced compared to other yarn sellers.
The yarn and colours used for 1 dozen Crochet Amigurumi Owls:
Bernat Lana Cream 100% worsted wool from my stash (discontinued)
Unknown brand pale yellow worsted yarn (not pictured) That orange yarn pictured wasn’t used, though I was considering it an alternate for wings.
I do well crocheting in a large assembly-line. So I hammered out a whole bunch of amigurumi owl bodies first. When I was bored, I’d stuff a few, make a wing. Like other commissions and doing a large batch, I like to try and have a couple close to done so the buyer can see what they look like, other than a whole bunch of random crocheted bits and bobbles.
First week, I had this much done:
After getting more than half the bodies done, I decided to make a few feet, then ended up crocheting all the feet in one sitting as I got my groove on while on a kdrama binge. I had tight feeling fingers after making 24 feet, but got it done! Already, I am really happy how this yarn colourway is looking – all the owls look fantastic with many have a bit of every colour change in the yarn.
Second week I mostly dealt with tails and wings. The wings turned out to be the most boring part of making 1 dozen amigurumi owls. Again, 24 wings were needed, the wings are small and I had to do a tighter gauge to make them size right. Knitpicks Chroma is a thinner worsted weight yarn and I didn’t expect my wing yarn to be a thicker worsted weight! For the tails I used the Chroma yarn – I’d do one or two after completing a body, trying to match the tail that was the same colour as the Amigurumi Owl’s butt.
In between getting spirally eyes crocheting owl wings, I started sewing amigurumi owl parts together.
The third week I spent making the last tails and wings, along with sewing the rest of the amigurumi owls parts together. The last step was attaching all those tiny orange beaks.
In the end – 1 Dozen Amigurumi Owls Complete! TEA OWL ASSEMBLE!
Awww, the amigurumi owls are so well behaved and line up in formation!
A few of the amigurumi owls look identical, with the luck of the draw of the colourway landing the same. I tried to vary a bit with crocheting from the other end of the ball, though I don’t think that made much difference since I got an even amount of amigurumi owls per ball.
There were a few amigurumi owls that had some unique colouring with the light tipped yellow and orange heads.
I can totally spot a trouble maker amigurumi owl. That orange one in the back is a mischief maker!
These amigurumi owls don’t seem to make good cheerleaders. They can’t form a pyramid without topping over, creating hooting chaos.
Oh no! There’s a little amigurumi owl on the bottom getting his face stepped on!
In the end – feel free to experiment with some of the interesting yarn colours out there for your amigurumi creations. Also, pace yourself when making mass amounts of crocheted items – your hands will thank you later!
Welcome to my new tutorial series, Making Amigurumi! This is the first installment!
New to making Amigurumi? You’ll need some tools first.
I will discuss – 1. Must Have purchases, 2. Project dependent items, 3. Optional Tools, and 4. Do not buy
Required Tools:
YARN – If you are new to crocheting I’d start off with a Worsted Weight yarn – it is easy to find at craft or yarn shops.
What type of yarn? Optimally, acrylic is inexpensive and washes well – thus very good for starting the amigurumi hobby. You may also chose wool based yarn. For a newer crocheters (or one not used to TIGHT gauge) I’d avoid 100% cotton yarns for now as they don’t have much give, thus harder to work with. Blends of acrylic, wool, cotton, bamboo work well. Check out my Yarn Reviews for yarns that work well for amigurumi.
Do not get nubby yarn. Do not get crazy fuzzy yarn. Heck, I’m still not patient enough to use nubby lumpy yarns – the tight gauge makes the stitches hard to see and the yarn snags on the hook too much.
What colours? What do you want to make? (pssst, how about my easy Octopus amigurumi pattern?)
Getting started, I’d purchase a white and some attractive solid (non varigated) colours.
HOOK – Which size of hook you will need will range greatly on how tight you crochet and the yarn used. Sadly, all worsted weight yarn is not created equal – some are thinner than others.
3.5, 3.75, 4, 4.25mm hooks cover me for all of the variances of worsted weight. If you were looking to not buy a ton of hooks, I’d start with a 3.5mm and 4mm hook for worsted weight, and go from there.
Not all crochet hooks are the same as brands like to sometimes have different handles and head shapes. They also come in various materials such as metal, wood, bamboo and plastic. I HIGHLY recommend metal crochet hooks – if you don’t know your “sweet spot” gauge yet + crocheting tightly = snapped hooks, especially the plastic ones. The plastic hooks look very nice, but don’t buy them! When I was new to crochet, I bought the pretty rainbow pack of crochet hooks and broke all of them. Bamboo and wooden crochet hooks are pretty nice and have a bit of grip to them – I’d go with those if you cannot get a metal one.
Crochet hooks are easy to find at yarn or craft shops, and even at places like Walmart and dollar shops. Another good hotspot for crocheting or knitting tools is thrift shops or garage sales.
STITCH MARKER – To decrease errors, you’ll want to mark each start of the round. There is lots of stitch markers out there, but I prefer the trusty small gold safety pin. Safety pins are cheap, easy to find, and have multiple uses. The crummy issues with safety pins is accidentally getting stabbed in the finger, and yarn getting caught in the spine of the pin.
They make these nice plastic stitch markers, however I find them a little too big for the size of amigurumi I make.
Ditto with these spiral things being too big for amigurumi crocheting.
You may also use scrap yarn and thread it through the stitch, but I find using a closing pin is much more secure and faster to use.
STUFFING – You will need to fill your amigurumi with something! Thankfully, polyfill is pretty cheap – cheaper if you buy it in larger bags.
I prefer this style of fill – it lasts a long time, squishy yet holds form.
I used use a different stuffing that was “Eco friendly” but found my amigurumi turned out really hard, heavy and not as filled up.
It is easy to get mixed up and buy the wrong fill! I’ve received fill that was actually quilting backing or pillows – not the same stuff!
Finding stuffing can be hit and miss. Craft stores should have it. Yarn shops sometimes have it. Walmart sometimes have it in stock. Dollar stores (especially Asian dollar stores like Daiso) have stuffing, but often in small packages enough for 1-2 amigurumis, thus not cheap if you plan to make more amigurumi than that.
EYES – this will be the trickiest part, but thankfully, I have been noticing safety eyes showing up more at craft stores. See my Amigurumi Eyes FAQ for further information.
YARN NEEDLE – These yarn needles piss me off as I constantly lose them. Some shops dare to sell the plastic pink ones for like $3 each. You can get a wide, blunt metal one for $0.25 to $4. Find one that has a wide “eye” so you can thread your yarn through.
I prefer the metal needles as they have weight to them, plus are thinner making it easier to fit inbetween tight stitches.
If you cannot find a wide eye’d needle, you may be able to get away with your crochet hook, though life is much easier with the yarn needle.
SCISSORS – you know, to cut your yarn with. You probably have some on hand.
Depending on your project, there are a few other tools you might need:
EMBROIDERY FLOSS – You’ll need this stuff if you want to sew on mouths, noses or even eyes. Floss will be your friend if you are making amigurumi for young kids, as safety eyes aren’t recommended for young children.
Luckily, floss is cheap! $0.25 each cheap, though it can range up to like $2 for high-end silk material. You can find floss at most craft stores, dollar stores, and Walmart. Sometimes they sell them in the toy section in friendship bracelet kits.
Colours? This is project dependent, but 90% of the time I use black embroidery floss. Occasionally I will use white, pink and red.
SEWING NEEDLE – You may need a needle that has a sharp point instead of the yarn needles blunt point. The eyes on these are usually really small, so you couldn’t use as your yarn needle.
This is needed to sew on the embroidery floss – especially if you want to stab the floss through stitches. You can also use a sewing needle to sew on felt pieces.
FELT – Felt can be used for many things: eyes, face, noses/beaks, pink cheeks, feet, spines, spikes, hands, ears, clothing, tails and more! If you can’t crochet something (like the beak is too tiny) you can glue or sew on a bit of felt to compensate. You can add felt behind the safety eye to change the look of the amigurumi or make the eyes bigger. Luckily, felt is quite cheap and easy to find at craft or dollar stores.
You can also find felt that is stiff, patterned or covered in sparkles.
Of course colour selection is project dependent, but for me the most commonly used colours are white, black, orange, and pink.
FABRIC GLUE – If you choose not to sew on felt pieces, simply fabric glue them on. Good fabric glue can be flexible enough so the form can move, but also hold up to spot clean up.
You will also want a glue that is clear and does minimal discolouration when dried.
NOSES – Maybe your amigurumi needs a nose? You can purchase plastic noses, similar to safety eyes. I touch on this briefly on my Amigurumi Eyes FAQ.
Optional Tools:
PLASTIC PELLETS – If you want to add weight to your amigurumi, say to keep it sitting upright, you’ll want plastic pellets. Plastic pellets work amazing for amigurumi with feet to keep the toy standing! I put plastic pellets into “very optional” category as I feel I can live without them. You can somewhat make do with rolling and packing stuff tightly on the bottom and some amigurumi can sit on their own with a well made pattern or feet/tail balancing. (Of course not applying to an amigurumi that’s all big head + no body)
In my experience, plastic pellets are not that cheap and pricey to ship due to weight. A few times I’ve see a good deal on them, but it is for like a giant bucket of them. If you are truly desperate and cannot find the pellets, cannibalize a beanie baby or stuff toy for them. Plastic pellets are also a choking hazard for young children.
To use, I just simply sprinkle then pack them into the feet or bottom of the amigurumi. From there, stuff the rest of the form. You may also sew the pellets inside scrap fabric.
How about beans or rice? Those can attract pests or have issues if you amigurumi get wet. I had a nice frog a cousin made me for Christmas, stuffed with beans. His legs got wet and he swelled up and started to stink – it was awful.
PINK OR RED FABRIC PAINT / BLUSH – Want blushing cheeks on your amigurumi? You’ll want fabric paint , though cosmetic blush does the job too. By the way, you’ll want something to apply the paint or blush with, such as a brush or q-tip/cotton bud. I prefer to glue on pink felt as cheeks.
STITCH COUNTER – these doo hickies are little counters you can use to keep track of what row/round you are on.
Stitch counters are mostly found with knitting supplies as you can attach them to your knitting needle. They work just as good not attached to anything. They are fairly cheap, running around a couple dollars a piece.
Do you need one? Maybe. I use them, especially if I’m crocheting away from home. Can you live with out it? Most likely. You can keep track of what round you are on by simply printing out the pattern and marking rows completed or use scrap paper or text document on your computer to keep count. If you are crocheting on the bus, using a stitch counter is easier than pulling out paper and a pen to mark your rounds.
Don’t bother to buy:
Stuffing stuffertools – I had one come free with my package of stuffing, but you can also buy them from craft stores and amigurumi crafting sellers. Don’t bother to buy! First off – your fingers can stuff your amigurumi easily enough. If you need to insert stuffing in really small spots, like long narrow legs, you can simply use the back end of a crochet hook, knitting needle, pen, chop stick or yarn needle.
The stuffer I got for free with my giant bag of stuffing is pretty much 1 wooden chop stick. Other models look like a plastic yarn needles with the “eye” chopped, giving you a 2 pronged device, which you can make yourself, though using the end of your crochet hook works just as well!
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I hope this post helps you inspiring amigurumi makers out there! I plan to do a few more related tutorials in the future!
I’m a huge owl fan – right up there for my love of octopi! My other blog, The Oolong Owl, is my owl-themed tea blog. Lots of Owl and Tea!
Alright. This took around 12 attempts to get the pattern just right. I had an owl graveyard of crocheted owl parts that didn’t make the cut. I really wanted to limit the amount of parts I had to sew onto these guys.
After 9 attempts I had a better idea how to pull off the best shape. Annoyingly, it took 3 tries to get the neck right – all times scrapping most of the body.
What I love about my Owl creation is that they are ridiculously photogenic! I took LOTS of pictures, so this is a photo-heavy post!
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My Owl pattern features:
3 head shapes – Round, Easy Ears and Large Ears.
2 face construction options – Felt or Colour chart
Simple chest feather detail
I made five owls (whoa!) as demos for this pattern. Three of them are the more of the bright and fun colour variety. Two of them are more realistic type of owl.
The first Owl, the prototype, is this green owl. His name is Laoshan. He likes tea, especially green tea. Any tea nerds in the house?
Owl matcha? I dunno….
My second favorite owl is my purple owl – she has no name yet. She was made last of the 5, so she’s the youngest. So far, I’ve just been calling her Attractive Purple Owl. I love the yarn I used here – the colour is great and was soft to work with (Craftsmart brand). Oddly, I stuffed her a bit too much, so she’s a little bigger than the other owls. Oh well.
The second owl I created was the Big Blue Ear Owl. I was experimenting here with the chest feather detail and the colour chart. He’s got the tall “ears/feathers” on his head. I think he looks like a lot of fun.
The third owl I made is a more realistic type. I haven’t named him yet as I was planning on putting him up for adoption. I did an “x” felt detail on his face, and chest feathers to his chest.
If you haven’t noticed, these Owls had a fun photo shoot with my teaware, LOL! I wanted to say they are “tea cup” owls, but they can barely squeeze into my tea cups! They fit into a matcha bowl fine, the rest of the teaware was a tight squish!
They sized up for me 5″ high, 3.5″ wide, up to 3″ long with worsted weight yarn and 4mm hook. Size will greatly depend on your gauge and yarn. Tea mug it is! I’m sure if you made these owls with DK or sport yarn they’ll fit into a tea cup (and steal your tea).
The fourth Owl I made.. well, he’s all mischief. I wanted to make a Snowy Owl, as that appears to be a popular type of owl. I prefer the Northern White face Owl myself (TRANSFORM!). Anyways, my Snowy Owl is very cute – my husband likes him the best!
He looks like a well mannered Owl? Pfffft.
Which Owl do you like more? Did I get your creative juices flowing? What colours or owls would you like to see or make youself?
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You can purchase my Owl Amigurumi Pattern at My Etsy Shop
or
purchase directly via Ravelry by clicking this button. You do not need a Ravelry account to purchase.
P.S. I will be listing 3 of the Owls for adoption on my My Etsy Shop. You may also check out my commission page if you’d like a custom made owl.
What do you do are making an amigurumi and you finish the last row of the main body. You may have a neat little circle opening that needs to be sewn shut. The amigurumi instructions say something like “Fasten off, sew the body shut.”
Here’s what to do when you need to close an amigurumi form:
TIP: This works best for 6 stitches remaining. More than that, I’d a number of decreases until you get 6 stitches left.
1. If you haven’t done so already, Slip stitch the next stitch, snip the yarn with a few inches of leftover, and pull the thread through.
Thread the yarn tail.
2. Insert the needle into the next stitch, and out the stitch after that.
3. Insert the needle the same way as the previous step, but for the next pair of stitches.
Keep doing this until all stitches are worked in this manner.
I left large loops to help show, but more often you won’t have big loops like this.
4. Pull the yarn tail, which will close the circle closed. Do not pull too hard as the yarn could snap.
5. Knot off the tail. I insert the needle in the next stitch and tie the yarn off from its loop to secure the tail. Do this as neatly as possible if this is the top head of an amigurumi.
Now, what to do with that yarn tail?
Hiding the Yarn ends/tail
Use this method to hide the yarn tail. This method works for all yarn tails, such as tails leftover from sewing on legs/arms/head/tail.
1. Using your needle with the yarn end threaded, stick the needle through the body of the amigurumi – through the stuffing.
As you can see here, I made the needle go right through the entire shell. At least have it go an inch or so through the body. You can squish the body to help the needle pass more distance.
2. Pull the yarn through. If you place your fingers against the body while you pull the yarn, you are less likely to have stuff fuzz out.
3. Snip off the excess yarn tail. If there is a bit of contrasting yarn colour peeking out, use your crochet hook to stab it back inside the amigurumi.
I have an interesting crab story from my childhood.
I was around 10 years old and was fishing off a dock. I caught something REALLY heavy and hard to pull in, that it took a long time to reel in and I needed help from my older cousins. I got it out of the water and it was a SCARY spidery leggy looking spikey crab! Very angry crab too! I started screaming and my cousin kicked the crab off the dock!
In retrospect, it was probably a good eat, oh well.
Don’t kick me off a dock!
I had the inspiration quickly after making my Turt the Turtle Amigurumi pattern. I noticed other amigurumi crabs had that round shape, and I thought going oval makes for a cuter, more realistic-ish shaped crab.
I was set on doing 8 legs instead of 6, but I couldn’t fit the extra legs without making the crab bigger. I also wanted to make a cute crab, not a scary angry crab from my childhood fishing incident!
I wish I had a better name for this crab. “Crabby” was taken. “Snippy” didn’t suit him. Oh well. His name is “Crab”.
You can purchase this Crab Amigurumi pattern at my Etsy Store
or Snag it via Ravelry by clicking You do not need a ravelry account to purchase!
Hey crochet peeps! Finally, I have a new pattern available!
Turt the Turtle!
Annoyingly, the other pattern I’ve been working on, which is on its 8th or 9th attempt, I put on hold to work on a turtle pattern. This turtle design came to me right away – I also came up with a flipper design.
With that said, my turtle design comes with two leg options:
Flipper leg Turt!
I like swimming!
Stumpy leg Turt!
I like cruising around at my own pace.
Both turtles are super cute and are enjoyable to make!
The only trouble I had with this pattern was creating the head. I wanted something a little tapered, but not complicated. Of course, I got complicated and it took a few tries to get the head just right. The legs and flippers were easy for me to figure out.
Shaping for the turtles came out very nice. I wanted to do a more realistic oval shell shape than the usual round amigurumi turtles out there.
These cutie turtles are on the small side, 5″ long and 4″ leg span with worsted yarn, so they are a fast crochet project – leaving you time to make a large nest of turtles!
Turt the Turtle Amigurumi Crochet PDF Pattern is up for sale at my Etsy Shop!
Alternatively, you may purchase the PDF Turt the Turtle pattern directly through Ravelry, no account required!
Sigh, sorry crochet peeps. I redid the colour work on my Dolphin pattern AGAIN! I dislike updating a pattern like this as I wish I got it right the first time!
PINK!
I was making the dolphin for a commission and was really unhappy with the colour work. Annoyingly with spiral rounds is the rows don’t perfectly stack, especially on decrease rows. With that said, the tummy block would begin to spiral out and bend.
I moved stitches around and improved the colour work A LOT so the tummy is a straight natural shape. Took 2 attempts to get it right!
Left: old tummy work. Right: improved new tummy
I can see why lots of amigurumi patterns don’t do colour switching, they often would just sew on another shape as it is hard to mess with the spiral rounds not stacking plus taking 3D shapes into account. Phew, I did pull it off though resulting in a very cute dolphin. The colour changes are still kinda tedious, so this pattern is not for a new crocheter.
You can purchase my Dolphin Amigurumi Pattern at my Etsy Shop or via Ravelry by clicking this thing! You do not need a Ravelry account to purchase the pattern.
BONUS RABBIT BOMBING AMIGURUMI SHOTS!
Apparently my Dolphin Amigurumi tastes good to rabbits. Benson photobombed the photo session to lick and paw the dolphins. Sigh.
Someone requested I crochet up a green octopus and blue jelly jellyfish for adoption. Here’s a pic of the two before they went swimming to their new home:
Super cute best friends!
The colour combination of the two sea creatures went very well together!
In other news, I survived my wedding and all the family has left finally, PHEWWWW!
Right now I’m back to working on new patterns and I will be taking commissions for the Christmas holidays of 2012. In between that, I will be making amigurumi that will be selling at my Etsy shop in time for winter holidays! Check my shop to see what is up, or feel free to commission me if you would like to purchase a specific amigurumi and I will reserve it for you.