Slicker Brush Revisited

I've been having fun with my new slicker brush and I thought readers might enjoy seeing the results. Here are three patterns that I've made before, now re-crocheted and brushed out with the slicker brush. All three fluffy amigurumis were made using various shades of Vanna's Choice worsted weight yarn. As you can tell from the pictures I've got a lot of grey yarn to use up.

Above you see the Owl pattern from Ana Paula Rimoli's Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet crocheted regularly on the left and then crocheted and brushed out on the right. Below is the Bunny Ami pattern from the same book.

The koala comes from Tamie Snow's Tiny Yarn Animals.

I managed to brush out all of these without ripping any holes in the crochet so my technique is getting better. However, I did learn the hard way that you should always put in the safety eyes after brushing the stitching. I forgot and put in the koala's eyes before brushing and it was quite the challenge to brush around them. You can't see it in the pictures, but his little black eyes have been scratched up pretty badly by the brush.

And what will I be doing with all these fluffy critters? I gave the white owl to my grandma who is a collector of owls and was the recipient of the owl on the left a couple of years ago. She could hardly believe it was the same pattern, as the brushing gave it a totally new look. As for the other two, they may be donated to charity or given away as gifts. I haven't decided yet.

Did you see my first slicker brush project? If not, check out Penny the Penguin.

Mother's Day Amigurumis

Now that Mother's Day has passed I can show off the tiny amigurumis that I made for the occasion. All of these come from Ana Paula Rimoli's Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet . I wanted something quick and homemade that I could give to each of the important moms in my life and Rimoli had a wonderful selection of patterns to choose from.

I think the hedgehog took the longest to make because you have to go back and put his coat on after you've stitched the main body. I'm guessing he was about a 5-6 hour project, while the other two came in at only about 3 hours apiece. I bought the Patons Decor in Rich Taupe especially for the owl, but aside from that I managed to use up bits and pieces of colours I already had.



First up is the owl which I made for my Grandma. She collects owls so he was the obvious animal choice for her. I'm really happy with how he turned out. I think I actually like him better than the sample owl that was in Rimoli's book. His beak is a bit of leftover Vanna's Choice in Mustard and the rest of him was made using Patons Decor in Rich Taupe, Taupe, and Aran.



This cat was made for my Mom who loves cats. Does it look like a cat? I'm a little worried he looks more like a bear than a cat. In his defence he does have cat's eyes and a long tail. More of the Rich Taupe here. I originally tried to make him in grey, but my grey wool was too thick for the small hook you need to use on these Tiny Amis. Trying to make him in grey was very uncomfortable so I switched to brown.



The hedgehog was made for my boyfriend's Mom. I let him choose from several different animals and he went with the hedgehog. The whole time I was making it I was worried it was going to be a disaster and to be honest it really didn't look good until the end when I had all the pieces sewn on. Now I'm becoming more enchanted with it every time I look at it.

Rimoli's pattern uses worsted weight for the coat as well as the animal's body, but I switched this for some fun fur that I had on hand and I quite like the effect. The fun fur was a generic brand that's sold by Dollarama and since I was using a larger hook for this pattern I could use my grey. It's a Bernat Super Saver colour. I should also note, the pattern seems to indicate that you stitch on the coat after the hedgehog is stuffed. I chose to make it before stuffing because I was afraid that if I did it after, my hook would catch on the stuffing and accidently pull some of it out.



My Ami bunny snuck into this final picture. I couldn't resist including this butt shot because I wanted to show off what I've been doing with the backs of these critters. I picked up these little heart shaped brads at Dollarama back at Valentine's. One box of plain hearts (like the bunny has) and one with words on them. Both the owl and cat have the word "love" on their hearts. The fun fur made it too difficult to put one on the back of the hedgehog. I thought of putting one on his chest, but he's so small, I just felt like it made his front side too busy. Nonetheless, he too was made with love.

If anyone is interested I've started an Amigurumi World Crochet Along on Craftster. You can post pictures of projects you complete from the book there and discuss the patterns with fellow crocheters.

Amigurumi World. My thoughts...

I had the chance to play around with Ana Paula Rimoli’s Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet this past weekend and I’m happy to report the book lives up to its name. Check out my Ami Bunny to the left here, is it not seriously cute?

At first glance I thought the fact that Rimoli was including many of the patterns in several sizes, a mom or dad and baby of each creature, was a bit of a copout, but on further inspection I take that back. It would be a copout if the book only contained 10-12 patterns, but counting the parent and child pairs as a single pattern this book still contains over 20 different designs from animals to fruit, to dessert items and even a couple of cactuses (or should I say desert items?). There are also added touches such as instructions for how to add various pieces of clothing to the different animals.

As well, I really appreciate that the animals are kept in scale with each other. Adult animals are anywhere from 5 inches to 10 inches tall while babies are generally 3 or 4 inches tall and they’re kept true to scale with their animal kingdom counterparts. Owls are smaller than penguins, penguins are smaller than lions, etc. This may not matter if you’re only making one animal, but let’s say you decide to make all the animals for a child’s play set, then this logical sizing is going to be something you can really appreciate.

This Ami bunny that I’ve made comes from a section near the back of the book entitled Tiny Amis. In this section Rimoli uses the same basic head and body shape to create seven different animals that all stand 3 inches tall. These animals can be made in about one to two hours and I think they’d be a great stepping stone for anyone who wants to start designing their own patterns. Start with one of these bodies and try to come up with a different animal yourself. As well, these tiny amis have a lot of versatility. For example, I’m thinking they’d make great Christmas tree ornaments if I just crocheted them some red and green hats and scarves.

I think if I have one quibble with the book at all, it’s Rimoli’s use of the chain 2 then put X number of stitches in second chain from hook method of starting her pieces. It’s just a personal preference thing. I don’t care for this method. I always find that first chain that doesn’t have any stitches in it always sticks out kind of strangely and I have to spend time tacking it down. Instead I much prefer to take however many stitches she’s putting in that second chain and make a magic ring with this number as my starting point.

That minor complaint aside, if you’re looking for a book of quick cute Amigurumi creatures I highly recommend Amigurumi World. It’s great if you’re just starting out in the world of crochet because it illustrates all your basic stitches and amigurumi techniques in the first few pages with nice clear instructions and pictures.

There are a few typos in the books, as tends to happen, but I was pleasantly surprised when I ventured over to Rimoli's blog and discovered that she’d already set up a post where users could comment on problems they’ve found in the text. Personally I think this speaks volumes about her character and makes her someone I wouldn’t hesitate to buy from.

Note: Any differences between my bunny and the one pictured on the cover of the book are due to choices I made and not a flaw in the pattern. I used a different size of eyes and also a safety nose rather than an embroidered nose. I also used a different kind of wool and much stiffer felt than the book calls which made my bunny's ears less floppy. The changes were more about supplies I had on hand at the time than a desire to change the look of the bunny.