>Wanna make a monster?

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Time for another tutorial! I made this lineup of baby monsters for my Basic Amigurumi class at The Knitting Nest.  I think they’re a pretty good beginner project because it teaches how to start crochet in the round, how to single crochet, how to increase, and basic construction and customization of amigurumi.  Let’s begin, shall we?

Baby Monster’s Guide to Basic Amigurumi

You’ll need the following stuff:

• Small amount of worsted weight yarn
• Size E Crochet hook (or your favorite)
• Plastic safety eyes (I used 6 mm, but you can use whatever makes your monster happy!)
• Polyester fiberfill stuffing
• Embroidery floss
• White felt
• Craft glue
• Scissors
• Yarn needle
• Embroidery needle

Head/Body:

Begin by making a ring with your yarn as shown. 

Insert the hook into the front of the ring and hook your working yarn (the yarn coming from the the ball) with the hook.  Pull up a loop through your ring.

Wrap the working yarn around the hook from behind and pull through the loop on your hook.  This is called a chain stitch and is written in a pattern “ch 1”.

You will now single crochet six stitches into the ring. Insert the hook into the front of the ring and pull up a loop of working yarn to the front. Two loops are on your hook. Wrap the working yarn around the hook from the back and pull through the two loops. This is one single crochet stitch into the ring.  Do five more single crochets into the ring.

Pull the short yarn tail to close the ring and the stitches will come together to form a circle of stitches. This is the base for the rest of your monster.

To make the circle grow, you will increase by crocheting two times into each stitch. Insert your hook under both loops of the next stitch as shown.

Pull up a loop. Two loops are on your hook. 

Wrap the working yarn around your hook.  Pull through the two loops.  This is one single crochet stitch. Now single crochet into the same spot again. This is an increase. It is usually written “2 sc into next st” and for this round you will repeat this for every stitch until you have 12 total stitches in the round. Count the stitches by counting each “v” around the circle.

The next round, you will increase in every other stitch. This means that you will put two stitches in the first stitch, one stitch in the next, two stitches in the next, and so on. At the end of the round you should have 18 stitches.

For the last increasing round, you will increase in every third stitch. This means you single crochet two times in the first stitch, then single crochet in the next two stitches only once, then single crochet two times in the next stitch, and so on around until you have a total of 24 stitches.

After you have finished increasing, you will have a flat circle with 24 stitches around. This circle magically becomes a cylindrical shape as you single crochet around into each stitch for 9 rows.

Using a stitch marker, crochet around 24 stitches, move the marker to the loop on your hook, then crochet around 24 again, then move the stitch marker to the loop on your hook, and repeat until you have 9 rows. Of course, if you want your monster taller you can do more than 9 rows and if you want him to be on the short side, do fewer than 9 rows.

Finish your monster’s body off by slip stitching into the next stitch. All this means is that you cut the yarn with a few inches left, insert your hook into the next stitch, pull up a loop, and pull that loop all the way through the loop on your hook. 

Base:

To make the base of the monster, repeat the steps from the beginning to make a circle of 24 stitches.

Before sewing the pieces of your baby monster together, you must attach the eye(s).  Cut the felt piece as desired.  One large circle, two small circles, etc.  At the spot where you want to insert the black eye, cut a tiny slit and insert the post of the safety eye.  Place the eye where you want it on the body piece and push the post through. 

Put the washer inside the body and fit it over the post.  Push hard and snap the washer onto the post all the way down.

Insert a small amount of stuffing into your monster. Fit the bottom piece over the bottom of the body. Use the long yarn tail and a yarn needle to stitch the pieces together, lining stitches up and sewing between them. As the hole closes up, add more stuffing as desired.

Now its time to design your monster’s expression. Use the embroidery needle and embroidery floss to stitch a mouth, eyebrows, eyelashes, etc onto your monster’s face.

Give him a tooth or two by gluing a little piece of felt onto his mouth. Use your imagination! You can sketch out your design first so he’ll look just right.

Glue or sew down the edges of your monster’s eyes.

You can add a bow by tying a strand of yarn into a bow and stitching it onto your monster’s head with the same color.


Here’s how the pattern would look written out:
 
Head/Body:

Starting at the top of the monster’s head, with worsted weight yarn and an E hook, make an adjustable ring, chain (ch) 1, and single crochet (sc) 6 stitches into the ring. Pull the ring closed with the loose yarn tail.
R1 (Row or Round 1): 2sc into each st (12)
R2: (2sc into next st, sc into next st)* rep around (18)
R3: (sc into next st, 2sc into next st, sc into next st)* rep around (24)
R4-12: sc into each st (24)
Fasten off. Set aside.


Base:
Make an adjustable ring, chain (ch) 1, and single crochet (sc) 6 stitches into the ring. Pull the ring closed.
R1: 2 sc into each st (12)
R2: (2 sc into next st, sc into next st)* rep to end of rnd (18)
R3: (sc into next st, 2sc into next st, sc into next st)* rep to end of rnd (24)
Fasten off.

Here are my baby monsters! See how the expressions change with a little stitching, changing the eye size, and even the position of the felt?

Baby monsters are perfect for little hands!

>Strike a Pose!

>My new favorite thing to do with my human-esque amigurumi is to make them poseable.  Without poseable limbs,

Parker couldn’t hold his ukulele,

Thrawn couldn’t look so menacing,

DJ Lance couldn’t rock his funky beats,

and Jimmy Kimmel couldn’t cuddle with his lil’ Guillermo!

Figuring out how to make amigurumi poseable isn’t completely intuitive, and I’ve been wanting to do a little tutorial on here for a while, so here it is: 

CraftyisCool’s Guide to Poseable Amigurumi! 

* I’m only covering posing arms here, but of course the same principles can be applied to making legs poseable too. (Michael Jackson DEFINITELY needs poseable legs!)

You’ll need the following items to begin:

• stuffing tool
• 16 gauge wire
• small bit of stuffing
• armless amigurumi
• amigurumi arms
• small sharp scissors
• yarn needle

Step One:  Stuff the arms sparingly.  I like to use this long stick but the eraser end of a pencil works great too.

Step Two:  Measure a piece of 16 gauge wire.  When both arms and the body are laid out, the wire should be long enough to fit across all three pieces as if they were assembled.

Step Three:  Bend the tip of the wire and insert it into the first arm through to the hand.  The bent end should not come out.

Step Four:  Insert the long end of the wire into the body where the arm will be placed.

Step Five:  Push the wire all the way through to the opposite side at the corresponding spot where you’ll want to sew your other arm.

Step Six:  Bend the tip of the wire you just pulled through and insert into the other arm.

Step Seven: Sew both arms to the body around the wire core.

Step Eight:  Pose!

Hope you learned something from me and my bald expressionless Conan!

>Sue, Spies, Star Wars, and a Superhero

>Back in November, I announced that I would have a contest on my facebook page to end all contests.  When I got 500 fans, I said, I would let everyone “nominate” their choice of a new CraftyisCool design.  When all the submissions came through, I would choose ten that were best suited for amigurumi and that I thought fit in with my other designs.  Each would be sketched out, listed on my fan page, and voted on by CraftyisCool fans.  The winning design would be turned into a CraftyisCool pattern, and the finished toy would be gifted to the person who came up with the idea.

The results are in!  After counting up all the votes (OK really I had just had to look and see which had the most “likes”.  There was no counting involved!), the clear cut winner was Sue Sylvester from Glee!  That means that Jennifer Williams will be receiving her own Sue!  Congratulations, Jennifer! 

When the pattern is finished, I will be making it free for a limited time with a $10 or more purchase from either my Etsy shop or my Ravelry shop. 

In other news, before Christmas, a friend of Parker Jacobs, an absolutely AMAZING artist and the art director for a little show you may have heard of, Yo Gabba Gabba (!), decided he needed a mini-me for an extra-special Christmas gift!  Who doesn’t?!  So she ordered him a little Parker, complete with props, sunglasses, and a hat.  He’s in a 60s spy-themed band called GOGO13 and plays the ukulele, so naturally his little yarn-self plays one too.  Did you know Parker’s cool trick is baking special birthday cakes?  He was thoughtful enough to send me this awesome photo! They look alike, right?!

In my family, there’s lots and lots of boys and they all share a common interest: Star Wars.  So I thought I’d heard of all the characters, knew all the story lines, but when my nephew turned 16 and I asked him what he wanted, he named someone I had to look up: Grand Admiral Thrawn.  Apparently he’s a somewhat obscure character that first appears in a series of books by Timothy Zahn.  After lots of Google image searches I came up with a little Thrawn that my nephew thought was pretty great.

So you’re all watching Conan right?  You’ve seen “The Flaming C“, his superhero alter-ego?  I have been making lots of Conan dolls but I definitely needed to make a Flaming C.  Here he is! 

One last thing: Are you all subscribed to the really fun Lion Brand newsletter, Yarnplay?  Every month this newsletter comes with more fun patterns than the last!  You should really subscribe. Really. So..Click here and SUBSCRIBE!

>New Pattern! New Year!

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Happy 2011!  It’s a fresh start, and I have a fresh pattern!  Jambi has been written for a while, just waiting to be edited and checked over a couple more times, and now he’s in my shop!  Available on Ravelry or Etsy for your downloadable pleasure…  He’s also available in a brand new pattern set!  All of my Pee-wee’s Playhouse patterns together!