Amigurumi is a Japanese inspired form of crochet, worked in spirals it allows you to create projects in no time flat without worrying about joining rounds and because most of the projects are small it’s a great way to stashbust half skeins left over from other projects.

Learning to Crochet

With the magic of the internet you will never again be stuck looking at line drawings trying to work out exactly where your fingers are meant to be. Bethintx1 on YouTube has an excellent series of videos taking you from your very first basic chain to more complicated stitches as your skills grow.

Australia has borrowed from both English and American crochet and yarn terms, Crochet Australia has a great page with conversion charts and translations for stitch names, yarns and hook sizes to make understanding patterns easier.

Amigurumi Supplies

Polyfil, yarn and safety eyes can usually be found at your local craft and yarn store, failing that, all Spotlights and some Lincrafts will have a section for softie making. If anyone can recommend any stores (particularly for safety eyes) please do so in the comments and I’ll update the post accordingly. I tend to use acrylic yarn for any amis that I make and I tend to stuff with old clothes or scraps of fabric – it’s a very economical way to get into crochet! I recommend buying aluminium hooks over the plastic ones as sometimes the stitches can get a bit tight and I have snapped more than one plastic hook on a tight gage during my time crochetting!

Free Amigurumi Patterns

The internet is crawling with free amigurumi patterns and once you’ve picked up the basics of increasing and decreasing to create your desired shape it’s fairly simple to create your own.

• The Gabu by Roxy Craft – Highly recommended for your introduction into amigurumi. This little alien is a basic sphere pattern with ears, he works up very quickly and looks awesome in self striping yarn.
• Simply A Gnome by Else – Again, nice and simple, think time a cone instead of a sphere. I love this pattern, but will admit I’m a little biased due to my weird gnome obsession
• Cupcakes from BitterSweet – Although Hannah is now concentrating more on food and her vegan cookery book than crafts, she still has an archive of awesome crochet and knit patterns, these cupcakes are one of my favourites.
• Crochet Kitten from CrochetKitten.com – Once you’ve picked up the skills needed with the above patterns, try something a little more complex with this kitten pattern to hold your hooks.
• Manta Ray from Roman Sock – Officially not amigurimi (it’s not worked in spirals) but too cute for me to not write about, this Manta Ray was inspired by the ones swimming around in Sydney Aquarium, and looks a little less intimidating than those ones.

Amigurumi Books

When I first discovered crochet Amigurumi was only for those dedicated enough to hunt out Japanese craft books and read the patterns via charts, as it’s become more popular and moved into the mainstream there has been a boom in books released with some wonderful patterns aimed at a range of skill levels.

Some of my favourite books are below along with a couple I would like to add to my collection:

So there you have it, with some yarn, a few hooks and some polyfil you have an entire world of achingly cute and ever so little crochet projects.

What are your favourite resources for crochet and amigurumi?