Crochet guide
Shaping amigurumi
A crochet toy gets most of its shape from its stitches and its stuffing. A few things are added afterwards. Needle sculpting pulls in eye sockets and dimples with a strand of yarn. Wire inside a limb lets it bend and hold a pose. Weight in the base helps a toy stand. Curls make tentacles, and blush colors the cheeks.
On this page 7 parts
Shape comes first from the stitches
A pattern for a toy builds the shape into its stitches, and firm stuffing fills it out. Stuff a piece firmly, but stop before the stitches stretch and the stuffing shows. Amigurumi basics covers both.
The ways on this page are added afterwards. They mend a shape that came out soft, or add what stitches alone do not give.
Needle sculpting
Needle sculpting draws in part of a stuffed piece with a strand of yarn. You need a yarn needle and a long strand in the color of the piece.
It is most used for eye sockets:
- Stuff the head firmly, and mark the two stitches where the eyes will sit.
- Push the needle into the head at one mark, leaving a tail of yarn hanging out. Take it through the head and out beside the other mark.
- Go back in on the other side of that marked stitch, and come out beside the first mark. Pull the yarn tight, and both places sink in.
- Make two or three more passes the same way, and do not let the yarn go slack.
- Finish with the needle coming out where the tail is. Knot the two ends together, and pull the knot and the ends inside the head.
Sockets can be made before the eyes are fixed in or after the head is finished. Eyes for amigurumi covers the eyes themselves.
One tutorial makes a dimple the same way, by drawing in at a single point. It also runs the strand all the way round a piece and draws it in, to make a neck or a waist, and notes that a strand that looks wrong can be pulled out and sewn again.
Limbs that bend
Wire inside a toy lets it hold a pose. Makers use floral wire or pipe cleaners inside the toy.
One guide deals with the cut ends, so that none can poke out: it wraps each end, or bends the wire double so that both ends sit inside the body and not at the tip of a limb.
For a baby's, a small child's or a pet's toy, the usual advice is to leave out hard and small parts such as beads, buttons and plastic eyes. Eyes for amigurumi reports that advice.
A toy that stands
Weight in the base helps a toy stand. Plastic pellets go into the base of the toy first, and the stuffing goes on top of them.
Curls and tentacles
A curl is a chain with two or three stitches worked into every chain. The row has too many stitches to lie flat, so it winds into a corkscrew. Curls make the tentacles of an octopus or a jellyfish, and ringlets for a mane. Curlicues gives the steps.
Color on the cheeks
Cheeks are colored with ordinary make-up blush. One tutorial uses colored beeswax rubbed on with a cotton cloth instead, and says that blush does not last as long. Faces for amigurumi covers noses and mouths.
Where to go next
- Sewing amigurumi together for sewing the parts on.
- Faces for amigurumi and eyes for amigurumi for the face.
- Brushing crochet for a furry finish.
- Hair for crochet dolls for yarn hair.