amigurumi – Page 2

Hanna the Hippo wins 2nd place!

Amigurumipatterns.net held a Circus amigurumi design Contest a short while back and Hanna the Hippo was my entry! I’ve been thinking about doing a hippo for a while now and the contest was the perfect motivator to get to me to finally design one! I did a bit of research and settled on trying to make a hippo with an umbrella.

I actually had a hard time deciding what color the hippo should be. I really wanted to make a purple one, but seeing as I did not have a soft lavender yarn that I like, I opted for a pale blue hippo instead. I generally gravitate toward soft pastel colors, but I think a bright, bold shade like a hot pink would be really fun too! 🙂 Once the pattern comes out, I will wait and see what you guys do with it! I love seeing my designs made in various colors – many are colors that I wouldn’t think to choose but end up looking wonderful!

I was delighted with how my hippo turned out and I had a lot of fun with the photo shoot as well. Here is the final shot that I entered into the contest!

After I entered my design, I took a peek at what some of the other entries looked like. I was blown away by so many detailed and amazing creations! Honestly, I didn’t think I stood a chance after viewing everyone’s submissions! (See all entries here!) I am completely shocked, thrilled and honored to have placed 2nd and I thank everyone who voted for my hippo! My prize box came on Christmas Eve and it was so much fun opening it up! The 10 yarn balls behind Hanna in the top picture were found in the box. They are Stylecraft yarn balls of DK weight, and are made of 100% pure premium acrylic. You can’t tell, but they are super duper soft!! I will have fun coming up with things to make with this yarn!! I love the colors that were sent to me!

I also received a fantastic set of Clover crochet hooks, a box of safety eyes/noses, the full set of published works by Amigurumipatterns.net, and a beautiful yarn bowl by Barruntando, a shop that offers unique and original pieces of pottery made of honey! Their Etsy shop is absolutely fabulous – I am tempted to order some other pieces to have around the house! I have never seen a yarn bowl before and was delighted to try this one out! The beautiful bowl is a soft aqua color and has cute little star cutouts on the side.

Check out some of their products! Aren’t they too adorable???

Wait! There’s more! I also get a super fabulous crochet hook designed by Furls Crochet! I have only ever seen these in ads – they are so beautiful!!

I haven’t actually gotten the hook yet so I can’t tell you how amazing it really is, but I’m looking forward to holding one of these babies in my hands!!

And finally, I got a year subscription to Inside Crochet magazine, a really cool UK publication that has plenty of projects and designs for me to try in the new year! I just might have to try my hand at some non amigurumi related things (gasp!) to learn some new stitches and skills!

This has been a wonderful close to a wonderful year. I didn’t come up with as many new designs in 2015 as I would have liked, but I plan to change that for 2016. I’ve got a number of ideas in my head of things to make, so definitely keep your eyes open for new Little Muggles creations in the future!!

Best wishes to you all for a Happy, Healthy, and Fantastic New Year!!!

FREE Little Muggles Amigurumi Baby Bear Ornament Pattern!

I’ve been working on the design for this little cutie for the past few days and I’ve decided to present it to you as a holiday freebie surprise! I actually meant to finish this sooner so that everyone would have more time to make these for the holiday season! The good thing is that since this little ornament is relatively small, it doesn’t take too much time to make. You only need to know basic crochet stitches and you can knock out a couple of these one one evening! I especially love how you can change up the colors easily. Use one when decorating a gift or place them around the house or office for some kawaii cuteness! Have fun making your little ornaments and don’t forget to send me pictures of your cute little baby bears! I can’t wait to see your creations!

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE PATTERN!

On a side note, my kids are now officially on Winter Break! I don’t know about you, but when the kids are hanging around the house all day, I don’t end up getting much done for myself! I have a growing list of things to make with yarn… on my short list is a new monkey for upcoming Lunar New Year! To the drawing board I go! Follow me on Facebook to stay updated on my projects!

Amigurumi Magazine!

What fun!! Look at this wonderful surprise I found in my mailbox the other day! MyTimeMedia has released their newest issue of “Amigurumi” magazine and my little “Buttons the Mouse” pattern is featured in it! Well, it was a surprise in that I didn’t know that I’d be getting the magazine that day. 🙂 After all, I did give permission for them to use my pattern. Alas, this publication is currently printed only in German. I am hopeful that they will release an English version one day soon! Then I can try my hand at all of the amazing designs found in the magazine!!

Look who else is featured! It’s All About Ami‘s (Stephanie Lau’s) adorable “Teddy Ornaments”! Isn’t the layout beautiful? I am such a big fan of Stephanie’s! My little mice are definitely in great company!

There will be 4 new publications of this magazine in 2016! Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to be featured again one day!

Summer vacation is here!

Ok, I guess it’s been a little while since I’ve updated my blog! Wow it’s been like.. half a year! Wasn’t it just yesterday that it was January? Well, I’ve been incredibly busy with my kiddos! My twins just finished 3rd grade and my little guy is off to 1st grade in the Fall! Our schedule has been pure insanity, what with a combination of baseball practices/games (for all 3 kids!), piano lessons, taekwondo class, Kumon, swim lessons, and speech therapy sessions added into the mix! I also volunteered in my son’s Kindergarten classroom and signed up for a year long art project where I got to paint a life size picture of each kid in the class as they took turns being “VIP of the week”! Yes, it was super time consuming because I tried to make each picture as detailed as possible and was able to get a pretty decent likeness of each child on paper. The look on their little faces when they saw their “portrait” and seeing how each kid looked forward to their own week made it all worthwhile. I know the kids aren’t going to remember a lot of details from their Kindergarten experience but if they remember how cool their “VIP of the week” experience was, that’s cool with me! Plus they get to keep their pictures at the end of the year. Here is a shot of some of paintings that were displayed during Open House.

The school year has finally come to an end and the kids are now off to various camps and summer school. Things are already a little mellower even though the schedule is still plenty busy. At least I have a bit of time to sit down and try to update this blog!

In addition to having no school, summer is the time of Fairs! The San Mateo County Fair (Bay Area Peninsula, near San Francisco) was held last weekend and I decided to submit a couple of my dolls for the Crochet Competition once again! This year I chose “Gordy the Goat” and “Spencer the Cat”. I didn’t have time to make something completely new for this Fair so I went with some of my older favorites. The Fair administrators do not release a list of the winners…you have to attend the Fair and run over to the display with the hope that there will be a ribbon dangling from your entry – I was thrilled to discover that Spencer had a red ribbon (2nd place) and Gordy got a white one (3rd)! Gordy even won an extra special ribbon for the “Year of the Goat” category! Pretty awesome! The first place winner was a christening outfit and blanket set for a baby doll. It was beautifully made but my husband was upset because he thought it was basically “apparel” and shouldn’t have been categorized under the “Non apparel – toy/doll/doll accessory” category. I wasn’t upset at all – I’m happy to win anything!! 🙂 I leave you with a few shots of some other entries! XOXO and I promise to check in again sooner than 6 months from now!! Hopefully this summer I can get the creative crochet juices flowing again!! 🙂

Judge's Choice - crochet hippo — Judge’s Choice – crochet hippo

Blue ribbon winner of the Non-apparel category for Knitting

Happy New Year!

first 2015 pattern .. coming soon!

Well, 2015 is here and half a month is already gone! I’m always excited when a fresh year rolls around… a fresh slate, a fresh blank canvas of unlimited possibilities… I can’t wait to see what sorts of new ideas come to me this year! I also look forward to seeing what my fellow designers produce this year! I expect to be dazzled because everybody seems to be coming up with more and more amazing creations! Have you seen the entries to Amigurumipattern.net’s most recent contest?? There’s some crazy talent on display! If we’re all lucky, maybe a book will be released with the patterns of some of those beautiful entries!

When a new year starts, I also like to look back to see what I’ve accomplished during the past year. One thing that I’m really happy to have finally gotten around to doing is coming up with a cool logo for my Little Muggles “brand”! I had toyed with the idea of making one for so long – my husband finally got me to use DesignCrowd, which is basically a marketplace for logo, web, and graphic design. It was a fun experience. I paid a fee, wrote a short description of what sort of logo I was thinking of, and waited for random designer submissions to roll in. I got to fine tune whichever designs I liked and I ultimately picked a winner! Just for fun, here are just some of the designs that I had to consider. Believe me, it wasn’t easy to narrow it down to just one!

The winning design ultimately went to Justine Espinueva of “DesignerMilk”. Her whimsical design is simple and fresh, and I feel that it represents me and my creations well. I especially love the cute touch of the little ears on the ball of yarn! Here are more samples of her work, in case anyone out there has graphic design needs! I found Justine to be extremely professional, courteous, and responsive – I highly recommend her! http://designers.designcrowd.com/designer/73485/designermilk

I can’t believe I’ve been crocheting amigurumi for almost 10 years now! (I gauge how much time has passed using my kids’ ages) A lot has changed since I first started out… I remember there were only a small handful of websites that I knew about which featured amigurumi…a far cry from what can be found out there these days!!

Here’s a fun question for you! Of all of my designs that I have released since 2010 when I first opened up my Etsy shop, can you guess which is by far the most popular? Hands down, it’s Lucky the horse! Are you surprised? I made this little guy in time for the Year of the Horse in 2014 and boy has he had a great year!

Lucky the Horse

I am always delighted to see the pictures that people send me of their own versions of Lucky, especially when they change up the colors! Here are just a few of my faves!!

My second most popular design is Spike the Dragon and coming in third is Haribo, the Bedtime Bear!

Finally, here is a small gallery of all of the dolls I came up with in 2014. Enjoy, and here’s to another year of inspiration and creativity!

XOXO!

Stanley the Giraffe

Wow, I can’t believe the year is ending once again. The weather is getting cooler and I find myself needing to grab an extra blanket before going to bed! It’s been quite some time since my last post and I apologize for that! Ever since school has started for my little ones, it’s been one thing after another and my crochet projects have unfortunately been pushed down my priority list! But I have finally finished writing up another pattern – meet Stanley the Giraffe! Yes, he’s a bit out of his usual element here…I couldn’t find a nice patch of African savannah to use as a background, so the trees in my yard will have to do! 🙂 There are exciting things in store for Stanley! He’s about to be shipped overseas to join a few of his Little Muggles siblings in Belgium. hint, hint! Can you figure out what’s happening to him? If not, you will soon find out..just keep following me on Facebook and there will be an announcement about his adventures soon! In the meantime, you can find my Stanley pattern in my ETSY and CRAFTSY shops!

It was quite fun making Stanley. I really enjoyed the feedback I got from you guys when I put some work in progress pictures on my Facebook page! I will try to do more of that from now on. You guys can help direct the final look of my dolls… 🙂 If you remember, I was considering making this giraffe with brown ears versus yellow. Ultimately I chose yellow because I felt that the brown made his head look more like a cow. I also loved the suggestions to keep one ear brown and one yellow! I would love to see someone send me their finished doll with that look! How whimsical!

Brown or yellow ear? Thin or thick horn?

Like all of my other dolls, Stanley is a pretty simple project that even beginners can try their hand at! There are no complicated stitches or steps. Everything is fairly basic and there are minimal materials required. When made with the my go-to yarn (Lion Brand’s Vanna’s Choice) and my suggested crochet hook size, Stanley is about 10″ tall when seated. (not including his horns) Anybody can make their own little Stanley for themselves!

IMG_3114 - Version 2 copy — A look at his spots

Since I have to send Stanley off to Belgium soon, I wanted to make another giraffe to have for my own. I thought it would be fun to make it pink! I am happy with how she came out, and I liked adding the bow around her neck.

Speaking of accessories, you have no idea how difficult it was for me to make the tie around Stanley’s neck!! Unlike some gals I know, I never really learned how to tie a necktie properly, and I really wanted this one to look crisp and perfect. Of course I turned to Google and I was astounded by all the different ways to tie a tie! After much trial and error (Windsor knot! Half Windsor knot! Prince Albert knot! Simple knot!), I decided to go with the Pratt knot. I like the little dimple under the knot and it looks clean and neat. I still haven’t memorized how to tie this particular knot but I bookmarked the site I found and will be sure to try it on my husband one day!

By the way, this has been an exciting week for my Facebook page because I’ve reached the goal of getting 5000 likes!!! I had no idea that my little page would ever become as popular as it has! Of course I intend to keep up the designs so my new goal is now 10,000! 🙂 Spreading the hobby of amigurumi has been amazingly fun! Thank you everyone, for your all of your support!

Making my Amigurumi Fox

I’m always on the lookout for my next ami project…what animal should I create next? A little while back, I posted this question on my Facebook page and was delighted by all the responses I got! I read through all the suggestions and was inspired to make a little fox! This is the first animal in my intended upcoming “Woodland Creatures” collection. I have yet to decide exactly how many animals I will make, or what animals will actually BE in the collection, but I’ve started brainstorming! 🙂 I’ve got a raccoon, a squirrel, and a beaver running through my mind…oh who knows what I’ll decide to add to the collection! It’ll be a surprise for both you and me as to what I come up with! And speaking of Facebook, I recently asked for help in coming up with a name for this little guy! There were over a 100 suggestions and there were so many great ones to choose from but the winner is…”Chester” the fox! A big THANK YOU for all who made suggestions! The pattern for Chester is now available in my shops at ETSY and CRAFTSY!

It took me quite some time to come up with a good idea of what I wanted to do for a fox. There are already so many amigurumi foxes out there… I wanted to try and make something different. The ears were what I focused on first. I wanted to make them black tipped, and I added the light triangular patch for color contrast. I think this is something unique to my doll. Continue reading “Making my Amigurumi Fox”

Happy New Year!

Another year, another zodiac animal! As you can see, it’s going to be the Year of the Horse!! if you’re a horse, you are turning 0, 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96, or 108! 🙂 I can’t think of anyone I know that has this sign… “Horse” people are supposedly pleasant, and easy-going. They’re extroverts and are full of good humor-he or she is usually the life of the party! They are also supposed to be very frank and direct, almost to the point of tactlessness. Does this fit the personality traits of any of your “Horse” friends?

Since returning from my holiday overseas trip, life has quickly gone back to the usual routine. Getting up, going through the chaotic morning ritual of packing the kids off to school, running errands, thinking of and preparing dinner… (WHY do people have to eat dinner every night? It would be so much easier if we just ate less often…like once a week!) I’ve been adding extra crochet time into the mix in preparation for the upcoming Zoomigurumi 3 book! Amigurumipatterns.net is once again compiling 15 new designs for the new edition and it’s set to be released in the Spring of 2014, which is just around the corner! Follow the Amigurumipatterns.net Facebook page for more updates and other links/news about super cute amigurumi patterns!

The Zoomigurumi books have been wildly popular and are currently on Amazon.com for purchase. Perhaps they will be available on the shelves here in the US one day. That would be so awesome! I feel extremely honored to be included once again!! I just recently packed off my 2 contributions, Cuddles the Sheep and Clementine Cow.

They’re off the Belgium and will be used to promote the book. I had to find the smallest box to fit Cuddles, which is a pretty huge amigurumi!! I tried warning everybody of her size but I don’t think you can really appreciate how big she really is unless you see her in relation to a person. So let me add a picture of my son holding this doll. He’s shy, so you can’t see his face. 🙂

See how cuddly and soft she looks? Too bad I don’t have any daughters. None of my boys are the least bit interested in playing with my crocheted animals. I did make a few Angry Birds, which they threw around for a short while, but that fad faded pretty fast for them.

Till next time, XOXO and happy crocheting!

-Amy

Happy Holidays 2013

PageLines- IMG_6396copy.jpg — Happy Holidays 2013!!

Well, it’s hard to believe that another year is winding down once again! Why does it seem like each year goes more quickly than the last? It must be the hourglass effect…maybe I feel this way because I’m getting older and older. My birthday is later this month and it’s a milestone birthday. I will politely neglect to share exactly which one but it’s a milestone nonetheless. 🙂 I might joke about not wanting to get older, but I am truly grateful to be here for each new year. There have been quite a number of very memorable amigurumi moments for me in 2013. I completed a bunch of new dolls this year, including some freebies for you all! I can’t believe how popular my little baby owl design has been! Thank you to everyone for all the amazing pictures of all your baby owls that you’ve sent to me! Here are just a few of the beauties from you!

Another great 2013 moment was when my Humphrey the Elephant pattern was published in “Zoomigurumi 2!” Both the first and second books are doing well on Amazon.com and both have been translated into Dutch and is currently being sold in stores in the Netherlands! Isn’t that fabulous?? AND there definitely is a Zoomigurumi 3 in the works! Expect it to be available sometime in the spring of 2014! Keep an eye out for some more Little Muggles contributions! 🙂

This was also the first year that I entered a couple of my dolls into the County Fair! What a fun experience that was! I’ll be sure to enter again next year. I’ll have to start thinking of what to make starting in January.

For now, I’m actually getting ready to embark on a transPacific trip with my family of 5, along with my husband’s extended family as well! We’ll be traveling to Asia and won’t return until 2014! This will be quite an adventure, especially since there will be 5 kids under the age of 9 to handle! Wish me luck! I might be returning without my sanity. This will be the first time that I bring along my crochet supplies on a trip. I’m going to try to make some things on the plane ride itself (if my hooks don’t get confiscated). Maybe I’m being over ambitious. I’ll most likely be sitting between 2 young children. I’ll be lucky if my yarn doesn’t get thrown up on. Hmmm not a pleasant image, is it? Maybe I’ll pack my stuff in my suitcase and crochet at my destination instead…haha!

Well, thank you to everyone who has been following me this year!! I do plan to make some new and exciting freebies for you all in the new year! I’ll try to keep coming up with new characters for all of you to enjoy! Happy, Happy Holidays to you all and I wish everyone a fantastic New Year!!!

XOXOXOXO!

-Amy

2013 LITTLE MUGGLES CREATIONS

Asian Zodiac Animals

I finally finished the 3 dolls that my friend commissioned me to make! Each will be gifted this Christmas to a niece or nephew, and each represents the Asian Zodiac animal for his/her birth year. What a neat idea, right? I hope the kiddos like them! I’ve always wanted to make all the Zodiac animals so this was a good motivator to get me going on this project. I don’t foresee myself finishing all 12 animals anytime in the near future, but I think I’ve got a pretty good start already. Let’s see, the 12 animals are the Rat, Cow, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.

My plan is to eventually make new Zodiac versions of each animal. In the meantime, I can use existing dolls to represent the animals… ie. Mochi or Wasabi for Year of the Rabbit would work nicely! I’ve got a long way to go to make all the signs. No worries though! As long as I’ve got the animal done for the current year, I’m happy. Which animal sign are you? I’m a Cow (ok, that doesn’t sound so nice) and my husband is a Tiger. According to the horoscope, I am supposedly hard working and persistent. Hmmm I’m not sure if that’s completely accurate! My tiger husband is supposedly confidant, courageous, and dynamic. That’s probably true. But I’m not really one to be superstitious!! 🙂