Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures' according to Wikipedia. I am hooked. I decided to try knitting one first. So off I went to Etsyand found a great pattern by Amy Gaines. It took me ages to make it and compared to the lovely blue bear in the picture, my bear looks like it's a tramp. I made it with a friend who knitted hers in half the time it took me. Mine came out huge! I mean HUGE! I thought it was all about tiny, TINY animals. My bear is the equivalent of a 10lb baby when you've been assured it'll be 5lbs. He's like the tallest kid in school. He's full of holes as my increasing was very very poor. But he doesn't mind, he's bright pink and he doesn't care. He's the kind of kid who if they fell on you in the school playground, you'd have to be hospitalised. In a way this makes him tough without trying. Poor hokey bear. The moral of the story is 5mm needles are just far too big to not have big gaps where the stuffing shows through. I blame the needles see, not myself.
Today I went out and bought the thinnest wool I could find and the smallest knitting needles. Round two commences. After this I plan to try those funny round knitting needle thingies just as soon as I can trap someone in a corner who knows how to use them. Then I plan to crochet it. By the end I shall be ready to dive headfirst into Amazon.jp and buy these beauties
