The first amigurumi’s I made were crocheted earlier this year, but it wasn’t the first time I’d heard about them.
I’d discovered them through an amazing knitter who makes exquisite amigurumi dolls. She’s the most talented amigurumi doll artists I’ve seen thus far. In fact, the moment my daughter saw the dolls she asked me if I could make some for her.
Initially I was planning on doing that, but the more I thought about it… I realized that perhaps I my first amigurumi items should be crocheted. After all, I accomplished a lot of my “handcrafted yarn firsts” with knitting; sweaters, socks, pillows, glove, and hats. Which make sense, I have been knitting for thirty-three years but since I learned only to crochet in December 2011, there weren’t to many items that I hadn’t knitted.
Because of this, I decided crochet would get the first crack at amigurumis…
And so began my love of amigurumi, although it’s only been seven months since I started crocheting, I’ve easily made over forty amigurumi items, some were given to my daughter, while others were handed out to her classmates and the rest were donated to various local charities. It feels great.
While I know I could easily go to the store and purchase the item, which would reduce my time with the item. I enjoy the time I spend with each item, since I look at it as a “labor of love” since I’m taking time out of my busy schedule to make something for someone else.
Next week, I most likely will start working on a few amigurumi dolls while my daughter and I area away for the holidays. Of course she’ll be my tester, I’ll give her the first few knitted dolls, once I’m comfortable knitting amigurumis, I’ll start adding those to my list of items to gift to others. Soon, I’ll be making another crocheted, or perhaps knitted, Coraline. My daughter’s best friend saw hers, and I know she wants one for herself. And while she’s much to polite to come out and ask, she did make a point of telling me how awesome it was.
I just returned from a board meeting, but I’m sure sometime this evening, after my daughter is sleeping, I’ll flip though some of the knitted amigurumi doll patterns that I’d located earlier today, and I’ll most likely will work on the knitted beanie hat, before I go to bed.