amigurumi « Karmology Clinic

September is here. I’ve got to catch up with a month of heatwaves, stress, lack of vacation, swap mania and crochet. Officialy it’s the end of summer, unofficialy the weather is still hot here in Greece. In a few days I’ll be leaving for my 10 day vacation in a mountain region of central Greece.

Until then let’s write a small review for a small and adorable book full of zakka!.

This one features mainly crochet projects and a couple of knitting ones. I’ve tried many of the items and they work up fast, they are perfect for a quick handmade gift to your loved ones. Last month I did some Ravelry swaps with handmade items and this little book from Ondori helped a lot. I also made something for me too, a happy orange cotton/linen hat. I love it!!!

1. Happy Summer Orange Hat, 2. Linen Coasters, 3. Small Box, 4. Olive Green Dishcloth, 5. small pouch, 6. Blocking, 7. yarn, 8. Linen Coasters, 9. Olive Green Dishcloth, 10. small pouch, 11. Happy Summer Orange Hat, 12. Linen Coasters, 13. small pouch

I told you I needed at least three variations of this dress. And luckily I found some time to sew the last dress for this summer. I used the same pattern from the japanese book “Dresses with Straight Stitches” (ISBN: 4309280196). I used a japanese cotton with letter print, I found at reprodepot.com.

Seeing this last picture reminded me of the new craft love-slash-fetish I got. Habu textiles yarn! Oh, the colors, the quality, the texture. Texture is something most yarn manufacturers forget. Or they add texture in the form of fugly novelty yarns. Habu yarns seem to have a texture dictated by the fiber not just for the sake of it. I could rant for rows and rows of blog space about habu yarns, but I won’t. I’ll just say this scarf is made with 3 skeins (28 gram each) of Aresco cotton tape yarn with black/mustard blotches.

(detail)

I have searched the internet and was not able to find a single crochet project made with Aresco yarn! So I decided to use a scarf crochet pattern for tape yarn I found in this book. Aresco yarn has these beautiful blotches of color and creates a chunky 3D effect all by itself. I think this simple pattern was a good choice for it.

I shouldn’t forget my crocheted cat. He already took the plane to his new home somewhere in Alberta, Canada. Here are some photos the day before his departure where he is resting with one of my cats, Fulman. (pst, Fulman didn’t like him much and she was glad he went away…) Pattern is free from a japanese site, translated too. Found it via Ravelry, where it is very popular. link

I’ll be honest. I’m crocheting for half a year now and I couldn’t understand what was the “thing” with amigurumi. I mean they are cute and technically challenging but why? Why make them, when you can make useful items? The answer came last week. I felt a bit wasted after completing four major crochet projects in the row (2 tops, a grocery bag and a shawl) and I wanted to crochet something small and fun and amusing. So I picked up the Hello Kitty amigurumi book (yes I had one even though I wasn’t sure I would make anything from it) and chose what seemed easy.

HK went for a walk around the garden

And then I understood why people get hooked on it. When you’re crafting a useless project, it’s like playing. It was like solving a small puzzle, like arranging lego, like fooling around with playmobils, like being a child again… I finished this particular hello kitty in two days time. She is my first amigurumi ever. She has some mistakes but who cares?

HK smells the beautiful mirabilis jalapa flowers

After I finished the assemply I was looking at her and giggling like the serious and responsible and grown up adult that I am. Even the boyfriend was giggling with me. Then I took her for a walk around the garden to take some pictures. Finally, I found a place inside for her, where the cats can’t reach, to save the crocheted feline from a slow death caused by her fellow furry felines.

HK in the evening sun

A few words about the book now, right?

ISBN: 4387990325

I show this one at Saucylouise’s shop. It looks I haven’t spotted it on the japanese Amazon cause it had no featured image and i can’t read japanese titles. I said to myself: If you have to have just one amigurumi book it has to be this. Even if you never use it at least it will fulfill your Hello Kitty obsession. The sample pictures look good (unlike some dreadful crocheted Hello Kitties that scare the internets) and they actually are good. I mean all the patterns are well designed, nicely illustrated, with complete instructions (they even have sample nose and eyes patterns for each project and tell you exactly where to place them to achieve an authentic hello kitty result). Unlike most of the japanese crochet books I’ve had so far, this one has handwritten instructions. Sometimes you can’t undestand what part you’re supposed to be making (leg, arm or ear) but you should jump into making the magic ring and follow the pattern and when you’re finished you’ll understand its purpose. And now some sample HK from inside: