Amigurumi Pencil Toppers

What do you do with little crochet animal heads?  Put them on top of pencils, of course!  At a recent craft fair I had an assortment of critters perched on top of pencils.  Some of these I just made up on the fly. However, if you want to make some of your own, I do have a pattern for the bunnies,the cats and the dogs.  They are available in my etsy shop.... http://www.mutts.etsy.com/.

USC Trojans amigurumi

Someone approached me to make some USC trojans, amigurumi style.  They showed me a picture of a cool trojan in Christen Haden's "Creepy Cute" crochet as an example.  So inspired by the book and using my own kokeshi doll base, I designed another version.

I found the perfect USC colors in Caron One Pound, my favorite yarn for amigurumi.  I made up a helmet and gave it a bright red plume on top.  Then a cape and shield and finally, I made some sword buttons with some polymer clay. 

A Cat and Her Fish

Cats.  You either love them or...well, not hate them, but avoid them.  I think if you had a negative first impression with a cat, you tend to not like them.  It's just like people.  If they make a bad first impression on you, you just avoid them.

I'm in the LOVE cats category.  Yes, I will just about do anything to make my cats happy, whether they like it or not. 

My second pattern was "A Cat and Her Fish".  It's a stubby looking cat with an attitude and she comes with her own little fish.  I've made all kinds of these...tabbies, bicolor, siamese, and calico.  It's a little tricky to get the colors and stripes just right, but it's doable.

Just like my Mighty Mutts (the pattern), you don't need a lot of yarn.  Just some scraps of worsted weight yarn in cat colors.  You can use Red Heart Super Saver, or my favorite acylic, which is Caron One Pound.  The problem is that it's one pound of yarn!  But I go through a lot of these.  Caron has a smooth texture, a consistent thickness and is soft and easy to work with.  I like to use my Clover "G" hook, a yarn needle, and some poly fiber stuffing.  I also buy the poly fiber in big, big bags and stock up when it goes on sale. 

Mighty Mutts

What are Mighty Mutts?  They are stubby little doggies with stumpy feet.  They fit in the palm of your hand and they make you smile from ear to ear.  Mighty Mutts was the first amigurumi I designed and wrote a pattern for.  I had a lot of fun experimenting with different yarn and coming up with different mutts.  They all give you the same kind of unconditional love though.

If you want to make some of your own Mighty Mutts, or make one that looks like your dog or a friend's dog, all you need is a little bit of worsted weight yarn, a crochet hook (G), a yarn needle, and some polyfiber stuffing.  Oh, and get the pattern here:  www.mutts.etsy.com.