Soft Dolls & Animals--May 2011----2011-2012 Amigurumi Series

Violet Warrior is the first in the series

Craft Designer is excited to tell you about 2011-2012 Amigurumi Series in Soft Dolls & Animals.

What is Amigurumi? How is it done? And what are its hallmarks? Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The literal translation is “knitted stuffed toy.” The word comes from a combination of Japanese words: ami, meaning crocheted or knitted and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll.

For this series of articles, the stuffed dolls were crocheted out of yarn using the single crochet stitch. The rounds are never joined, instead being worked in a spiral. To help retain the stuffing, the crochet hook should be slightly smaller than what is normally used with a specific weight yarn. Amigurumi are made up of parts that are crocheted, stuffed, and sewn together.

The typical artistic style of Amigurumi is an over-sized round head, a cylindrical body, arms and legs, ears, tail (if needed) and embellishments. Felt is often used to embellish or to create the ears, face, or nose.

Personally, I would also add – they are extremely cute.