January 2018

When I look at all the patterns I have made so far, I am quite proud of each and every one of them. Look at them, so many (and I even forgot a few), that is about three years of designing in that picture!

amigurumi patterns

But lately I’ve been so critical about my designs that I am having a hard time finishing them. This must be something every designer goes through every once and a while. Maybe it is just the soggy weather and the grey of winter that makes me judge my work differently.

It started when I was working on my tortoise pattern. I made this gorgeous looking shell, that would be a bit difficult to assemble. And because I couldn’t write it down perfectly scientifically, I had to re-think it so I fooled around with it for a while and did not enjoy it. Then I saw this picture of a gorgeous looking American red squirrel and decided I was going to set aside the tortoise and make a new squirrel that made me all excited. I started all enthusiastic but soon afterwards doubted every part I made. I guess designing the realistic animals got me into this phase. Because now, when I’m designing a doll, I’m not sure anymore how realistic it should look. These crochet animals must look like the real animal for sure, but they also should be a bit more whimsical and playful looking, well you’ve just seen my Popkes. When I look at my sweet little squirrel face, I’m thinking ‘isn’t this looking too complicated?’ or ‘isn’t this head too small, should I make a more round and basic head?’. It’s annoying, I’m doubting my every move, while I can clearly see what I came up with isn’t looking bad at all.

The best thing to do is to just keep working on it. Today I made a very smart looking tail, which doesn’t need pipe cleaners in it to make it look bended. And the body I made has a very formidable looking light belly, so I suppose I am just being a bit too hard on myself. I will just continue working on this sweetie and assemble a prototype. When that is finished I can decide if I find this squirrel whimsical and characteristic enough and if anything needs to be changed.

Yes, that is a good plan. See you when it is finished dear crafters!

This truly is quite a spontaneous pattern. I fell in love with the beauty of the saddleback clownfish (yellowfin anemone fish) and I had to make a crochet pattern for it right away. Meet my first fish amigurumi, clownfish!

During the holidays, we watched BBC’s Blue Planet II, which is such an amazing series about our oceans and the depth of them, literally and figuratively. There are so many amazing and intelligent creatures living in our seas and I believe series like Blue Planet are crucial to make people aware of how important nature is and that we should protect it and value the animals that live there.

The whole series is fabulous but I particularly enjoyed a piece about the saddleback clownfish. I was struck by the sheer beauty and intelligence of this little anemone fish and wanted to ‘have’ one right away. Not a real one of course, but a crochet version. I am so grateful of being able to create realistic looking animals in crochet, because that makes it possible to hold a cuddly fish a week later.

Clownfish are gorgeous fish with their special colours and unusual fins. I’ve always loved the orange version but this saddleback stole my heart. Of course I was going to make a saddleback, but it would be a pity to stop there, so I made a normal clownfish amigurumi pattern too. From a fast perspective, the clownfish and saddleback seem only to differ by their colours. But when you take a closer look, it is not just the colours that are different, but also the shape of the coloured lines. I had to make two different patterns altogether. What make these amigurumi fish extra special, they can stand by themselves. Clownfish have very striking ventral fins, that function perfectly as little arms to balance the crochet clownfish. Look at how they stand all proud in the first picture.

With this crochet clownfish pattern, you can make two about life-size fish, a normal clownfish and a saddleback. They are 4,3 inch /11 cm long, when made with worsted weight yarn and hook E / 3.5. The patterns are written colour coded to make changing colour as easy as possible and contain a clear description of how to assemble the fish, with extra illustrations and example pictures at the bottom. In the pattern you can also find what materials you need, the yarn colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make your own clownfish amigurumis.

All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings. You can buy this pattern in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here. This pattern costs $ 4.99 and has a one dollar release discount till Monday the 21st of Januari, so get your copy for $ 3.99 before it is too late!