This must be the most challenging pattern I’ve ever designed. I proudly present to you Flisby, the amigurumi kingfisher!
Birds are slowly becoming part of the collection of crochet animal patterns I’ve designed. Because birds aren’t fluffy and cuddly, they somehow often miss my attention. Only the ones that are very dear to me make it into a crochet pattern. The kingfisher is an example of that. For the last few years I’ve been doing volunteer work as a fieldworker, basically I’m tracking animals so that the local wildlife organisations can map what lives where, to protect the animals and, for example, to create save passageways underneath roads, etc. I started in a badger team, but this year I expanded my work by collecting otter spraints (scat) for DNA analyses. That’s when I stumbled upon beaver tracks in an area they had not been seen before (it was fabulous, imagine how excited I was!). That of course led to a search for the beaver’s home, and that brings me back to the kingfisher. Practically every time I was following the beaver’s trail, which was an amazing adventure, I heard or saw a gorgeous kingfisher. They are birds of an exceptional beauty, and you always hear their cheerful shrieks before you see them flash by. I’ve been fortunate to see one sitting down a few times, and I was surprised by how small they actually are. Somehow I made them bigger in my mind because they are so beautiful.
So then came the challenge to create a crochet version. How was I going to mix realism and my doll-ish style in a little crochet bird? I started with designing the bill, which had to be as small and pointed as possible. If I got the bill right, I basically knew the size for the rest of the bird. I had in mind to make the kingfisher in one piece, so a seamless bill, head and body. But when I made the bill seamless, the shape was all wrong, way too flat. And when I finished the head with all the colour changes in the right place, I crocheted ahead to make the body, but I couldn’t get the shape right. So I started a new body, from the bottom up. When all the pieces where finished, I decided to keep it like this. I liked the seam between the head and body, the versions I had that were made in one piece looked stiff. My crochet animals must look playful, and for a bird that’s more difficult than a mammal. I think I managed to add a bit of doll-style in how I designed the feet and wings. Of course real birds have tiny feet, so I could have used a different material to create realistic feet, but I love the features of crochet, so I made the smallest possible, cute little bobble stitch feet. It gives Flisby the right personality, it makes him a Popke!
I could write so much more about this process, about how difficult it was to choose the right colours and the effort to create the perfect colour changes. All I’ll say is, I really love my little kingfisher. I love how the embroidered spots create that glowing shine of feathers, and I also love how this crochet kingfisher is about life-size when he’s made with the yarn I used, how about that! Here are some more pictures of Flisby, and below them you can find all the info you need about this pattern.
Info about & links to buy the pattern
This realistic crochet kingfisher is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. He is 4.3 inch / 11 cm tall when made with this yarn. Despite the many colour changes for the head, this isn’t a very difficult pattern to crochet, as long as you follow the instructions to the letter and untangle your skeins after every round. The spots on the head and wings are easy enough to embroider because of the way they are placed. Assembling the animal and getting all the pieces in the right place will require some skill, but I guide you with the text and images in the pattern. As long as you take your time, you can make yourself a gorgeous little bird, I’m sure!
The pattern contains a clear and colour-coded description of how to crochet and assemble this animal, 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 kingfisher amigurumi. 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 has a one dollar release discount till Thursday the 21st of May!
sonspopkes.com 
prachtig!!!!