Stuffing & shaping, Tips & Tricks

Stuffing and shaping

Sonja

In this post I’m going to explain the importance of stuffing and shaping amigurumi. Because if you do this carefully, it can make a lot of difference to the end result.

Let’s start with stuffing. When I stuff a crochet animal head, I start by putting in a piece of fiberfill, from which I know it’ll cover the inside of the head, but isn’t yet enough to fill the complete head. When the fiberfill is inside, I push it outwards, so all sides now are covered with a layer of fiberfill. That leaves a hole in the filling. Carefully I add more fiberfill in the remaining hole, still pushing it a little outwards till the entire head it stuffed. If you want a piece to stay in a certain shape, stuff it tighter. And also keep in mind the stuffing will ‘shrink’ a bit after some time so always use enough. I stuff heads a bit more firm than bodies.

Now the shaping part.

stuffing amigurumi

While stuffing, I also shape. To illustrate this, I’ve used the fox and wolf heads as an example. Their basic shape is the same, only the wolf has bigger cheeks. The stitches are different at the chin of the wolf, but that doesn’t matter for what I’m trying to explain. What I mean is, you can make a round shape round like a ball, but that same shape, you can also make flatter. The wolf needed to have a wider, less rounder shape. So, while stuffing, I made sure the cheeks stood out and I also made the head flatter by pushing the stuffing more to the sides and pinching the head a bit flatter, so it wouldn’t be round. You can see that in the image. I keep everything a bit soft but firm, it should never feel hard. The wolf I stuffed firmer than the fox, because I shaped the head.

This is the way I do it and it seemed useful to explain here.

Have fun crocheting.

 

Chit and Chat

Sorry for the confusion…

Sonja

My header and blog icon has changed again. There are a few reasons for that change.

First of all, I missed my happy cat! Another important reason is, when I started using Flam the fox as my ‘logo’,  it didn’t feel right. Suddenly I realized that having a neutral icon is better than an existing doll. Especially when someone bought a Flam the fox pattern, it made me doubt my decision.

Also, I got some feedback form people whose opinion I value, who liked the cat better.

The funny thing is, I had to make the change before I realized this, because I was convinced I needed and existing doll as icon. Now it’s all good.

Thanks for understanding this silliness.

p.s. The sheep head is finished and he’s all cuddly, hehe.

 

Chit and Chat

Sheepke

Sonja

SheepThe next animal I will make in crochet is a sheep. Fits spring I think. I’ve made a simple sketch of how the sheep should look, but some things I have to decide while making him. Like will the head have wool on it and also will the arms and legs have wool on them? I’m not sure yet, looks good in the sketch but I’m not sure it will also look good on the actual doll. So that’ll be a surprise 🙂

I hope I’ll have him finished in about two weeks. Past week I was working on my Sons Popkes business card, something I didn’t have yet. The card gave me more trouble than I expected, because I had a hard time deciding which one to use….I made a few. I now have an email signature card with Flam on it, like my blog icon. My Dutch card has an image of Finse on it and the international card has Trin on it.

The card is finished now so I can put my full attention back to crocheting. I’m back here later this week with a post about shaping amigurumi’s.

 

Chit and Chat

Some changes

Sonja

When I started Son’s Popkes, I hadn’t designed that much crochet patterns yet, but I wanted a cheerful header with ‘popkes’ in it. I made some illustrations of dolls I had made and one of a doll I was sure I was going to make. The cat that was. But I’ve never made such a cat and don’t feel like making that one either….

I think it’s better to only have illustrations in my header of dolls I’ve actually made, and now I had enough to do so. Especially Finse needed to be in it. Because the cat is out of the header now, it was strange to keep him as blog icon, so I choose another appropriate doll for that, and Flam is now my new blog icon.

It does feels a bit strange to remove my happy cat. I associated him with my bog….I’ve always known I was going to do it, but still. I can always change it back….

Here’s a little image to remember him.

Cat

Chit and Chat

Follow the fox

Sonja

cam2-0105For all of you who love foxes:

A webcam positioned in a fox burrow. These foxes live in the Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands. It’s a natural area with wetlands and open fields etc. The foxes have cubs and you can see them laying in front of the webcam. You can also hear their sweet little voices. I think it’s an awesome project and it is very interesting to take a peak in the burrow.

The image you see is one of the cubs from two years ago. Follow Flam’s brothers and sisters! (I hope this camera can be viewed international….)

Hurray, it is finally spring!

p.s. My next project will be a sheep or a squirrel, I have to decide which one will be the first. More about that later this week.

Patterns

New Teddy images

Sonja

My crochet teddy bear is one of the first crochet patterns I designed. Back then I didn’t create a little studio for photographing my dolls and because of that I never had images of Teddy like the ones I make now.

So, I decided to take some new and better images of Teddy.

grizzly bear

Teddy-2

Because my old Teddy bear pictures are ‘high ranking’ in google search, I can’t, dare to replace them, even though I like these better.

This bear will always be very special to me. He’s very photogenic and has this funny expression which I adore.

You can find the original teddy post here, and the pattern is for sale here or via direct order.

 

Chit and Chat

A pile of popkes

Sonja

Son's Popkes

I opened a Twitter account and of course, needed to customize my home page. A picture of a pile of popkes seemed like a nice header. Oops, I left out the lop rabbits, stupid! They where standing right behind me on a chest…..

A while back, I also opened a twitter account, but deleted it shortly after because, well because I only had 2 followers. I was afraid to become the loneliest tweeter in the world. I’m not really the tweeting kind and wasn’t going to interact that much. Still feel that way, but I did want to ‘own’ the @SonsPopkes, because who knows what happens in the future. I will try to become a bit more social and tweet. I’ll see what happens.

Oh, I haven’t tweeted yet, but I will soon, promise!

 

Patterns

Chief, crochet wolf pattern

Sonja

A broader chest and cheeks, a more rugged, shaggy look. Chief has become a real crochet wolf character. He’s now the leader of my forest friends. (They are friends you know, they don’t eat each other.)

Meet Chief, my sturdy crochet wolf amigurumi. Buy now – directly from me 🐱

crochet wolf pattern, wolf amigurumi, haakpatroon wolf

I wrote in my last post that it was a little strange to make him, because of the similarities to Flam the fox. But I’m satisfied with Chief. He looks like a woolen little wolf doll and looks very different than the fox.

The crochet wolf has bigger cheeks because the head is wider at the bottom. Also, the light colour of the bottom of the head accentuates those cheeks. Chief’s muzzle is shaped different and points a bit downwards. His body and limbs are bigger and his tail is less pointy. That is what makes him wolf-ish. And Chief has a very sturdy accessory, a flat triangular shaped scarf, like a little cape. It makes him look very cool.

Here are some more pictures and without a scarf, this crochet wolf looks almost just as sturdy.

Chief is 6 inch/ 15 cm when sitting. He’s made with 100% wool (a worsted weight yarn). The same kind I always use, from Lett Lopi.

The pattern is written in standard American crochet terms and contains a clear and colour coded description of how to crochet and assemble the animal with example pictures next to the instructions and at the bottom. In the pattern you can also find what materials you need, the Lopi colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make this unique crochet animal. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings.

This pattern is for sale in my Ravelry shop, Etsy shop and you can also order it directly from me with the link below.

This pattern has a permanent discount if you use this link. Patterns purchased directly from me cost 5,00 eur. I will have to email the pattern manually so it can take a bit longer, but I promise, you’ll have it in a day. If not, check your spam and if it is not there either, message me to wake me up, as I might have fallen asleep or something…

Have fun making this friendly wolf!

Chit and Chat

Wolf

Sonja

Wolf-sketch

Because I wanted Finse to be the top post of my blog for a while, I didn’t post the wolf sketch. But now I only have to finish a few loose ends of the wolf so this seemed the right moment to post the sketch. The wolf is almost ready, needs to be photographed and I have to finish writing the pattern.

It was a bit different to make this wolf, because he’s a bit similar to the fox and I was afraid he would become too much like him. At some point I doubted to make him at all. But because I adored wolfs when I was a teenager and got some request for a wolf pattern, I decided I had to make him anyway. My goal was the make a ‘doll-ish’ wolf like the fox but with wolf proportions. I’ll tell more about him soon!