So what is an ‘Amigurumi’???

According to Wikipedia, the word “amigurumi” is derived from a combination of the Japanese words; "ami", meaning crocheted or knitted, and "nuigurumi", meaning stuffed doll.


Amigurumi are usually crocheted in the round, using a single crochet stitch, although they can be knitted as well. Typically, they are crocheted very tightly, often with a smaller than usual hook for the yarn, so that they can be firmly stuffed. A popular style of amigurumi features a large head with a much smaller body and limbs.


I must admit I had never heard of this term before we started selling on Etsy. Sue has been making crocheted, stuffed critters for many years. But as we learned about them, we realized that Whosits fit the amigurumi definition, so we started using the term to describe and tag our creations.


Per Wikipedia, by 2006 amigurumi were the most popular item sold on Etsy!

Eileen...

Whosit in the Making - Part 5 - What's in a Name?

One more thing to do for the little dog - she needs a name!  Her greeness is her most striking feature to me, so I was playing around with things related to "forest" or "tree" or "green" itself.  One very fun place to play with names is babynames.com (if you use the advanced search, you can look for names by meaning).  Some girly green names I liked were:

• Midori - Japanese for green
• Silvana - Latin for forest
• Ilana - Hebrew origin, meaning tree

But I think I'm going to call her Emerald (or Em for short).  She seems to be in agreement with me on that one!

Whosit in the Making - Part 4 - She's Here!

The little puppy is finally done!  I love making the faces best, because that's when the little critters seem to come to life!  I like to use a lot of heavy satin stitching for the eyes to really build them up.  I usually prefer to embroider yarn eyes, rather than using plastic safety eyes or beads, but I've seen some really engaging faces made on crochet animals with both of these.   I also use a little bit of "needle sculpting" -- moving the yarn back and forth through the crochet and stuffing and pulling it tight to shape the face.  I like to "ident" between the eyes, underneath the bridge of the nose to help create eye sockets.  Another tip -- I stuff the nose with black yarn instead of stuffing, so no white shows through.  :)

Picasa and her new cousin finally get to meet, nose to nose!