How to: crochet amigurumi

Hey everybody, this is just a quick one today. I wanted to share a document with you all of some hints and tips that are necessary for creating amigurumi. I've attached a link for a google drive document (it's a pdf) with pictures, information, and some links that may be useful. It also has some directions on how to use ravelry and searching for patterns and saving them for later.

Here's the link:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B-MLDmz4KulwMGRicXdWRzk3MHc/edit

If anyone has any questions or problems, just leave a comment below.

Crochet Chirpy Bird Tutorial

Look at this adorable little fella! Isn't he just so cute? I named him Chirpy Bird because he's so pudgy and cute, and looking at him makes me feel happy due to his lovely, bright colours.

Chirpy Bird!

Make your own little amigurumi cute bird with this free pattern below. The pattern makes up a bird about 4" tall and 5" wide. Post your bird in the comments!

(Update: I've just amended the typo error for the legs in the pattern.) 

Check out this Ravelry link to find a pdf of this pattern.

Details

·         3.5mm hook

·         Small amounts of Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo

o   4 colours for body

o   Orange for feet

o   Yellow for beak

·         9mm safety eyes

·         Toy stuffing

·         Tapestry needle

# ‘inc’ = 2 sc in one stitch

# ‘dec’ – decrease across next two stitches

Tips
For the joining of colours, you may want to check out this video by June Gilbank of Perfect Stripes for Amigurumi (YouTube). It creates a nice and easy seamless join.
For the decreases I like to use the method displayed by Nerdigurumi that creates an Invisible Decrease (YouTube). It really does create an invisible decrease that is hard to spot.

Body

Each row is an increase of 6. For each line, 1 sc is added between the inc’s in order to add 6 per round. Usually a pattern would read *1 sc, inc*; *2 sc, inc*; *3 sc, inc*; and so on, but I have split up the even rounds to avoid that hexagonal shape that forms when the inc’s are stacked round by round.

Overview: Increase by 6 stitches for the first 12 rounds. Sc around for the next 12 rounds. Decrease by 6 stitches for the last 12 rounds.

Note: when changing colours, make sure to tie the loose ends as you go. I simply double knotted my loose ends together across the back.

In Pink:

1. 6 sc in a magic ring [6]

2. Inc around [12]

3. *1 sc, inc* around[18]

Change to Blue:

4. 1 sc, *inc, 2 sc* around, 1 sc [24]

5. *3 sc, inc* around [30]

6. 2 sc, *inc, 4 sc* around, 2 sc [36]

Change to White:

7. *5 sc, inc* around [42]

8. 3 sc, *inc, 6 sc* around, 3 sc [48]

9. *7 sc, inc* around [54]

Change to Green:

10. 4 sc, *inc, 8 sc* around, 4 sc [60]

11. *9 sc, inc* around [66]

12. 5 sc, *inc, 10 sc* around, 5 sc[72]

Change to Pink:

13 – 15. Sc

Change to Blue:

16 – 18. Sc

Pause here to insert the safety eyes on the row between the Pink and the Blue.

Change to White:

19 – 21. Sc

Change to Green:

22 – 24. Sc

Change to Pink:

25. 5 sc, *dec, 10 sc* around, 5 sc [66]

26. *9 sc, dec* around [60]

27. 4 sc, *dec, 8 sc* around, 4 sc [54]

Change to Blue:

28. *7 sc, dec* around [48]

29. 3 sc, *dec, 6 sc* around, 3 sc [42]

30. *5 sc, dec* around [36]

Change to White:

31. 2 sc, *dec, 4 sc* around, 2 sc [30]

32. *3 sc, dec* around [24]

Pause here to stuff the body with toy stuffing.

33. 1 sc, *dec, 2 sc* around, 1 sc [18]

Change to Green:

34. *1 sc, dec* around [12]

35. dec around [6]

36. Cut yarn, thread needle, and sew up end. Tie up.

Beak

Here we create a circle that we will fold into a semi-circle and use, when stuffed, as the beak.

In Yellow:

1. 6 sc in a magic ring [6]

2. Inc around [12]

3. *1 sc, inc* around[18]

4. 1 sc, *inc, 2 sc* around, 1 sc [24]

5. *3 sc, inc* around [30]

Cut yarn, leaving a long tail. Fold the circle in half and begin to sew the two edges together. This should start to create a semi-circle. Stuff the beak lightly when ¾ of the seam has been sewn. Once complete, use the long tail to sew the beak to the body. Sew the flat side of the semi-circle to the row between the Blue and White colour-change on the body. This is the halfway point of the body.

Wings

Note: when changing colours, make sure to tie the loose ends as you go. I simply double knotted my loose ends together across the back.

In Pink:

1. 6 sc in a magic ring [6]

2. Inc around [12]

3. *1 sc, inc* around[18]

Change to Blue:

4. 1 sc, *inc, 2 sc* around, 1 sc [24]

5. *3 sc, inc* around [30]

6. 2 sc, *inc, 4 sc* around, 2 sc [36]

Change to White:

7 – 9. Sc around

Change to Green:

10 – 12. Sc around

Cut yarn, leaving a long tail. Flatten the piece, do not stuff. Sew the wings onto each side of the body on the same row that the eyes are attached. When sewing across, make sure to include both sides of the green wing to avoid any holes.

Legs

In the body, we staggered the inc’s and dec’s in order to avoid the stacking that creates the hexagon shape. For the feet, we want that hexagonal shape so we will purposefully stack the inc’s and dec’s.

In Orange:

1. 6 sc in a magic ring [6]

2. Inc around [12]

3. *1 sc, inc* around[18]

4. *2 sc, inc* around [24]

5. *2 sc, dec* around [24]

6. *1 sc, dec* around [12]

7. dec around [6]

8-11. sc around

Cut yarn, leaving a long tail. To shape the feet, push the base of the foot towards the leg – this should create a flat, hexagonal foot shape. Do not stuff. Attach the legs to the row between the pink and blue stripes. Line up the legs so that they are the midpoint between the eyes and wings on each side. 

And there you go! You've made your very own Chirpy Bird!

Enjoy!

Eat That Frog! How to get organised

Hey guys, I'm posting about being organised today - another big part of my life! Recently I bought a book called 'Eat That Frog', and the idea behind the title is this: all your tasks that you have to do are 'frogs', and a phrase that's mentioned in this book is: "if you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first". Basically, this means, if you have more than one important task that you must get done, do the hardest, most difficult one first. Then, when it comes to the next task, the worst is over and you can feel good about your accomplishment. Great, right?

I won't give too much away about this book, because I'm sure I'll get into trouble about giving away ideas from a book you have to pay for. What I will say, is that certain things inspired me to create a way of getting organised: making specific lists!

I printed out some of these free printables from Organised Home and used them to make my lists. What I have done is make four lists: my Master list, my Monthly list, my Weekly list, and my Daily list. I used the lined blank pages for these lists. You can just use scrap paper if you like, but I already had these printed out, so I thought I'd use them.

I start off by writing everything done on the Master and Monthly lists. This is things like "sort out what career I want to do after uni", "sort out my dissertation topic" (I'm a uni student). On my Monthly list I have things like my exam dates, and the essay deadlines, as well as any things that I can think of that need to be done in that month. (I don't include things such as bills to pay, as that is ongoing and repeated every month, so I have a separate calendar printable for that). I then turn to the Weekly list, and add some things from the Master and Monthly - so, you get a bit of an overlap on the lists of certain tasks - which are tasks such as any appointments I have that week, or that I need to pick up my new glasses. Finally I created a Daily list, the day before it is needed by - so, on Tuesday I write my list for Wednesday, and so on. The Daily list has all the trivial things on it, such as "do the laundry", "post X's birthday card" and so on. 

Here's a photo of my papers. I purposefully took the photo from far away so you can't be nosey and read what I've written on my lists!

These lists really help, and as you can see, my daily one is pretty crossed-out! One other thing: don't ever feel bad if there are things on your list at the end of the day. You can always write it on your next Daily list. And don't forget, you can always add things on during the day, you don't have to panic and think that you have to remember everything you need to do tomorrow when writing your Daily list.

So now, if you incorporate these lists with what I learnt from one of the chapters in the book - eat that frog! Look at your Daily list, and see which task is the biggest, meanest, most horrible task, and do it! Obviously, if you have time contraints, like you have to call your bank before it shuts, do so, but in general, do the hardest task first. For me, that's usually my uni work. I will take doing housework over uni reading any day! So, applying this rule, I sat down and wrote an essay plan and got it finished. I felt really good about it, and then carried on my evening by doing all my other tasks. Usually, I do every other task possible before I get to my least favourite, with the thought that "but I've been doing a lot of things today, I can do that one later" - but then later gets too late, and I have to transfer that task over to the next day, where the same thing repeats. That way, I end up leaving an important task until really late, and then rushing it, stressing, and not have it done properly. If I do things this way, my essays will be done on time relatively stress-free.

This method can be applied to any person: whether you're a businessperson and you have a lot of important paperwork and deadlines, whether you're a housewife and have lots of housework, appointments, and children to deal with, or whether you're a student like me, and you have essays and reading to do. This method works really well for me, and I hope it works well for others. I have my papers sat on my desk (purposefully in the way) so I remember to consult them throughout the day to remind myself of what tasks I have to do.

Also, two other pointers:

I use this application called Stay Focused. It's an add-on for Google Chrome, and you can change all the settings so that it blocks you from certain websites for certain times. You can set it so that you can't go on Blogger or Facebook during work hours, or set it so that you can only go on it for 20minutes a day. It's up to you. It works great - during the day, when I'm supposed to be 'eating my frog', I tend to procrastinate and go on Facebook, or check my email about a dozen times. With this, I can stop myself from doing that all day, so I have more of a chance of staying focused.

And finally, my last tip. When I have to settle down and do my work, I find other things to do such as tidy my room until it is immaculate, or find something, such as my magazines, that need to be alphabetised right then, and the task seems so important I forget about my essays. What I've started to do, is to open up YouTube, and pick a song that I really like at the minute, and tell myself that I only have that much time to tidy up. That way I run around my room for around 4mins30, tidying up only the most important things, so that a) I have the 'tidying up' urge out of my system, b) my room is relatively tidy so I have space at my desk to sit down and do my work, and c) I don't spend an hour looking through my CDs.

This way, I manage to keep my procrastination down to a minimum (because I usually put the 'pro' into 'procrastination'), and manage to get around to doing most of my work without feeling stressed!

So there you have it. My organising tips. Quite a lot in one post. I felt that this was more of a pressing post than my knitting, because the only knitting that I have been doing recently is a scarf for Mother's Day, so it would have been a very short post, just like my scarf!

Until next time.