Super Cute

by Annie Obaachan

Amigurumi is the hot new crochet-knitting craze from Japan, which is taking the world by storm. Using the Japanese double ring technique, avid knitters are producing these quirky cuddly toys in their hundreds. The only rule is that they must be small, and they must be cute!!! With this gorgeous collection of amigurumi designs you can create a unique menagerie of lovable knitted animals, ideal as gifts for your friends and family. The book features the basic techniques for assembling your animal, step-by-step photographs and a projects section with 25 imaginative designs to try. The unique projects unbearably cute teddies, puppies and kittens, pandas and penguins, bats and things with wings, creepy crawlies and sea creatures. Anyone can master amigurumi, and there are no limits to what you can create. Grab some yarn and crochet hooks, get comfortable by the fire and start making your own little world. About the author Annie Obaachan is passionate about amigurumi and all things crochet. She graduated from Bunka Fashion College, Tokyo, in 2003. She has worked at several knitting companies and has contributed to many major craft books including Knitorama and Hookarama. Her first solo book was Amigurumi. Annie lives in Japan.

Genres: Crochet, Crafts, Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2009

Reviews

[R Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

The animals are really cute but I think someone’s stuffed up the (?translation) instructions. My budgie wing seems to be missing repeat marks

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

As promised, most of these amigurumi animals are really adorable. Each pattern includes textual instructions along with the spiral diagrams. The instructions are pretty easy to follow, and there's advice about the sort of wool to get and the size of hook to use. Irritatingly, there isn't anything on how much yarn each critter uses, but probably not more than a ball, definitely not more than two balls.

It has a section on the stitches involved, with pretty good diagrams, and a section on how to design your own critters. Looking forward to making a couple of these.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book because of the variety of different amigurumi animals in it. I'm glad I got it on sale since the directions in them are somewhat difficult to follow as they are written. I'm fairly new (as in crocheting animals for less than 6 months), and when I follow the written directions or the charts it is confusing since the numbers just don't add up right sometimes.

I have found that with a little creativity and looking at the diagrams those sticky parts get a lot easier. So far I've only had the time to work through one of the patterns, the "budgie", and it has turned out really, really cute. Granted I had to fake the directions for the wings and lower half of the body, but it looks nearly like the picture!

If you are a beginner and pick up this book, don't get discouraged. With just a little experience with other patterns it is possible to use a few tricks to get it to come out right. And, there are a few tricks you'll pick up along the way, such as skipping a stitch instead of decreasing to make an area smaller.

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are several cute animals here, but I wouldn't call many of them super-cute.
As with other amigurumi, some have very large heads with little or no body (the so-called Cute Kitten). I liked the gray rat, the Crazy Cat, the tortoise, the horse, the elephant & the panda.
Very few show a picture of anything but the front view, even when there are 3 pictures. Several animals which have tails aren't given them here. I know these aren't meant to be realistic depictions, but leaving off tails doesn't seem right.
Instructions give hook size (3mm) and color of yarn, but not type of yarn (baby-weight?, sport-weight?) No idea of finished size or amount of yarn needed. No instructions on embroidery, expecially nothing on how to hide the ends of black facial markings in a white animal so they won't pull out.
I'm glad I got this from the library.

[Christen · Rating 3 out of 5]

These come out a little bigger than I expected, I altered the pattern to make them smaller. Good directions though.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love 'em and enjoy creating 'em!

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great selection of adorable crocheted animals.

[Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't started a priject from this book yet but it looks as amazing as her other book. SO excited to start.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to the basic techniques.

[Elnora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute kitten
Crazy kitten
Slither snake
Baby panda