I have my husband to thank for getting me to start crocheting.  We were living in Germany at the time and I didn’t have a job (Ich spreche kein Deutsch), and while I did have school work and a bit of volunteering, I had some time on my hands.  I explored a few new things, such as bread making, blogging, and knitting.  My first experiences using yarn were through knitting, but it didn’t quite take.  At the time there weren’t any projects that really inspired me (I thought all you could make were garments).

Then one day my husband and I were travelling somewhere in Europe and we came across a little gift shop with really cute handmade stuffed animals.  I can’t even remember if they were sewn, crocheted, or knit, but I liked them.  I was willing to buy one, but then my husband said, as he often does, “You can make that.”  My husband is pretty thrifty and prefers not to spend money, so he often has the idea that he can make most things instead of buying them and save money.  Usually that never actually happens and we just don’t have whatever it was we were looking at, but this time I acted on his wisdom 😛

When we got home from our travels I started looking into making cute handmade animals and I guess I stumbled across amigurumi, because soon after I ordered The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amigurumi by June Gilbank on my iPad and went shopping for a hook.

I love this book.  If you are new to amigurumi I highly highly highly recommend it.  June is an awesome instructor for beginners.  Not only does she have a ton of information in her book, but June also has additional tutorials and videos on her website (check them out!).

The very first amigurumi I made was a hamster from June’s book. While my magic ring was a little bumpy, I was able to finish him and enjoyed the whole process.  I made a few more hamsters, then moved on to the tiny whale and acorn on June’s website.  I still have these guys, which you can see below.  I didn’t have plastic safety eyes at the time so the acorn looks a little evil, but I still think they are cute! Soon after I was branching out to new designers, creating all sorts of little guys.

Then came the day I wanted to make something I could not find a pattern for: a sea urchin. A good friend of mine was pregnant and I wanted to make her new baby a stuffed toy sea urchin because she had studied them for her PhD. So, my first original amigurumi design was made!  My friend still has it today, in amongst her son’s other toys.

After that I still made amigurumi from other designers’ patterns, but if ever I wanted to crochet something a little different, I just made it up myself.

And that is how it all started!  From a little hamster to my own hookabee designs, all thanks to my husband’s words “You can make that” 🙂

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Until next time,