And a Lion!

Latest animal I've been asked to make...a lion for a 1-yr old girl named Halliday.  Made in bright yellows/oranges.  I looked around the net for images of crocheted lions, but didn't find one that I liked so thought I'd go freehand.  Oh dear...how am I going to make the mane?  Well, I started out by fur-stitch crocheting a cap to cover the head, but it was still looking strange....cute, but strange (showed a pic to a friend and was told it looked like a weird Simpsons character).

Ahh, I've got it...the mane needs to extend down around and under the chin!  Problem solved.  Very happy with how this turned out!

Love running my fingers through that luxurious mane!  Loved making this so much I've since made another 3!

Expanding My Repertoire With Amikirin

After a few orders for different character cats and monkeys, I was asked to make a giraffe in anticipation of a friend's newborn baby.  We didn't know what sex the baby would be but decided on a yellow giraffe with a green feature.  A lot of crocheting and frogging (unravelling your crochet stitches when you make a mistake) later, I finished! I made short chunky arms, legs and tail and green spots for something a bit different and am so pleased with the final result.  Who knew that Giraffe = Kirin in Japanese?  Say hello to Amikirin!

Supercat and Batcat

Here are a pair of Amineko made for a pair of young brothers for Christmas.  Having made a Supercat before, I knew it could be done again, though this time I had the challenge of trying to make a Batcat.  I made these for the grandsons of a friend of my mother's, so the brief was for any well-known superheroes, they just had to be different ones.

I thought about Ironman, the Incredible Hulk, Flash Gordon, Spiderman but chose what I thought would be the easiest to recognise.  I was really happy with how Supercat had turned out the first time I'd made him, and this time around I was even more impressed with Batcat!  He's adorable if I may say so myself!

Christmas Madness

Well surprisingly I've been inundated with Christmas orders so I've been furiously working away in my spare time trying to get all the bits crocheted up and ready to put together.  I've got some REAL cats to try and match this time, so again, am being challenged to see what I can come up with....love it!

From left to right:
Princess (charcoal cat), Jellicle (tortoiseshell), Megsy (orange and white tabby)

Closer detail of Jellicle.  I predominantly used black wool flecked with brown and white, with random patches of white, orange, black nd brown wools.  Apologies for the dark pic, I'll post a better one when they're finished!

Some of my Christmas orders...amongst this mess are bits of Jimmy Monkey (Amisaru being made to match the photo of Jimmy Monkey), Batman Amineko, Princess, Jellicle and Megsy...I have more than 10 on the go all at the same time!!

A Gorilla Amigurumi I made a few months back as a one-off.

Check out these cuties

Here are more pics of Amineko/Aminekos/Amineki (just exactly what IS the plural of Amineko??) enjoying the sunshine...



Trio of ballerinas

 

Sisters




Melbourne Demons Amineko (an Aussie Rules football team.  AFL is extremely popular in Melbourne and one of the first question's recent migrants to Melbourne receive is, "Which team do you go for?"  It doesn't matter what reason you have for choosing a team, you absolutely MUST choose one before Melburnians accept you into their fold!!  Strange but true!



Oooops, maybe had one beer too many at the footy



Bathing beauty





Just hangin' around



Amisaru family!



Amineko family!



All together now!

It's Only The Beginning

When I was a child my mum used to crochet us scarves for the winter, with little tassels on the ends.  I used to watch her crocheting and beg her to teach me (my dream at that tender age was to one day make my own tassels!).  I vaguely remember her always trying to put me off, but I was persistent and stubborn so one day she taught me how to chain stitch.  She had a little test for me...If I could crochet a chain then unravel it cleanly without the wool getting caught up in itself, she would teach me how to crochet!

What a task!  With great pride I would diligently chain, then try to pull it out.  Time after time it would get caught up in itself and even when I thought I'd finally gotten it, I'd proudly present the chain to my mum and she would pull the end, only for it to always get tangled and stuck.  She refused to teach me the next step in crocheting until I passed that test.

I finally taught myself how to crochet from a couple of craft books that my dad had bought for me (no YouTube back in those days!) and promptly stopped crocheting.  I never did make that scarf with tassels.

I picked up crocheting again in Year 8, making a few shoulder bags with the aim of selling them to friends.  I sold a grand total of 2 and that was the end of my crocheting career.  Throughout high school I dabbled in making the odd crochet lace square or circle but never really finished anything.

After years of being busy with full-time work and other hobbies, I started getting the urge to get back into craft again.  I stumbled across sock monkeys and tried my hand at making some using stripey socks.  I was a bit too ambitious as I had trouble getting my stripes to line up and had problems with my sewing machine's tension wheel.  I managed to finish one, but didn't enjoy the process.  Sewing just wasn't to be my thing. 

Whilst flicking through a Lincraft catalogue (loooove junk mail), I came across a book called "Hello My Name Is Amineko" by Nekoyama.  Nekoyama published her Amineko Life book in Japan in 2005 but it wasn't until 2010 that it was translated and released in English.  This book, for me, was the beginning.....