A Quickstart Guide to Amigurumi
I started learning how to crochet in June 2021. I had been seeing people making their own crochet stuffed animals and I wanted to be able to do that too. So, I sat down and taught myself how to crochet and fell in love with it. I joined Facebook groups to ask questions, and gradually my creations started to look better and better. Now I’m one of the people on the Facebook group that answers the questions that others have. One of the most common questions I see is “where do I start?” So, I’m creating this quickstart guide to amigurumi to help others who want to learn and not be overwhelmed by all there is to learn.
Materials
To get started with amigurumi, you need a few materials and tools. You will need:
Yarn
Hooks
Stitch markers
Yarn needle
Safety eyes (optional and not recommended for toys that will go to children under 3)
I recommend not investing too much money into these items right away in case you decide that you don’t want to continue with crochet. There are reasonably priced sets on amazon like this one that includes hooks, stitch markers, and yarn needles for only $16.99.
There are a lot of different types of stitch markers, but I prefer to use the locking ones. I used to have ones that were just little loops, but they always fell off and I’d lose my place in a project and have to start over. With the locking ones, I can put my project in my travel bag and not worry about the stitch marker falling out.
Yarn can be tricky. Yarn comes in a lot of different materials, thicknesses, and brands. For beginners, I always recommend starting with a worsted weight (size 4) acrylic yarn. I recommend this because it’s typically cheaper than other yarn types and many people have a hard time seeing their stitches when they start out using a plush yarn. Something confusing about yarn sizes is that even though two yarns say that they’re size 4, they can be very different in thickness. Thickness can even vary in the same brand, but typically the brands are pretty consistent. I recommend buying yarn from one brand just to get started. A general rule is that you want to go down two hook sizes from what the yarn label suggests when doing amigurumi. For example, if the label says to use a 5 mm then you want to use a 4 mm hook at the largest. 3.5 mm hooks are my favorite to use with worsted weight yarn. If you live in the US, some good brands to get started are Red Heart Super Saver (found at most local craft stores), Big Twist (found at joann), I Love This Yarn (found at hobby lobby), Loops & Threads (found at Michael's), or even the Just Yarn from the Dollar Tree.
Safety eyes are a common item used in amigurumi, but they aren’t required. There are many ways to create eyes for your items such as felt eyes, crocheted eyes, and embroidered eyes. But if you want to buy safety eyes, they can be purchased in sets from amazon or you can get more specialty ones from etsy. Please be aware that the use of safety eyes in toys that will be going to children under 3 is not recommended as they can be a choking hazard.
Kits
Kits can be a great way to start learning how to do amigurumi. They come with both patterns and the supplies you need to create them. However, I think there are a lot of bad kits out there that will give you poor quality materials and confusing instructions. Before buying any kit, I recommend you read the reviews to make sure you aren’t buying one of the low quality ones. Woobles kits are some of the most popular. They’re on the pricier side, but they have high quality materials and good instructions. They also have free video instructions that come with the kits, which makes it much easier to follow along. If you don’t want to buy the kits, they also have a book full of patterns that is available on amazon, and even a free pattern published online to get you started. You can find the free penguin pattern here.
US Terms vs. UK Terms
There are two common ways that patterns in English are written. They are either in US terms or in UK terms. The table below will show the different terms. They’re the same stitches, just a different word for it. In the table below I’ve included some of the most common stitches and abbreviations that are used in making amigurumi. Pattern designers will use different abbreviations depending on how they learned but I’ve included the most common abbreviations below. At the beginning of most patterns will be a section that says what the abbreviations in their patterns mean.
Technique
To get started with amigurumi, you will typically only need a handful of stitches and techniques to complete it. These will most often include the magic ring (sometimes called magic circle), chain, slip stitch, single crochet (double crochet in UK terms), increase, invisible decrease, and single crochet 2 together (also called a decrease). YouTube is a great place to search for videos on how to do these different stitches and techniques. Bella Coco has a lot of great tutorials for beginners to learn how to crochet. If you’re more of a book person, she also has one available on Amazon. Another tip for Youtube is that if you’re having a hard time keeping up with the video, you can slow the video all the way down to a quarter of the normal speed! To do this, go to the settings for the video and click on ‘playback speed’. How to do this might vary on devices. This saved me so many times.
Patterns
Crochet patterns are a set of instructions that tell you how to make an object such as a bear. Unfortunately, every designer writes their pattern a little bit differently, which can be confusing. Some designers even use diagrams, but this is a lot less common. It’s important to learn the abbreviations for each type of stitch. Typically there will be a list of abbreviations at the beginning of a pattern or book to help you decipher the instructions. But here is a simple guide to help you.
(6 SC, Inc) x6 (48)
This line of instructions means that you will do 6 single crochet stitches (one after the other) and then increase in the 7th stitch. Increasing is when you put 2 single crochets in the same stitch. The x6 means that you will repeat what’s in the parentheses preceding it six times. The number in the last set of parentheses is the total number of stitches you should have in a round. It’s a great way to make sure you’re following the instructions correctly. Be sure to keep count of your stitches, otherwise you might find out too late that you don’t have the correct number and it’ll ruin your project.
Patterns can be found in many places. You can get patterns from places like craft store websites, yarn brand websites, Etsy, designer’s blogs, or books. I recommend starting with some free patterns. Knot Bad has a ton of free patterns on his blog; including Pokémon! Pinterest can also be a good resource to help you find free patterns from designer’s blogs. My first amigurumi project was a tomato from the book Whimsical Stitches by Lauren Espy which can be found on Amazon.
A lot of patterns will recommend a hook size and particular brand of yarn that they used while making their pattern. But you can use whatever type of yarn and hook you’d like, just be aware it will change the size of the final product. For example, if a pattern suggests that you use a 2.5 mm hook but you use a 3.5 mm hook, your project will be slightly larger than the designer’s. To make a project significantly larger or smaller you can change the yarn and hook size. Many people will substitute worsted weight yarn for a bulky (size 6) yarn to make large and jumbo plushies.
Crochet and amigurumi can be overwhelming when trying to figure out where to start. I hope this quick guide will give you more confidence to get started on a project!
