It has only been a bit over a year since I crocheted my first amigurumi. I was getting ready to give up any dreams I might have had of being able to crochet because my infrequent attempts at making scarves over the years were pretty much failures due to my tight tension. I had heard that tight tension was actually a blessing when doing amigurumi so I thought I would give it a shot.
I could already read patterns because I learned the lingo years ago to help my non-pattern reading mom learn new patterns. I just had to pick one to be my first.
It didn’t take me long in my search to come across the most adorable little kitty. Since my first-born loves cats it only made sense for my first yarn toy to be a cat.
I went to our local 100 yen shop and got a couple of skeins of pastel yarn and a hook. I already had stuffing from the fabric toys I make.
It went super smoothly. The pattern was a pleasure to read and was so well written. The only real complaint I could come up with was the instructions for the body are completely missing the first round which should be 6sc in a MR. For a pattern that has been published since 2013 (6 years as of this review) I would have expected that to be corrected by now.
The assembly instructions are also a bit “loose” and don’t really tell you where to attach things. But I’ve found that most patterns are like that. As a beginner though, I sure felt fortunate that I had fabric toy sewing experience to get mine assembled.
Since it has been over a year since I made my first Violet Kitty, I decided to make a second one just to see how far I’ve come. Once again I kind of did my own thing and veered from the suggested color changes. I can’t get the recommended yarn in my local Japanese stores anyway. And I went a bit further with the face embroidery.
I’m actually so happy I decided to make another one of these. The results are so much cuter than my first and I’m kind of feeling inspired to make many more in many different color combinations to sell at our local street crafting events.
Little Muggles has some crazy cute designs and I highly recommend looking at the free and paid options they have. Violet Kitty is a free pattern. You can find the link at the bottom of this post.
What a difference a year makes, hey! Though your first one is really cute too 🙂
Would it also be an idea to make some kitties with one arm up, maneki-neko style, for the Japanese market?
I have thought about that too and do have a couple of those maneki-neko patterns by other designers just sitting in my “want to try” pile. I’m not sure how I’d feel about completely altering one of the arms on this guy to have that little beckoning pose. Great idea though!