The project I’m working on now is a ‘crochet bunny with floppy ears’, a lop rabbit. Some time ago I made such a bunny pattern, in memory of our sweet pet Boefje. Because it was a very personal doll, I didn’t want to share the pattern I made for it, even though I got a lot of enthusiastic comments and request for it. That’s why making a similar crochet bunny got priority above the dolls on list.

This is the bunny I made back then.

I’m also setting up an Etsy or Craftsy ‘shop’, and the pattern for the lop rabbit I’m going to offer there for a small amount. Maybe I’m going to do that as well for the Starfox pattern. I’m not sure yet….

This was a tricky doll to crochet. I didn’t know where to start, so made the most fun part first, the boots, because if the boots where finished, the rest needed to come for sure. The boots turned out great and it worked!  After the boots, I made the legs and body in one piece, after that the jacket, arms and tail. And then came the head, which I had to make 5 times. The first one was too big, the second too small, the third the wrong shape and so on, till the fifth was good enough. And here’s the result! I didn’t love him at first, but after a few days I’m starting to do!

The proportions of this doll where the hardest part. I knew which proportions this Starfox doll should have, but translating that into crochet stitches gave me a headache. Picking the right colour was a bit of a kerfuffle too. A long time ago I’d bought the yarn for Starfox, but when I started on the head, I began to doubt about the rusty fox colour I had. It was too dark, and the other orange I had, was too orange. So I went to a local shop, found a more yellow orange but that was a totally different kind of yarn. After some short circuit in my head, I decided to use the light orange. It turned out just fine, the little rage was for nothing.

Here you can see detailed pictures of different parts of Starfox. In one of the images you can see how I made his expression. The real Starfox has white oval shaped eyes. I tried to make them, but I didn’t like my Fox with eyes like that. He just looked too mean and I couldn’t get it nice. I decided to leave out the white bits and just go for brads with green felt underneath and a little embroidered stripe above. This way he was lovable, but maybe a bit less Starfox.

Crochet Starfox is about 20 cm / 8 inch tall, made with a worsted weight yarn. His fur coat is brushed a bit.

This is the last game figure I’m going to crochet. The reason is, I find it quite limiting to make an existing figure. It has to look like ‘the real thing’ which puts boundaries to my own fantasy. Making me own creations gives me a lot more satisfaction and less frustration.

This post is with pattern, but on demand this time. If you’re enthusiastic about making this Starfox doll, just contact me and I’ll send you the pattern for free. My only request to you is, please send me an image of your finished Starfox. I’m very curious how yours turn out!

After some research, I finally understand the principle and want to share it, because it’s quite simple and logical. And if you’ll make my patters, it’s helpful to know how I did the stitches, even though there might be other correct ways.

Okay, here it is.

I work in rows like this: A chain I close with a slip stitch to make a circle, then add the right number of turning chains and crochet ahead clockwise. I always use a stitch marker in the first st. Every row I close with a slip stitch. Both working with a chain or a magic ring, that means you do the slst in the first st of the previous row. This creates a flat round. Now you want to go ‘level up’, so for sc you add one st, for hdc two and for dc three, then crochet ahead in the st after the chain (2nd, 3th, 4th). At the end of the next row you’ll notice you’ll have one, two or three stitches extra, the chain you just added, skip them and slst in the first stitch of previous round, add your ch and etc. Continue this every row.

Now the dc I do on a flat piece or vest: for 6 st. make a chain of nine, start your first dc in the 4th ch from hook.  Do the other 5, you’re now at the end. Make a turning ch 3, turn. Now, start your next dc in the 5th ch from hook (skip the ch of three and the st after that) and do six dc’s. Note: the last dc you make in the top st of the turning ch 3. This method gives the neatest result, with nice stacked stitches. In the picture you can see the difference in adding just a chain of two or three, without skipping the ‘first’ st. Some people don’t skip a stitch, but that’ll give a wobbly edge to a flat piece.

1. 2 ch add, 2. 3 ch add, 3. 3 ch and skip a stich, looks best!

*EDIT* A chain of 3 leaves gaps I discoverd. I think for a dc, a ch 2 and skip a stitch gives the best result! That’s what I’m going to do!

I didn’t invent this method myself of course, here I found it, after checking out many other ways and decided this looked the best.

Note: normally I work in spirals, so only work in rows when indicated!

The boots where the most fun part. You know, quick result and not too complicated. But now comes the rest of this crochet Starfox, and that will be a lot tougher! It all has to do with the proportions. Boy, I’m not even certain what size the head should be. I think I’m going to start with the body and jacket. That way I can adjust the head to the body.  The head probably will become moveable like Link’s, unless it’s to hard for a fox-shaped head.

I’ll keep you posted!

When I’d finished the first boot I rushed to get the second done, so I could write this post. Aren’t they cute! I think I’m going to crochet just boots for the rest of my life, hehe. They are 5 cm / 2 inch small. These Starfox boots are made out of 5 pieces: the sole, the boot, the nose tip, the heel and the boot neck.

Anyway, if the rest of Starfox will have the same kind of ‘cuteness’, I’ll be very content! For now the boots and legs are finished.

Pattern will follow.

No gifts Again?
Acrylic on canvas, 18 x 30 cm
By Sonja van der Wijk, me

This years Christmas card, which I’ve sent to family and friends. I’m very satisfied with it. It was quite difficult to make this paintig, because I’ve no experience in painting snow and I had some trouble with it.

The title is based on last years card, in which Santa got robbed by an UFO. I’ll add that one at the bottom of this post.

Here are some close-ups.

And, last years Extraterrestrial Christmas Robbery.

I hope these ‘ll give you a laugh!

I haven’t really started on crochet Starfox, but I will in Januari, I didn’t feel like it yet….

To give a crochet animal/amigurumi the right expression, I play a little with the embroidery thread. A symmetric mouth for example gives a neat look, but maybe not the right one. The distance between the eyes is also very important. A description of how to set them, I don’t think will help much, you just have to experiment on each and every doll you make. There are some rules, like far apart is cute and close together not very smart looking, but I tend to ignore those rules and just see what looks best for a particular doll. The tip in this topic is therefore, don’t underestimate the importance of the expression. Take your time and experiment. If your not satisfied after trying many times, just stop and try again the next day or so, when you’re fresh again.

That usually does the trick for me.

The two Guinea pigs I made in memory of our piggy’s Kuufke and Ciro. So for these it was very important to have the right expression. The brown one, Kuufke, was wild and wacky, Ciro was sweet and curious. The Bunny is also made in memory of one of our pets, Boefje, a sweet bunny. She was very happy and wild so I exaggerated the mouth into a big smile.

We all know Amineko by Nekoyama of course. The Guinea pigs and the cat (except for it’s muzzle) are made with the Fuzzy Guinea Pig pattern and Fuzzy Kitten Pattern by PlanetJune.

This is how I picture my crochet Starfox. I hope he’ll turn out pretty similar to this sketch. I think my Starfox doll should have about these proportions. When I picture him, he has big, removable boots. I think I’m going to make his body and legs in one piece, with a sewed on crochet jacket and gear. I’m not really going to make his green outfit, but’ll make the body and legs in green. For the tail opening I have to find a solution. His backpack’s a must too. Crochet Starfox needs to be able to stand on himself. Maybe I’ll make a moveable head like Link, not sure yet.

It’s going to take some time, making this doll and I’m especially looking forward to the end result. Crocheting it, isn’t really the most fun part for me. I really get pissed of sometimes after taking a piece apart for the hundredth time, but in the end I’m very happy.

You know, I make my own projects, illustrations or crochet dolls, because I see in my head an awesome end result. Something that needs to be made. It makes me enthusiastic and fanatic. Sometimes what I want to make can be very complicated and delicate, but that won’t stop me, I’m a perfectionist and will go on till I get the right result. The downside of that is, that it makes me kinda cranky when it doesn’t go the way I want to. Not very good, I’ll need to ‘chill down’ when something goes wrong. The great and even greater side is, that I create things that make me happy and proud. The feeling of a beautiful finished amigurumi or painting is worth everything to me!

A few years back I bought my first suede Converse All Star sneakers and I totally loved them, they where the coolest! After a while I regretted I hadn’t bought a double pair of them, because they had become my favourite shoes and someday they would be too old and totally worn off. Luckily for me they still are in good shape and even better, this winter they are back into fashion! I’ve found totally awesome new ones! I took a picture of them. The brown and black pair are the old ones, and the green/grey-ish the new pair. Okay, I know this has got nothing to do with amigurumi or crochet, but they are ‘shearling’ all stars, which means they have wool (fake though) on the inside. So they are a bit sheepish….

Aren’t they beautiful! You can see I took good care of them, the brown and black ones are 5 years old. And I still only own sneakers. I haven’t got one pair of ‘normal’ shoes or high heals.

And now enough with the personal chit-chat! Next week I’m starting on crochet Star Fox! I had to postpone that a bit, because I was a blistering idiot to get a dislocated shoulder during my dance class. It’s idiotic because it already happened a few times before and I wasn’t smart enough to listen to the warning….this time I had to go to a hospital to get it back into place. But now I’m back in business!

Let’s start with the type of yarn I would recommend. I wrote the pattern for a ‘quick to crochet teddy bear’. I used as less rows and stitches as possible. That means, if you use a thin yarn, the bear will be really small. For my bears I used a 4 and 3,5 hook. The big bear is 8.2 inch/21 cm (from head to feet) and the little one 7 inch/18 cm. When making amigurumi, you use the smallest hook possible, to prevent gabs between the stitches, except when you’re working with fuzzy yarn. For these bears I used not the most heavy yarn, but at least a worsted weight and a bit fuzzy, especially the yarn for the big bear. (More about that yarn you can read in my yarn experiment post.)

Here is a picture of the finished small teddy and the parts of the larger one.

Before I sewed my bear together, he needed to be stuffed. The first 30% of the body is filled with pellets. In my tips & tricks post I explain the use of Hama beads for that. On top of the pellets you put the fibrefill. Stuff firmly. The hands and feet also need some pellets with a bit fibrefill on top so the pellets stay where they should. The head is stuffed firmly with fibrefill and the muzzle and tail lightly.

After stuffing I first make the head. The muzzle goes one row above the hole of the head. Then I attach the eyes, which is a little tricky because the head is filled. I do it in that order because the expression of the bear is very important. If I attach the eyes in the beginning when the head is just an empty ball, the expression would be a wild guess. The ears I attach at the middle of the head, between the third and fourth row. Attaching the rest of the bear speaks for itself. Although, the tail is for balance and prevents the bear from falling, so make sure it’s in the right place.

Here’s the result! Below the pictures you can find the pattern.

Crochet teddy bear pattern.

You need, two colours of medium heavy, fuzzy yarn, a hook, a stitch marker, embroidery needle for attaching and thread for nose and mouth, (animal safety) eyes.

Head

1. magic ring of 6 = 6
2. 2 sc in each st around = 12
3. (2 sc in next st, sc in next st) x 6 = 18
4. (2 sc in next st,  sc in next 2 st) x 6 = 24
5 -10. sc in each st around = 24
11. (s2tog, sc in next 2 st) x 6 = 18
12. (s2tog, sc in next st) x 6 = 12, fasten off and leave tail.

Muzzle

1. magic ring of 4 = 4
2. s sc in each st around = 8
3. (2 sc in next st, sc in next st) x 4 = 12
4. sc in each st around = 12, fasten off and leave tail.

Ears

1. magic ring of 5, turn
2. sc in next st, 2 sc in next 3, sc in next st = 8, fasten off and leave tail.

Body

1 – 4. repeat from head
5. (2 sc in next st, sc in next 3 st) x 6 = 30
6 – 11. sc in each st around = 30
12. (s2tog, sc in next 3 st) x 6 = 24
13 – 17. sc in each st around = 24
18. (s2tog, sc in next 2 st) x 6 = 18
19. (s2tog, sc in next st) x 6 = 12, fasten off.

Arms, start with the other colour

1. magic ring of 4 = 4
2. 2 sc in each st around = 8
3. (2 sc in next st, sc in next st) x 4 = 12, change back to main colour in last st.
4. sc in each st around = 12
5. sc in next 2 st, 2 sc in next st, sc in next 5 st, 2 sc in next st, sc in next 3 st = 14
6. sc in next 5 st, s2tog, sc in next 5 st = 12
7. sc in next 4 st, s2tog, sc in next 4 st = 10
8. sc in next 3 st, s2tog, sc in next 3 st = 8
9 – 15. sc in each st around = 8, fasten off and leave tail,

Legs, start with the other colour

1 – 3. repeat from arm
4. (2 sc in next st, sc in next 2 st) x 4 = 16, change colour in last st.
5 – 6. sc in each st around = 16
7. sc in next 6 st, s2tog, sc in next 6 st = 14
8. sc in next 5 st, s2tog, sc in next 5 st = 12
9. sc in next 4 st, s2tog, sc in next 4 st = 10
10 – 14. sc in each st around, fasten off and leave tail.

Tail

1. magic ring of 6
2. 2 sc in each st around = 12
3 – 4. sc in each st around = 12
5. s2tog x 6, fasten off and leave tail.

Enjoy!

Off course I would love to hear from you or see your crochet teddy bear amigurumi. And if something doesn’t seem right, just ask here and I’ll reply as soon as I can!