I dusted off my crochet hooks for this adorable project: an Amigurumi Cupcake Kitten! I followed the tutorial available at Stuff Susie Made.
As some background, a few years ago I bought a set of crochet hooks. I made a somewhat crooked test swatch and set crochet aside. Last September, my friend Lea reinvigorated me to try to pick them up again, and she got me to start a granny square:
However, crochet doesn’t come easily to me and after I was on my own, I wasn’t able to finish my granny square. I hadn’t learned the muscle memory and I didn’t know enough about the steps to recreate the pattern to continue it. This partial granny square is still in a drawer, the poor thing.
I put crochet amigurumi on my 30 Crafty Projects to Complete Before I’m 30 list, and I am starting to run out of time as my birthday is in September. The time to learn was now! I printed out Susie’s instructions, which were great. I just didn’t know enough to follow them at first, so I had to do some research. I’d like to share with you my favourite resources that taught me how to complete my first project.
How to Crochet a Magic Ring
The first step in Susie’s pattern was to make a magic ring. I learned how using this great video on YouTube from June Gilbank:
I had to make three magic rings total for this project, one for the head, and two for the ears. Each time I referenced the video and was able to get the ring started. Phew!
More Crochet Basics
The rest I learned from Simply Daisy’s YouTube video for absolute beginners. This is a great one! I tried a many different tutorials but hers was my favourite to be able to follow along easily:
My First Complete Crochet Project: The Amigurumi Cupcake Kitten
The first thing you’ll notice is that my cupcake kitten doesn’t look exactly how it does in the original pattern. At first I wasn’t sure how to increase / decrease properly, but I rolled with it and continued on without restarting the project. Instead of using beads for eyes, I used blue round buttons, and I embroidered on a cat smile with embroidery floss.
This project is officially checked off the list! Whoohoo!
Outtakes
While photographing my project, I was visited by two special little kittens who, always curious, want to know what’s going on. They are five-week-old Himalayan / Maine Coon mix kittens. I couldn’t resist sharing these behind-the-scenes shots.
