I often get asked where to find eyes for amigurumi making. They can be called variously animal eyes, safety eyes, or craft eyes, and can be difficult to locate. If you aren’t lucky enough to find them in your local craft store, there are plenty of online sources.

I’ve started a list of online sources that have been recommended to me and I thought others might find it useful. If you know of any more, or have any recommendations to share, please let me know and I will add them to the list.

Eye Sources >>

Happy Chinese New Year! The upcoming year is the Year of the Rat in the Chinese zodiac, so I decided to design a rat of my own (thanks Jean for the suggestion). I know this won’t be to everyone’s taste, but try not to scream too much…

Click for larger image

My sister Dawn says he looks just like an agouti rat. He’ll be making his way to the UK soon to live with her. She used to have a pet rat, so I know they are actually friendly and intelligent animals.

Kung Hei Fat Choi! Happy Year of the Rat!

PS – If you’d like to crochet your own Fuzzy Rat, the pattern will be available shortly…

UPDATE: Looking for the pattern? You can find the Fuzzy Rat crochet pattern in my shop.

It could take me a while to finish these, so I thought I’d give you a look at my work in progress.

First up is my granny throw that I’m making for the Granny Squares theme on the Crochet Along blog. It’s going to be a cover for my big black leather office chair in my craft room. The chair is very comfortable, but all that black looks a bit harsh and out of place in my room, so I wanted to soften the look of it with some muted colours. These are my colours and square designs:

The yarn is the new Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice – I wanted to use it because of all its yummy colours. I’ve made another 12 squares since taking this photo. 24 more to go, and then lots and lots of joining…

I just started my second project yesterday. I bought a Tunisian crochet hook a few months ago, but haven’t had a chance to learn how to use it until now. I found this project for a cute scarflette on Ravelry and it seemed like a good small project so I could learn how to do Tunisian crochet. I’m using Bernat Bamboo yarn in Dill:

For the uninitiated, Tunisian crochet involves working the entire row of stitches onto the hook (as in my picture), and then working them all off the hook again on the next row. I like it so far, although it’s taking a lot longer than I anticipated, but that could just be because it’s new to me. I am in love with the bamboo yarn though – it is beautifully soft and silky. I think it’ll make a lovely scarf – my neck is very sensitive to a lot of yarns, but I don’t think it’ll have anything to complain about with the bamboo yarn.

I don’t have much time for my crafting these days, so it could be a while before I finish these. But that’s okay; I like having something I can pick up for a while and then set aside to come back to another day.

This project has been in the works for a long time. I was halfway through it when my old sewing machine gave up on me! I’m happy to report that my new sewing machine tackled it without any difficulties – even when sewing through 8 layers of heavy cotton fabric.

I was given this little bag as a gift, and it’s a useful size, with plenty of pockets. One problem: I really didn’t like that nasty brown fake leather strap.

With no clear plan in mind, I decided to do something about it. I started by cutting off off all the plastic ‘leather’ pieces and deconstructing them:

I chose a blue heavyweight cotton with a large leaf print from my fabric stash, and then I recreated all the missing pieces in this fabric. I reused the metal rings from the original strap, and added some length to the new strap because the old one was too short for my liking. I sewed all the pieces together on the sewing machine, and added the finishing touches by hand.

And the end result:

I debated added an embellishment to the front pocket flap, but I think it’s okay like this – the matching zipper pulls add some continuity between the bag and the handle. At least it’s useable now, and thankfully there’s no pleather in sight 🙂

The AquaAmi pattern range is now available to buy direct from PlanetJune.com. Now you can crochet your own adorable dolphins, sea lions and beluga whales. The beluga whale pattern also comes with a free bonus pattern to make a baby beluga whale!

Each pattern is available individually, or buy the complete AquaAmi Set 1 for a special price.

Visit the pattern store to purchase AquaAmi patterns!