It’s time to release another commissioned design!

The Orca, or Killer Whale, was a design challenge I was looking forward to – the distinctive black and white markings weren’t going to be easy to replicate. Biased (slanting) stitches just wouldn’t cut it with this design, and neither would zig-zag colour changes, so I’ve spent weeks swatching to refine and improve my colour changing techniques to give smooth, symmetrical colour changes over practically the entire length of the orca’s body. Here’s the result:

I have to state right now that this is definitely an intermediate-level pattern: although it is worked in pure amigurumi-style (it uses only single crochet stitches with increases and decreases), it includes a lot of colour changing to create the beautiful smooth killer whale markings down the entire underside of the body. So, while it isn’t difficult in terms of crochet stitches, it is vital that you pay close attention to the pattern in every round that includes a colour change, and make the increases and decreases in the correct places, otherwise the colour pattern will shift. This is a pattern that requires concentration!

While we’re looking at details, I’m also debuting a new technique that makes a perfect whale tail – this one is really quite magical, and took me 5 attempts to perfect, but, if you just follow the pattern carefully, it’s easy to replicate this amazing shape.

If you’re up for the challenge, I think you’ll find this pattern is worth it – the end result has a level of detail in colour and shaping that makes it a truly special amigurumi. Plus, I think this orca is really cute; she’s definitely one of the nice fish-eating killer whales, not the scary seal-eating kind…

I’d like to thank everyone who commissioned this design – thank you for trusting me to do justice to something so complex! I hope you’re happy with the result and you’ll enjoy making your own spectacular orcas.

How about a little ravelry love? Click to favourite or queue my Orca design:

And, if you didn’t get in on the commissioning action but you’re ready to get orca-making, you can pick up the orca (killer whale) crochet pattern from my shop right now!

(The next design that was commissioned is the Red Panda, and I’ll be collecting the pledge monies shortly. I can’t wait to get started on that one; red pandas are adorable…)

As I told you in my wet blocking tutorial, children’s play mats make an inexpensive and easy to find alternative to dedicated blocking mats. BUT, I’ve discovered a problem that you need to know about if you use these mats – please read this and learn from my experience!

I’ve blocked all kinds of lace with these mats before with no problems, but my crocheted bamboo cardigan was a different story. My laceweight items felt practically dry by the time I pinned them to the mats, but thicker yarn retains much more moisture, so, even after rolling my cardigan in a towel to squeeze out as much excess moisture as possible, it still felt heavy and noticeably damp to the touch. It was still damp 24 hours later, and when I flipped it over so the underside could dry better, I was horrified to find areas of my beautiful cream cardigan were now bright, shocking pink.

I don’t have a photo, as my priority was trying to fix the disaster, not documenting it. Luckily, my story ended well; I’m not sure if it was because the yarn was still damp when I spotted the problem, or if the pink dye isn’t permanent, but after a few soaks in Soak wash, with some delicate but persistent agitation by hand in the sink, all the pink colour came out of my cardigan (phew). But you don’t want to take a chance that your mats may permanently dye your handiwork!

Looking back, I should have suspected that there may be a problem with colour transfer from the pink blocks – if you look at this photo from my blocking tutorial, you can see that some of the bright pink colour from a different mat has transferred onto the lower yellow block, at the right-hand side:

My cream cardigan also had this pink colour transfer before I managed to soak it all out!

Foam Mat Colour Transfer Experiment

Although I assumed this colour came from the bright pink coloured blocks – the same colour as the pink stain – to be safe, I decided to conduct an experiment to figure out which of the blocks are the culprits. (I’m very glad I did, because the results surprised me!)

Method

1. Select enough blocks to have a sample of each foam colour: orange, yellow, green, blue-green, blue, purple, light pink, dark pink. (I also tested a solid purple mat I bought from a different source.)
2. Lay a piece of paper kitchen towel over each colour of foam. Spray all the blocks with water until the paper towel squares are completely saturated.
3. Leave overnight to dry.

The setup for my experiment – wet paper towel squares on a sample of every foam colour

When the paper towel was completely dry, I numbered each piece as I removed it, so I could compare them with my reference layout photo (top row L-R: samples 1-6; bottom row L-R: samples 7-10).

Results

• Samples 1 and 2 (orange and blue-green) were clear.
• Samples 3 and 4 (dark pink and green) were stained in only the dark pink areas.
• Samples 5 and 6 (blue and yellow) were clear.
• Samples 7 and 8 (light pink and orange) were stained in only the light pink areas.
• Sample 9 (purple and blue) was stained in only the purple areas.
• Sample 10 (all purple) was stained all over.

Example of my results:

Sample 8 (top right in this photo) is mostly over the light pink foam, except the lower left corner which is over the orange O.

Sample 8 clearly shows that colour has transferred from the background pink foam, but not from the orange O (dotted line added for clarity).

Conclusions
My samples clearly show that pink dye leaches out of light pink, dark pink, and purple foam when wet. The colour transfer seems to be equal between all these colours. All the other foam colours (orange, yellow, green, blue-green, and blue) appear to be colour-fast when wet.

This surprised me – I thought that only dark pink would be the problem, and possibly the light pink. I never even considered that purple foam might also leave pink stains, and equally badly as the over-saturated bright pink blocks! Note: My set didn’t include any red blocks, but I suspect they would suffer from the same problem. UPDATE: see the end of this post.

My Recommendations

If you haven’t bought foam mats yet, you may prefer to look for some that avoid the problem pinks and purples (and, probably, reds). I’ve seen all-grey sets sold as utility mats, and individual coloured blocks sold at dollar stores. Grey, blue, green, yellow and orange should all be safe.

If you already own foam mats, I’d recommend that you replicate my simple kitchen towel experiment – it’s easy to do, and then you’ll know for sure, one way or the other. If you do have the problem, you have some options to get around it:

Prevention Option 1: Only use the blocks with ‘safe’ colours that do not contain pink (safe: orange, yellow, blue, blue-green, green). Do not use light pink, dark pink or purple. Note: If your mats are different colours or types, test them to see which of your colours are affected.

Prevention Option 2: Lay out an old towel over your blocks, so any colour will transfer to the towel, not your precious handiwork. You can pin straight through the towel and into the foam.

If there was any colour transfer when I blocked this cardigan (below), it doesn’t show against the dark grey yarn. Look at all the blocks that could have stained my yarn pink!

Arrows mark ‘dangerous’ colours: light pink, dark pink, and purple.

Below, you can see the second blocking for my miraculously-unscathed bamboo cardigan – now safely protected from any pink transfer by the towel. The underside of the towel was stained pink after this, but it all came out in the wash. (And, in case you’re wondering, the plastic containers at the corners of the towel are filled with water – I used them as weights to stop the towel from blowing away while I dried the cardigan outside!)

Cardigan protected from colour transfer by a towel on top of the foam mats.

If you’re blocking lightweight yarn and you roll it in a towel before blocking so it feels almost dry when you lay it out to block, you shouldn’t have a problem with colour transfer, but you may wish to err on the side of caution – my results may not always apply. For anything that still feels damp/heavy after a towel squeeze, you should definitely be careful of potential colour transfer, and I’d recommend you test your mats and/or use one of the prevention options above, especially if you’re using light-coloured yarn. Why take the risk?

UPDATE: Thanks to Andrea Giattini (@SpringSplndr) for this update! Andrea has a set of 8 of the larger 2ft square foam mats that come in red, yellow, green and blue, and are sold for use in garages, playrooms etc. She has been using them for 3 years and had never noticed any transfer.

Photo courtesy of Andrea Giattini

Andrea kindly agreed to try my test on her mats. She saturated white paper towels with water and left them to dry in the sun, as you can see above. She reports no colour transfer from any of these mats (even the red one, which I was most concerned about).

It appears that these red/yellow/blue/green mats are more colourfast than the sets that include purples, pinks, etc, which can bleed pink dye. However, I still advise caution – different brands may use different dyes, and manufacturing processes may change with time, so, for your own peace of mind, I’d still suggest you try the test on your mats too, just to be safe.

It’s Donationware time again! I’ve created a set of 2 beautiful shamrocks for you to crochet for St Patrick’s Day, or any time you want a splash of green in your life.

Shamrocks is a clever little pattern to make sweet shamrocks with a dimensional 3D effect, in two sizes: a realistically-shaped design, and a tiny miniature version. String them into a garland, attach one to a greetings card, add a pin back to make a cute brooch or lapel pin, or layer them for a novel look.

This pattern comes a few days later than I’d planned, thanks to a catalogue of disasters including broken internet at home (I’m currently in Dave’s office so I can actually post this!) but luckily, my shamrocks work up in minutes, so you still have plenty of time if you’re planning on some St Patrick’s Day decorations.

If you’ve made my ever-popular Love Hearts pattern, you’ll have no problem making Shamrocks – just like the Love Hearts, all the stitches of Rnd 1 are worked directly into the magic ring. The difference with the Shamrocks is that both sizes of shamrock are completed in just one round each, which makes them very, very quick to complete! I timed myself making the Mini Shamrock and it took 90 seconds (excluding weaving in the ends)…!

I really love this pattern – I hung the garland over my fireplace for this photo, but now I think I’m going to leave it up there for a while; it’s just so cheerful!

As I like to reward people who chose to donate for my donationware patterns, the PDF version of this pattern includes bonus crochet stitch diagrams for both shamrocks, in both right- and left-handed versions. As always, the pattern is free for you to use, and you need only donate if you’d like to thank me for my time in creating it, or if you’d like the easy-to-print PDF version.

I hope you enjoy my Shamrocks pattern!

Go to the Shamrocks pattern >>

Crochet-Along with us…

And here’s a bonus – a Shamrock is a definite sign of spring, so that means you can enter your crocheted shamrocks into this month’s Spring/Easter CAL – and maybe win the Suncatcher Eyes CAL prize! Check the PlanetJune Ravelry group for all the details 🙂

When I designed my Fuzzy Bunny & Chick pattern in 2007, I used Bernat Baby Lash yarn for the chick. It was perfect – a curly-lashed eyelash yarn with a thick yarn core in the perfect shade of chick yellow – but, of course, that yarn has long since been discontinued.

I stopped designing with novelty yarns in 2008: the frustration of yarn-specific patterns (yarn not being available to the majority of my customers worldwide, and then getting discontinued with no suitable replacement) means it’s very rarely worth the hassle of using an unusual yarn in a pattern.

Still, my Fuzzy Friends patterns are good designs, and I’ve always felt it’s a shame there are so few yarns that would be appropriate replacements to use with my sweet little Fuzzy Chick pattern. So, after a little experimentation, I’ve come up with two easy options so anyone can make a very, very cute Fuzzy Chick – maybe even cuter than the original, do you think..?

L-R: Tiny Chick, Medium Chick, Fuzzy Chick (original)

The best part is that the new Tiny and Medium chicks both use standard everyday worsted weight acrylic yarn, so you can just use the same yarn you do for normal amigurumi! (Specifically, I used Bernat Satin in Banana for both chickies.)

Tiny Chick is just over 2″ tall, and uses worsted weight yarn, an E US/3.5mm hook, and 4.5mm eyes.
Medium Chick is 3″ tall, and uses 2 strands of worsted weight yarn held together, an H US/5mm hook, and 6mm eyes.

You can also use the above yarn/hook sizes as a starting point for any of my other Fuzzy patterns, if you don’t want to make them with a novelty yarn – this technique will work equally well with all of them!

A Miracle Brush

Let’s pause for a moment so I can tell you about my new amazing amigurumi brushing tool. I’ve seen it called a Teasel Brush (UK), Nap Riser Brush (US), and Bunka Brush (Japan) – if you google each of these names you should be able to find a stockist in your country under one or other of the names. Basically, it’s a very small wire brush with stiff angled prongs, used for brushing out the seams of teddy bears, brushing pile fabrics, or creating brushed areas in needlework or (of course) crocheted or knitted fabric. Some of these brushes slip over your finger, and others are mounted on a small wooden handle (like mine, below), but the prongs are the same in both cases.

A small tool for a small job like a tiny chick makes all the difference – compare the size of my teasel brush (front) with the pet slicker brush (back).

Using one of these brushes follows exactly the same principle as using a wire pet brush to create brushed amigurumi, but, as it’s far smaller than a pet brush, it’s more suited to brushing detail areas and small amigurumi. I’ve left visible scratches in my thumbnail more than once when brushing my crochet with a large pet slicker brush, but, since I bought the smaller brush, I have finer control over where I’m brushing, and haven’t scratched up my nails once!

Of course, it does take longer to brush the same size area with a smaller brush, so, as usual, it’s your personal preference as to which type of brush is the best option. I’m happy to keep both in my toolkit now, and use the most appropriately-sized brush for the job at hand.

Making the Chicks

To make my chicks, I followed the original Fuzzy Chick pattern, together with the instructions from my Fuzzy to Brushed Crochet tutorial (you’ll have already received the tutorial as a bonus PDF if you’ve bought any of my Fuzzy patterns) but I brushed the chick pieces for longer than I did the bear in the tutorial, to get them nice and fluffy. This should give you an idea of the process:

L-R: Head (brushed), Body (unbrushed), Wing 1 (brushed side up), Wing 2 (brushed side down)

As you can see, the pieces are very small after crocheting them, but the fluffiness adds to the size considerably after they are brushed. After brushing, my double-strand-of-worsted chick is almost as large as the original chick.

As the chicks are heavily brushed, I gave the fluff a little trim around the face (particularly the eye area) with a pair of small sharp scissors, to get rid of any extra-long fibres and neaten then up a bit.

It’d be a bit fiddly to brush such small amigurumi with a pet brush, so, if you feel like small brushed amigurumi might be something you’d like to add to your repertoire, I highly recommend you seek out a Teasel/Nap Riser/Bunka brush to make the task less perilous!

Now you know you can use any yellow yarn to make a Fuzzy Chick, how about making one – or a handful – of tiny chickies for the Spring/Easter crochet-along? The brushing probably takes longer than the crocheting, but with only 4 tiny parts, it’s still a very speedy project, and would be lovely for Easter…

I’ve already written (in my Which is the ‘Right’ Side? tutorial) about how to tell the right side from the wrong side of your work when making amigurumi, and when it really matters which side you have facing outwards, but there’s value in showing it in video form too, so you can really see how a piece of amigurumi forms, and what your stitches look like from the front and the back.

(If you’re already comfortable with the right and wrong sides, when you can use whichever side you prefer, and when it really matters which side faces outwards, you can skip this video, if you like – there’s nothing extra that I didn’t tell you in my original which is the ‘right’ side discussion – but I’m building my crochet tutorials video library and that has to include the essential basics as well as clever tips and new techniques.)

And now to the video tutorial (in right- and left-handed versions, of course):

Which is the ‘Right’ Side for Amigurumi (right-handed)

Click to watch this video on YouTube.

Which is the ‘Right’ Side for Amigurumi (left-handed)

Click to watch this video on YouTube.

Note: The videos may look a little small embedded in the blog: if so, you can fullscreen them or click through to YouTube to watch them full-sized 🙂

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Loved this tutorial? I have so many more amigurumi tips and tricks to share with you!

Boost your amigurumi skills with my latest book, The Essential Guide to Amigurumi, your comprehensive guide to amigurumi techniques and tips.

Do you find my tutorials helpful? If so, please consider making a contribution towards my time so I can continue to create clear and concise tutorials for you:

Thank you so much for your support! Now click below for loads more crochet video and photo tutorials (and do let me know what else you’d like me to cover in future tutorials…)

If you saw my chameleon photoblog the other day, you’ll know I have lizards on the brain. I’ve already designed a gecko and a chameleon though, so I needed a different type of lizard to complete my lizard crochet pattern trilogy. An iguana seemed like the obvious choice, with lots of fun details to include, so that’s what I’ve made:

Iguana Fun Facts

• My design is based on the Green Iguana, which lives in rainforests in Central and South America (although if you change the colour you could make different types of iguana).
• Other types of iguana are adapted for different environments, such as the Marine Iguana from the Galapagos islands (which eats seaweed and algae and is an excellent swimmer), and the Desert Iguana from the southern US and Mexico (which can withstand high temperatures and burrows into sand to keep cool).
• The Green Iguana is about 2 metres long, and is easily recognised by its dewlap (the loose skin under its chin), the row of spikes down its back and its very long tail.
• Despite its size and fearsome appearance, the Green Iguana, like other iguanas, is primarily a herbivore.

I think I struck a good balance with this design between realistic and cute, detailed and easy to crochet. He’s worked in two shades of green, although a single-coloured iguana would look nice too; you’d just lose the tail striping. He’s an incredible 15″ (38cm) long, although, don’t worry, most of that is tail – he’s only 9″ (23cm) long excluding the tail 🙂

Let’s look at that tail for a moment – it’s a perfect excuse to practice my seamless, jogless Perfect Stripes: No-Cut Join technique, although the pattern includes a standard jogless stripes technique for those who aren’t feeling adventurous and don’t mind a slight visible seam in the tail.

The realistic legs are wired with pipe cleaners, but the pattern also includes tips for omitting the pipe cleaners if you want your iguana to be baby-safe.

As with all my crochet patterns from now and going forward, any pieces not worked in simple amigurumi style include a stitch diagram in addition to the written instructions, so you can use whichever instructions work best for your learning style. And, as always, photos aid with every step of the assembly, so you can be confident you’ll be able to make a perfect iguana too.

I hope you’ll enjoy my latest pattern! If you’d like to jump right into iguana-making, you can pick up the Iguana amigurumi crochet pattern right now from my shop. Or, if you’re not quite ready to buy, why not favourite/queue it on Ravelry so you don’t forget about it?

My sweet Maui just celebrated his 9th birthday, so it was time for me to make a new cat toy. Here’s the handsome birthday boy:

We adopted Maui from a shelter when he was a year old. He’s been our constant companion through 3 house moves and a move halfway around the world, and he’s adapted quickly to every change – if we’re with him, he’s happy (and vice versa).

Maui likes to ‘supervise’ my work by curling up next to me when I’m sitting crocheting on the sofa, and he never, ever steals my yarn – he somehow knows the difference between the crocheted balls that I make for him to maul and the ones that are going to be parts of my amigurumi designs and are not to be touched!

As he’s such a special cat, I wanted to make Maui a special toy for his birthday. The problem is that I’ve made him lots of toys before, and as he still loves the old ones, it’s getting harder to come up with different ideas. So I mixed and matched ideas from some of his other favourite toys, and enlisted my husband’s help for a quick bit of woodwork as the finishing touch.

I started with a crocheted fuzzy ball (based on my Fuzzballs pattern and a good way to use up some eyelash yarn).

I reused the same ‘interesting’ shade of yarn as that Fuzzball in the top right corner, which, despite losing its eyes and mouth many years ago, is still one of Maui’s favourite toys.

Then I added some metallized plastic chocolate wrappers for that irresistible crinkly noise (idea borrowed from last year’s Crinkle Ball Cat Toy tutorial).

These were firm favourites for months but look a bit bedraggled now. I think it may be time to make some replacements – luckily I have a tutorial to remind me of the method 🙂

I scrunched up the chocolate wrappers to stuff inside the ball, and also added a little pouch of catnip. I tied the ball to a long string, and left some dangling lengths of eyelash yarn on the other end of the ball for extra interest. Dave cut down a length of dowel and drilled a hole in one end so I could tie the string to the pole securely. And here’s the result:

It’s a very interactive cat toy: it appeals to sight (dangling yarn tails), sound (crinkly stuffing) and smell (catnip) and brings out Maui’s hunting skills as he runs and jumps after the moving toy. Here’s proof:

You know it’s a good cat toy when the only photos you can take are full of motion blur…

For an older or less active cat, toys on strings are really good for keeping kitty’s interest and enticing him to move, jump, and pounce. A plain ball or mouse gets boring, as it doesn’t move unless kitty moves it or you throw it for him; a ‘fishing line’ toy like this, with a string and a long handle, lets you keep the toy in motion, and your cat interested, without too much effort on your part. I’ve tied strings to toys before, but the pole makes it much easier to jerk the toy about enticingly…

Maui definitely likes his birthday present – I’ll call that mission accomplished!

The invisible decrease (invdec) is one of the two absolutely essential techniques for making beautifully neat amigurumi (the other being, of course, the magic ring). But invdec is a little tricky to get the hang of, and there are 2 points during the decrease where you can accidentally lengthen your stitch so it isn’t neat and tight, and the resulting decrease will be far more obvious.

Today I’d like to demonstrate these invdec problem points, so you know where the pitfalls are, and how to avoid them. You’ll find this tutorial useful if:

• You’re new to the invisible decrease technique (watch my video tutorial before you continue reading this!)
• You’ve tried invdec but been disappointed by your results
• Your invdecs look inconsistent, gappy, or too prominent
• You want your amigurumi to look as good as possible!

A Note about Tension

Although maintaining consistent tension on your yarn is a skill you need to master in order to crochet anything beautifully, it’s vitally important for amigurumi, as you need your stitches to be tight and even to produce the regular, firm amigurumi fabric that allows us to create complex ami shaping, and hides your stuffing. I’ve seen some people recommend that you tug on your yarn after every stitch to tighten it up, but that isn’t necessary if you maintain consistent tension.

Tensioning your yarn is a balance between the hook pulling forward and your other hand pulling backward.

How do you do that? Well, while your hook is pulling the yarn forward, your non-hook hand is simultaneously pulling back on the yarn, so you use a controlled amount of yarn to form each stitch. (You probably do this without even realising you’re doing it; if the yarn could just slide freely through your fingers with no tension, your hook would pull up large, inconsistent loops, and your crochet would look sloppy.)

When I talk below about pulling back on the yarn so the working loop is tight around your hook, the goal is to bring the tension back to your standard level, so the working loop should be the same size and tightness as it is for all your other stitches. If you go too far and pull it extra-tight, you’ll just make it more difficult to work back into that stitch in the following round.

Perfecting the invdec

If you look at the top of an invdec stitch, you’ll see there’s a ‘V’ at either side of the decrease. (As invisible decreases are practically indistinguishable from the surrounding stitches, I’ve crocheted my samples with the invdecs and the surrounding top loops in a different colour, so you can see what I’m talking about!)

Left: The source of the problems is these extra-long Vs at the top of the stitches surrounding the invdec.
Right: Invdec done right, with the Vs the same length as in the surrounding stitches.

These two Vs (A and B) are the culprits – if either or both of these is lengthened, there’ll be extra space around the invdec and it can look gappy or sloppy.

Left: The lengthened Vs have left a larger gap at either side of the invdec.
Right: Invdec is indistinguishable from the surrounding stitches (except for my helpful colour change!)

Loop A

Checkpoint: When you begin an invdec stitch, as you’re swinging the hook around to get the tip through both front loops, the working loop (the one that was already on your hook before you started the stitch) tends to loosen up.

Fix this: Once you’ve inserted your hook under the 2 front loops, and before you yarn over, tug the yarn to make sure the working loop is still tight on your hook and hasn’t lengthened.

Left: Lengthened working loop on hook will cause a loose stitch.
Right: Tightened loop – perfect!

Loop B

Checkpoint: After you complete the invdec, you’ve just turned 2 stitches into 1 stitch, and your hook is now further back than it usually would be for starting a new stitch. So this is another point where your yarn can make an extra-long loop, as you bring your hook forward over that extra distance to begin the next stitch.

Left: The position of the hook after a sc stitch.
Right: After an invdec, the hook is further back (dotted line marks the usual position), so there’s a greater distance to reach the next stitch.

Fix this: Make sure you keep tension on your yarn, so the loop on your hook doesn’t stretch out as you insert your hook into the stitch after the invdec. (If, after inserting your hook to begin the next stitch, you see the working loop has lengthened, just pull the yarn so the working loop is tight around your hook again, before you yarn over and continue with the stitch.)

Left: Lengthened working loop after inserting hook into next stitch.
Right: Tightened loop – perfect!

Multiple Decreases

The potential problem is doubled when you’re working 2 invdecs in a row, as you have the ‘too far back’ effect (Checkpoint B) and the ‘swinging the hook’ effect (Checkpoint A) both acting on the same loop, so you should make a little extra effort to be conscious of the size of the loop on your hook, and make sure it stays tight and doesn’t lengthen.

* * *

With a little extra effort to make sure you’re maintaining consistent tension, even while you decrease, your stitches will all stay the same size, and your invdecs will be as invisible as advertised!

Loved this tutorial? I have so many more amigurumi tips and tricks to share with you!

Boost your amigurumi skills with my latest book, The Essential Guide to Amigurumi, your comprehensive guide to amigurumi techniques and tips.

Do you find my tutorials helpful? If so, please consider making a contribution towards my time so I can continue to create clear and concise tutorials for you:

Thank you so much for your support! Now click below for loads more crochet video and photo tutorials (and do let me know what else you’d like me to cover in future tutorials…)