craft crochet along panda
I decided to join the CRAFT Crochet-Along to make a Fuzzy Panda Amigurumi this month. I thought it would be interesting to put the results of my brushed crochet experiment into action, plus I could connect with more crocheters, and maybe it would be be relaxing to make someone else’s pattern for a change!
Me being me, I couldn’t resist tweaking the pattern in a couple of places. Here are my changes, in case you’d like to make a panda like mine:
- I’m sensitive to wool, so I used acrylic yarns: Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice for the white and Red Heart Soft for the black
- I spaced out the increase and decrease rounds on the head to make it a more rounded and less boxy shape
- I added a few extra rounds on the body and limbs to make them longer
- I used solid black animal eyes with a white felt ring behind to make the eyes stand out from the black eye patches and give him that slightly worried expression
- I changed the position of the eyes, the shape of the nose, and skipped the mouth altogether
And here’s my result:
Click through for larger pic at Flickr
It was a fun diversion to make the panda, and I think it definitively proves that you can brush acrylic yarn, so don’t be scared to try it for yourself 🙂
The Crochet Along is still going if you’d like to join up and make your own panda! You can check out the pandas everyone’s been making in their Flickr pool.
Rika-chan said
*_* I love it!!! 😀 It’s just so adorable x3 I’m gonna try to make one too and give it to my best friend, since she loves pandas ^w^
But sadly i learnt to crochet less than a month ago x.x until now i can crochet only scarves ;_; i’ll have to wait until i’m good enough to make it
jamie said
can you send me the pattern you used for making this panda? as in the one you made not the one you based your pattern from 🙂 thanks!
June said
Jamie, all the info I have on the changes I made is written in my post above. As mine was just a modification of the existing pattern, it wouldn’t have been right for me to publish it as my own design, so I intentionally didn’t keep detailed notes. I’m very sorry I couldn’t help!
Cindy Donovan said
I’ve looked everywhere and haven’t been able to find this panda pattern – my girl scout troop is the Perky Pandas and I wanted to make them one. Can you help me with the pattern, please?
Thanks.
Cindy
June said
Cindy, you can find the pattern PDF on the CRAFT Crochet-Along page I linked to several times in the post above 🙂 Please note that I did make some changes to the pattern, as detailed above, so the pattern won’t make a panda that looks exactly like mine!
happylili said
Hi June !
I’m absolutely in love with your panda, it’s sooo cute and adorable !
I like how shy it looks.
Kisses from France.
June said
Kristee: It’s just 4-round granny squares joined together with a sc edging. I used these great instructions for granny squares. I varied the colours for the 3 inner rounds between pink and linen, and used brown for the 4th round of every square. You can see some of my squares here.
I then held each pair of squares wrong-sides together and single crocheted through the edges of both with the brown yarn (the sc edging gives that ridged appearance between the squares of the finished afghan), and repeated until all the squares were joined. You can see a better pic of the completed afghan (it’s a throw for my office chair) here.
Hope that helps!
Kristee said
June…the Panda is adorable, but I have not joined the Amigurumi craze as of yet. What caught my eye was the Afghan in the background. Is there a pattern you could refer me to for this? Thank you!
Christy said
I wasn’t going to make one, but after seeing how adorable yours is, I might have to reconsider! So cute!
Miriam said
As usual, you work a subtle magic on your creations. Proof? My husband demanded recently that I immediately make him both lemmings and a gecko after seeing them. Good to know you can brush acrylic yarn, as I am completely allergic to wool.
Robyn said
Cute!
Walden said
The first one is cute, but I think yours is adorable and more panda-like.
melissa said
hi june!
oh he is wonderful!
i LOVE him!
Katherine said
Love love love your Panda, I am currently in the middle of creating my panda using the same pattern.
I have only been crocheting for about 2 weeks so I hope I dont get too stuck :o)