Amigurumi Crochet Craze

Amigurumi is one of the most popular crafts crazes at the current time. With a strange name it can be hard to pronounce but easy to become addicted!

I have been crocheting for about 3 months now, and i absolutely love it. I know it can be seen as an 'older person's' hobby, but it really is a relaxing activity!

The difference between amigurumi (orriginated in Japan) and crochet, is that amigurumi is 'in the round' so you start of with a circle and you work your way around and around. For this reason it is extremely easy for first time crochet-ers and knitters to take up the hobby. It is also very easy to make plush's from this technique, and this is how it is primarily used.

Sackboy from Little Big Planet is a knitted/crochet dude who wears many costumes throughout the Playstation game. Now he is a popular character and i have made him several times using the amigurumi technique.

The reason it is so easy is that you increase your stitches until you have a wide enough circle then decrease until you close the piece together, thereby forming arms and legs and body parts which you stitch together to make your final piece.

Etsy and ebay are fantastic places to sell your hand made crafts. Etsy is a great place to sell anything handmade-in fact you can only sell handmade items on Etsy, so for this reason it has a dedicated market.

Ebay, on the other hand, has a much larger audience with millions of sellers and buyers surfing the ebay marketplace daily. I have sold 90% of all my hand crafts on Ebay-especially my amigurumi creations.

Amigurumi is so easy and it can literally take you 1 or 2 hours to complete a piece.

There are many instructional videos online that teach you the individual technique for amigurumi, such as; Hookandneedles.com. There are also many tutorials on youtube which show you step by step on how to perform specific crochet techniques.

But firstly you will need your materials and pattern-and you wont know which materials to use until you have your pattern! There are many places to get amigurumi patterns from, and many people sell their own on Etsy and ebay. However for a beginner you may not wish to invest anything just yet, so this website (http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com) is fantastic for obtaining free patterns to download and print.

Once you have your pattern, you will see the list of materials needed, generally a 3 or 4 mm hook and some yarn (ensure the yarn is appropriate for the hook size) and maybe some buttons for eyes or doll eyes if you can get them.

Once you have your materials and pattern its time to start watching tutorials to get the stitches down-pat, and start creating amigurumi!

You can turn this into a part time (or full time) home business if you are dedicated enough. I can personally make around 70$ a week casually from crochet amigurumi by selling them on Etsy and Ebay. Its not hard to start, its very cheap to start (one ball of wool will last you 3 or 4 projects) and it provides you with a sense of satisfaction! AND the best part is, it can be a fantastic gift idea for children and adults alike!

Happy crocheting!