I have a few quirks, I’ll be upfront about that. Some of them are principled, and some aren’t. Hopefully, someday, this page will turn into a beautiful statement of my design philosophy. Right now, I’ll address a couple of burning issues you may have.
crocheting through the back loop
If you’ve read any of my FreshStitches patterns, you’ll notice that I always crochet through the back loop. I didn’t know that this was unusual until I discovered Ravelry, where many crocheters deem what I do as ‘weird’. Fine, maybe it is.
I learned to crochet from my mom, who, bless her heart, only crochets ‘ripple afghans’. These afghans make use of crocheting through the back loop to create a ripple-y texture in the afghan. Well, I didn’t really know that, and I thought that was how crocheting was done.
Since then, I’ve grown really fond of the look of crocheting through the back loop in the round. Besides the cute little ridges that it makes, it has a few benefits. It makes a thinner fabric (great for felting), it allows you to make cool shapes like rectangles by alternating with the front loop, and the decreases are pretty darn invisible. So, I’ve stuck with it. Weird or not.
Of course, you’re free to do things however you want. With most of my patterns, it doesn’t make a difference if you want to crochet through both loops. No hurt feelings, here.
crocheting stuffed animals
Most amigurumi are tiny little animals. I’m not too sure why, but mine are about 8″ tall. Why? Because that’s how big my favorite stuffed animal was when I was a kid. I believe that stuffed animals are for hugging, and that’s the size I feel is the minimum for such a purpose.
I actually really like my felted animals, because they are about 12″ tall, and REALLY squeezable. But, for practical purposes, I try to design most of my animals to use about a skein of yarn or less- because I think that’s what people feel like using. You can let me know if I’m wrong…
minimal extras
When designing amigurumi, I try to keep ‘extras’ to a minimum. You won’t need to applique felt to my patterns, or add beads, or insert metal wire to make them stand in cute shapes. I just use yarn, stuffing and animal eyes/noses.
…just a little note, I’m in the middle of redesigning my blog- to make it super-full of information. If this page seems a bit sparse, you’re right! It is! I’m not done yet, though… it will get better…eventually.
