a couple years ago I started to see these adorable
crocheted animals or amigurumi that others were making and sharing online and I had to make them
myself but as I learned to make them I noticed there were some things that I had learned over
the years and some crochet tips I found online that I needed to ignore if I wanted to make these
well so in today's video I'm going to go over some common crochet tips that I do not recommend
you follow as an amigurumi beginner and what I recommend you
do instead and throughout
the video you may notice the single most important thing I recommend you do to really
Skyrocket your progress so let's get started I learned to crochet at the age of 10 making
blankets with my grandmother and she taught me to always use the hook size shown on the yarn
label and yes this is very important when making blankets or apparel this helps you achieve
the correct gauge which ensures your finished item is the correct size however using the hook
size recommen
ded on the yarn label is the first thing you need to ignore when making amigurumi
and here's why this is yarn B velvety smooth Hobby Lobby brand yarn which states on the
label to use a nine millimeter crochet hook so I decided to make a crocheted ball using this
recommended hook size and as you can see there are a lot of large gaps in the stitches especially
where there is an increase or decrease in stitches and many times you will see the stuffing through
these stitches now here is an elep
hant I made recently using this same yarn but instead of using
a nine millimeter hook I used a four millimeter crochet hook Instead This is five sizes smaller
and as you can see this makes the stitches nice and snug and makes for a much nicer cleaner
looking finished project and this is true for any yarn type by the way here is another ball I
made with red heart Super Saver medium weight yarn using a 5.5 millimeter hook recommended and as you
can see there are large gaps like before [Music]
and here is another ball I made using the same
yarn but using a three millimeter hook instead and you can see the same result as
before there are no gaps and it is a much better finished product
with a smaller crochet hook so lucky for you achieving the correct gauge
is not necessary when creating amigurumi but unfortunately there is no rule of thumb
here I can't say to always use a hook size two sizes smaller based on these examples
I gave you it could vary so I recommend you experiment
with hook sizes and anytime
you're working with a new type or brand of yarn try different size yarn hooks to see
what gives you these nice snug stitches and maybe even make a note of it so you know
what hook size you need for that specific yarn speaking of yarn another tip that you might see
is a beginner should start with medium or worsted weight yarn [Music] earlier this year my teenage
daughter told me she wanted to learn how to make amigurumi I was thrilled so as the tip says she
start
ed with a medium weight yarn and since she wanted to make Emma gurumi I instructed her to
use a smaller hook size well she had a hard time with it she struggled holding the yarn and holding
the hook even when she was able to create Stitches the tension was all over the place so I suggested
you try blanket yarn instead and after just one day of using the blanket yarn and a slightly
bigger hook adequate for that yarn type she was enjoying it she was able to hold it well and
the yarn and hook
were gliding much easier for her so her Stitch tension was much better and
she's been making tons of amigurumi ever since now I know they say it's harder to see the
stitches on these blanket Yarns but we have found that not to be true always but I would be
careful of a couple of things do not use dark yarn with darker yarn it is much more difficult
to see the stitches also some of the extra thick blanket Yarns and even some fluffier Chenille
Yarns are hard to see especially those super fluf
fy Yarns so stay clear of those my daughter
used white brunette blanket yarn and found that really easy to use so if you've been struggling
with medium or worsted weight yarn I encourage you to experiment with a lighter colored lower
pile blanket yarn and you may find better success another tip I see a lot is that a beginner
should start to read and understand patterns well I say don't at least not yet again when
my daughter started to learn she focused on following YouTube tutorials it wor
ked out great
for her to see someone else doing it and walking her through the pattern row by row after watching
some videos and making some finished items she has since began to try out some written patterns
online she has been able to connect what she did in those video tutorials with how it looks
written in a pattern she connected that new pattern information to things she already knew
and it really sped up her learning so I say skip the written patterns for now and simply focus on
vide
o tutorials there are tons of free amigurumi patterns available on YouTube that are from
some very talented creators I also recommend you experiment with tutorials that you think may be
too difficult for you they may have other stitches that you haven't tried before it really is the
fastest way to speed up your learning process next tip I want to talk about is you can just frog
your work frogging your work is a fun phrase we use when you undo your work or rip it rip it
out we do this if we
make a mistake or simply don't like how the project is looking this can
happen a lot when you're first learning however I want to encourage you to not get stuck in that
perfectionist mindset when you're first learning amigurumi especially when you make your first
project we can get stuck in this Loop you're working on your project and you don't like how
it's turning out so you frog it so you start again and you think you know what the next row of
stitches are because you just did it but you
make a mistake and have to frog it again and then
you're just flustered at this point and make another mistake and now you just want to walk away
from the whole thing instead just keep going and finish it imperfections and all put this project
aside and make another one and maybe even a third I promise when you compare the third one to your
first one you're going to see an improvement and here's a little bonus tip when I first started
it was really difficult for me to purchase some yarn an
d not end up with an item that I was
proud of or an item I would even consider selling your first item maybe even your first few
items are not going to be good enough to sell so account for some of your yarn to be
used solely for Learning and experimenting so did you catch the single most important
thing I recommend as you learn this new skill maybe you're starting this as a
hobby to relax and be creative maybe you're working towards selling your
finished amigurumi projects either way so I
recommend you experiment I encourage you
to experiment I recommend you experiment solely for Learning and experimenting the more you
experiment and yes make mistakes as you do the quicker you will learn and you will begin to
really enjoy the process and if you stick with it you will make amazing things if you made
it to the end of this video I would love it if you said hello in the comments below I'll see
you guys there and I'll see you in the next one
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