My Army of Cute!! MUAHAHAAHAAAAH!!!!

For a while now I've been toying with the idea of learning the art of needle felting, so I finally decided to buy a book that will teach me how. I plan to start with little animals and work my way up to designing my own line of superheros...I'm thinking I'll just ride the Hollywood superhero fad: Batman, Spider-man, Hulk, Iron Man and Superman. I want to try to get them all figured out before the next Fan Expo, though, since my friend, Niall, is planning to buy a table so he can sketch for the masses. I figure I'll just steal a little corner and try to hawk my amateurish crafts.

Anyway, while looking for the needle felting book, I came across this and just couldn't pass it up:



Apparently, there's a name for this type of craft: amigurumi - the Japanese art of cute little crochet dolls! I have to thank Tania for sending me a link to some video tutorials on the basics of amigurumi, because I'm really more of a knitter than a crocheter...although I'm not sure why. Crochet is so much easier and faster! I eased my way into amigurumi by tackling two of the "easy" patterns: the grim reaper and the ninja.

Here are my first two attempts:

    



The ninja is missing a little silver throwing star that I need to crochet and stitch under his sash, but I can't find the right embroidery thread...soon, though. Right now he looks a 'lil bland. I like how the grim reaper looks with his hood down, too, and I opted not to give him a spooky mouth - I'm partial to the cute emoticon-ish smile. I made the eyes and the scythe with sculpting clay.

Sadly, I lost my ball of white yarn (did anyone find it on the subway, by chance???), so I couldn't make the other two "easy" patterns in the book. The only other doll I had the right colours for was an "intermediate" doll: Nosferatu. He's not super difficult in terms of the crocheting (they're pretty much just variations of little stuffed balls), but he has so many little pieces to him (ears, collar, buttons) that it takes just as long to stitch him together as it takes to crochet him! He's also kinda tricky cuz he's hunched over and front-heavy, so you have to stuff him in such a way that he won't fall flat on his face. He's pretty much the best one, though. See for yourself!

    

Well, I probably won't try any other patterns until I get some more yarn. I need lime green so I can try my hand at that Cthulu! I've got his eyes all ready to glue on! I'm pretty sure I can handle the "intermediate" ones, but I'm not so sure about the "epic" dolls, like the monkey. EPIC!!! Yikes! Again, the main difference really seems to be all the extra accessories and the complex assembly. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.

As for the needle felted animals and superheroes, Fan Expo isn't for another year...right?? :P