The Process.
Have you ever wondered how crafters do what they do? Have you ever seen a blanket, shawl, or doll and thought that it looks so complex you could never do it?
I’ve been there.
Although I have been crocheting for a while, I still get those feelings of awe when I see a particularly crazy pattern or photo of someone else’s work. My work takes longer than others as I have a near obsessive compulsive need to have every stitch look perfect or have as my sister calls it “perfect tension” but that is exactly the mentality that you need when you are developing items that you plan to sell. This post won’t be a full accounting of the process I go through to create an amigurumi but it will give you an idea as to what needs to be done for custom pieces and why they cost so much.
When someone orders a custom amigurumi the first thing I do is write down the different pieces that I need in order to create it. Does it need a head? How many legs or arms? Each piece is then assigned a color based on the character or customer’s wishes. I use 100% cotton yarn for all my amigurumis if possible as it has a cleaner finish than others and won’t become stretched out over time like some acrylic yarns may.
My next step is to determine if there are any other patterns I have created in the past that have a similar shape that I can modify or emulate. A leg is a leg…is a leg…is a leg…you get the idea. As I work the piece I write every row and stitch count down. If it doesn’t work right it gets erased and reworked. Recently you may have seen a post on my Instagram account where I showed the ugly side of crochet. The frogging, so called due to the “ribbit” sound that occurs when you pull out your stitches quickly, happens often in custom work as you develop the pattern. Not every piece is going to work out the first time. That fluffy ball of snow that was on the back of Snowfluff from Prodigy Math Game took seven tries before I got it anywhere close to what I needed it to look like.
Rows are written down because when you do finally get the piece to be just right, you may need to repeat it for another arm, leg, spike, etc. lest you end up with one shorter than the other!
Finally when all the pieces are ready, they get stuffed and sewn together. I take some photos to post to Instagram and Facebook, box them up and ship them off. It is at that moment that the pride really creeps up on you for what you created and also the hope that the recipient will be just as enthusiastic over the creature as you are!
