I won't deny it. I LOVE cutsie Japanese things. Anything and everything made and packaged over in those lovely archipelagoes just sends me squee-ing with glee. So when stumbled upon the world of amigurumi, I nearly died.
I'd been crocheting now for only a couple of years. I was actually
introduced to it as a very young child, but I just didn't get it at 7 years old. Then several years ago I tried picking up knitting. Although I could soon make a square pot holder to win a blue ribbon and scarves filled every nook of my house (and my friends') I could never really master anything more than that. Then I tried crocheting again. I think somehow learning to knit first helped. Holding the tension with only one little needle was much easier than doing it with two long ones. And I was off. In no time I was making things of all sorts; baby outfits, shoes, hats, scarves, blankets... but I got bored fast. I needed something fun and exciting. Enter Amigurumi! Yay!! One small problem... I couldn't read Japanese.
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introduced to it as a very young child, but I just didn't get it at 7 years old. Then several years ago I tried picking up knitting. Although I could soon make a square pot holder to win a blue ribbon and scarves filled every nook of my house (and my friends') I could never really master anything more than that. Then I tried crocheting again. I think somehow learning to knit first helped. Holding the tension with only one little needle was much easier than doing it with two long ones. And I was off. In no time I was making things of all sorts; baby outfits, shoes, hats, scarves, blankets... but I got bored fast. I needed something fun and exciting. Enter Amigurumi! Yay!! One small problem... I couldn't read Japanese.Sooooooo, the website I found, http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/%7Emite/gurumineko/4/amizu1.html , had pictures. And I decided that just from 
those pictures I could figure it out. Hence cat #1 - the grey and white. I was ecstatic! I'd done it! But I still wanted to know what the real pattern was. Then one night as I was instant messaging with my cousin in Thailand she reminded me of AltaVista's Bablefish which is a wonderful website that will translate others (http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr). We were excited. I put in the code. I pressed "Japanese to English". I waited patiently for the site to load and squeed with delight when I saw English on the webpage. Then I started reading it... let's just say, it didn't make a whole lot of sense. But I thought, "hey, no problem, the pattern itself should be easy. Ch1 is Ch1, right?" Wrong. It wasn't difficult to translate the translatoin, however and soon I was on my way to a properly made cat. My daughter had requested a pink one... with a purple flower. Then another cat came to town... and another...
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those pictures I could figure it out. Hence cat #1 - the grey and white. I was ecstatic! I'd done it! But I still wanted to know what the real pattern was. Then one night as I was instant messaging with my cousin in Thailand she reminded me of AltaVista's Bablefish which is a wonderful website that will translate others (http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr). We were excited. I put in the code. I pressed "Japanese to English". I waited patiently for the site to load and squeed with delight when I saw English on the webpage. Then I started reading it... let's just say, it didn't make a whole lot of sense. But I thought, "hey, no problem, the pattern itself should be easy. Ch1 is Ch1, right?" Wrong. It wasn't difficult to translate the translatoin, however and soon I was on my way to a properly made cat. My daughter had requested a pink one... with a purple flower. Then another cat came to town... and another...
Now I'm on my way. Friends and family are asking for cats faster than I can make them. It's fun though and varying the pattern just a tad here and there keeps me intrigued. I look forward to branching out to some of my own designs when I'm done with all these cats! The ideas are brewing already...
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Stay tuned!
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