Amigurumi!!

I have a serious crush on all things Japanese. Well, maybe not all, but I love the design aesthetic in general, and the cutesy, cutesy in specific. Enter amigurumi.

Amigurumi are dolls that are either knitted or crocheted, usually with oversized heads, that are anthropomorphic, but generally feature animal elements - like bunny ears or a tail - or are animals with anthropomorphic features. You get the picture. The bottom line? They are cute. Like super cute. Makes you squee and scream a little cute.

They are also a pain in the ass to make. I am speaking from experience here. Like any project, the devil's in the details. Amigurumi are endlessly customizable, but also require so many little touches to make - like embroidered eyebrows, or a fun fur wig. And anyone who has ever even looked at fun fur knows, it ain't actually all that fun. Poorly executed amigurumi look downright creepy, though, to be fair, some of them are intended to be creepy. And because amigurumi are so customizable, they can easily be re-purposed into the counterculture crafting category. (Go alliteration!) One of my favorite examples of this is Strawbeary from Beth Doherty's "Amigurumi: Super Happy Crochet Cute!". Someone re-imagined this sweet little girl/bear as a bad-ass punk chick (Ravelry link), complete with hot pink mohawk. I. Love. It. There are endless variations, from Captain Jack Sparrow (seriously?! so cute! I wonder if Johnny Depp would return my phone calls if I sent him one of these?) to Star Wars characters and ZOMG Futurama! (She also has Lord of the Rings characters. I heart her.)

Having recently completed a Strawbeary of my own, I can appreciate that anyone can make a cute amigurumi, but it takes some special attention to detail to make it "super happy crochet cute". My fun fur wig, for example, sits just a bit too high and forward. It should, ideally speaking, cover the top of the head form and come down to the back of the neck. I should have stretched it around a bit more, or been less lazy about repositioning it. But once I got that monstrosity on there, I really wasn't up to pulling out the stitches and trying again. It falls into the "not perfect but good enough" category.

Now that I have some experience with it, I'm thinking about re-imagining some of the designs in the book - the Punk Bunny, for example, as a girl with leggings and tunic. (Keeping the skull, natch!) I'm also imagining Hep Cat as a girl. She wears black and patchouli perfume and she is bored with your affectations of culture. I'm pretty excited about making her. In fact, the beret looks so good, I think I'll make some for my actual cats. They like stuff on their heads, right?