Читать книгу Adorable Amigurumi - Cute and Quirky Crocheted Critters - Erin Clark - Страница 7

Introduction

Welcome fellow hookers!

My name is Erin, but I go by Voodoo Maggie in the crafty world of the Interwebs. I began my fiber-filled journey years and years ago at the ripe old age of six. Granted all I could manage for several years was a chain stitch, in fact I chained a whole skein of yarn once. But I learned more and more over the years, first the single crochet and making rows, then the magical granny square (after which came my first ever completed project). Eventually I filled in my library of stiches and combinations. I made scarf after scarf, multiplied by about three hundred or so, and a few afghans as well. Then around the age of fifteen I just sort of stopped, I’d hit a wall. Crocheting became boring; it was something I only did at Christmas (enter those several hundred scarves).

Quite a few years later, after the arrival of my second child, I was looking for a way to make a little extra dough so I could stay home with my munchkins. I decided to write down some of the patterns for my scarves and try to sell them on the website Etsy.com. Clearly other people were just as bored with crocheting flat things as I was, because I made a whopping twenty-seven dollars in two years.

Not to be discouraged by my stellar lack of success, I looked for other projects to master. Then I discovered, through some Internet browsing, the magical world of Amigurumi. It was love at first sight, all the things I could I make. I ran out and loaded up on new yarn and hooks and a five-pound box of stuffing. I’ve been at it ever since.

The biggest reason I love it is because it’s like sculpting with yarn. You can add layer after layer until you’ve completed your creations. Or if your like me, pulled out all your stitches (and maybe a bit of hair) and come up with something entirely different than what you were planning on.

Though, as with any new venture, finding a place to start can be the hardest part. My first several patterns never made it much further than the garbage can. I kept trying and failing, unraveling and repeating for quite sometime until I finally got the hang of it and learned how to make what I saw in my head become an actual three-dimensional toy. I could hold in my hands something that I had imagined and could only semi-realize on paper.

Since then I couldn’t imagine a world where I couldn’t crochet and create. Whether it was various fantasy creatures or soft squishy things for my babies to snuggle, Amigurumi has become a part of who I am. A part that I love to share with the world. And it is with a truckload of giddiness that I’ve gathered some of my very favorite patterns, and created some shiny new ones to share with you in the pages of this book. I hope you enjoy making them as much as I enjoyed creating them.

—Voodoo Maggie