I know it’s very late, but Happy Chinese New Year nonetheless, and to celebrate it I made a rabbit amigurumi for the year of the rabbit!

Here I made the rabbit amigurumi celebrate against a Chinese New Year-inspired backdrop.  The fancy decorations in the background are actually red envelopes, and to top it off I added a little Chinese chocolate gold nugget too.  May the new year bring much luck, happiness, and prosperity to us all!!

I think the most important part of this rabbit amigurumi is the shape of its ears.  I basically crocheted a test tube shape (please excuse the crude image comparison, lab geek talking here), pinched the bottom open end of it to create a concave shape, and sewed it in place onto the head.  I wanted to achieve a 3-D effect, rather than just a flat shape for the ears.  To finish off this rabbit amigurumi’s ears, I cut out a smaller test tube shape from pink felt, lined the inner ears with it and glued it in place.  Sounds pretty simple, but actually sewing the ears in place with that concave shape is kind of difficult, so if you’re ever going to do something similar, it may take a few tries but it’s so worth it!

Which reminds me, someone once asked me what kind of glue I use for my amigurumis.  The answer is Aleene’s tacky glue, which I buy from either Michaels or Joann’s, whichever store is having a sale or gives me a coupon.  The only reason I use it is that’s what was lying around the house at the time I started crafting.  It is definitely much better than using regular school glue, a mistake I once made when I used school glue to stick felt polka dots onto a mushroom amigurumi I made for a friend’s birthday, only to find that all the dots fell off within 2 hours (that, and my friend wasn’t exactly “gentle” with my handiwork either…)!  Just a little bit of tacky glue goes a long way too, because when you slather on a bunch onto a small piece of felt it soaks through to the other side of the felt and doesn’t stick very well because it’s so wet.  The felt piece also hardens as it dries with too much glue, and maintaining the softness of the felt is important for both visual and tactile purposes.  I’ve always wanted to try hot glue, but never got around to it.  If anyone has better suggestions, please share!

Ok, I’ll stop talking about glue now.  You’re probably thinking, “Gosh how much can someone talk to me about glue?!”  I know I can be pretty wordy, but I just wanted to share my experiences with glue with you. 

Back to the rabbit amigurumi…of course with Easter coming up and all, I couldn’t resist making this rabbit amigurumi an Easter rabbit too!

The eggs were cut from felt, stuffed and sewn together, and then decorated with some glittery glue.  My sister’s handiwork – she’s so good with small details.

Oh, and the tail was crocheted from Joann Sensations Beautiful Yarn.  It’s super soft, and so fuzzy – perfect for creating contrast with the worsted weight yarn I used for the body.  I know it sounds wrong, but I find myself pinching the tail a lot because it’s so soft!  Don’t worry, the rabbit hasn’t turned around to bite me yet so it’s all good.

Here’s a side view.  Notice how the ears are sewn on in a concave shape.

After I made this rabbit amigurumi, I liked it so much I decided to make another type of rabbit – a floppy-ear rabbit amigurumi!

The body and everything else is exactly the same as the other bunny.  The only difference is the ears.  The ears on the floppy ear rabbit amigurumi are huge!  If I were to ever make it again, I would definitely use a sport weight yarn instead of worsted weight yarn just for the ears.  But it’s ok, the floppy ear rabbit amigurumi still has a special place in my heart, even if other people think it looks like a dog!

And here the rabbits are very happy together.  All of a sudden, I can’t wait for spring to come!  If you’re interested, you can purchase a plush rabbit amigurumi of any color you’d like at my Etsy.

As always, thank you for looking!  Please stay tuned as I attempt to make all the animals of the Chinese zodiac!  So far, I have more than half done and will be posting them as time permits.  Oh, and one last bit of info – my monkey amigurumis were chosen for the 2012 Crochet Me Amigurumi Calendar!  The patterns for the monkeys, and also a pattern for a polar bear (fondly named Polar Lucibear) will be included in the calendar!  Thank you very much to all who have expressed interest in a pattern for the monkeys.  Please wait patiently with me for publication of the calendar to get your copy of the pattern!  I’ll be sure to update you on the calendar’s status.

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Since I had to make up a pattern for Artoo and I didn’t write it down the first time, I had to clone him.

Twin Artoos!

And no, you are not seeing wrong.  Indeed, one Artoo is bigger than the other.  Let’s just say one is more "fit" for survival than the other in the womb.

Then, my dad asked me to make one for his co-worker’s son, so I cloned him again.  Now, for the time being, I have 3 Artoos! And for some funny reason, Artoo 003 got even BIGGER!  It’s ok, the bigger the better.

I must admit, it is kinda scary seeing so many Artoos.  It’s like having an army of Artoos, except they’re made of yarn and their main weapon is their cuteness.  Don’t worry, worse comes to worse, just throw ‘em at your enemies!  That’ll catch them off guard for sure!

Tea party with Artoo anyone?

Here’s a dramatic shot!

What have I learned after making THREE Artoos?  Just because you’ve made it “n” amount of times doesn’t guarantee you’ll get the same exact thing each time.  I would say I like the later 2 Artoos better, because my techniques got better.  Although my brother said he likes the original the best still.  To each their own, I suppose!

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Finally, the R2D2 amigurumi pattern is OUT!! You can find it at my etsy shop: janama.etsy.com

The story behind R2D2:

My brother’s birthday was coming up, and I needed to give him something. Buying presents for him was always a challenge, especially since I am still a poor grad student and he’s already working. It just so happened I started crocheting as a hobby, and decided making him something meaningful would be nicer than buying him something lame and cheap.

I knew he liked star wars a lot, so I started thinking of all the star wars characters I could make out of yarn. I surfed the web for star wars patterns, came across a lot of yodas and ewoks and other characters, and was blown away by their cuteness. I thought Artoo would definitely be cute since he’s a robot and no one would expect a robot to be made of yarn! Started searching for the pattern, and unfortunately, didn’t find any. So I was determined to make my own!

Of course, I needed some help. I had only started crocheting 2 months ago and still didn’t know how to sew limbs onto amigurumis very well. So I consulted my little sister, who is much better at sewing and cutting and being extra neat, to help me out. After much trial and error in getting the right proportions, and painstakingly cutting out laser-precise felt pieces, Artoo was finished.

But, before we actually gave it to my brother, we were adding some finishing touches, and he happened to catch a glimpse of it before I could smoothly hide it away! He immediately identified it as Artoo, and our surprise was spoiled, but he was still happy to have him finally on his birthday. He blogged about Artoo on coderetard.com, others blogged about it, and eventually Artoo made his way to the Official Star Wars Blog. It was truly an honor.

So, what started out simply as a birthday present for my star wars fan brother has become something I never would have imagined could happen. To have so many people see Artoo and enjoy him is very meaningful to me. Many thanks for everyone’s feedback and comments!

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