I was about 8 or 9 years old when I first tried crocheting. My grandma has been making amazing yarn creations for as long as I can remember, and at some point I decided I wanted to learn. I made pink-and-purple striped scarf, but I never really went any further than that until this past summer.
Around August, I re-learned how to crochet, and went far beyond what I attempted the first time. I tried amigurumi—the Japanese art of crocheting or knitting yarn dolls—for the first time, and really enjoyed it! Once I had made a couple of practice dolls, I thought it would be neat to make some more as Christmas gifts for my cousins.
The deadline of Christmas seemed like a long time away, so the dolls weren’t really my priority…that is, until about a month or so ago when I realized I was running out of time and started working on them frantically. But that’s just how all time-limited projects work, isn’t it? With school and 2 different plays taking up most of my time, I barely ever got the chance to sit down and crochet, anyway. I still had 4 to go when we drove down to Indiana (where my family lives) for Christmas last week!
Luckily, with some of my cousins spending Christmas Day with family on their other side, our Christmas family gathering was scheduled for today—giving me a few more days to finish all of the dolls. I worked right up until this morning, finishing the last of them about a 20 minutes before people started arriving. Talk about last-minute…
This afternoon, after we ate, I finally got to give the little animals out during our gift exchange. Making them took a lot of time, dedication, and hard work, but watching my cousins as they opened up the gifts really made it all worth it.
I will be posting pictures of all of the animals individually, with links to the patterns included. Merry Christmas everyone!
