Hello New Cute Animal Makers

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Over the weekend I caught up with all my Blogstar Friends over at Spa mill. We saw the new yarns and patterns from Stylecraft for the Spring Summer. I took a couple of my animals from my book Cute Crocheted Animals and my friend Sandra Cherry Heart said that she would like to try my book and have a go at making one of the animals. Go over to her podcast 42 to see how she got on. I am so very excited. I wanted to give you a little background to why I designed the patterns and wrote the book.

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My childhood memories

I have very distinct childhood memories of sitting in my own imaginary world playing with my toys. I was very fond of one particular pretty rag doll,  happy dress her for bed, settle her in a small wooden toy cot and smooth her woolen hair as I imagined her drifting off to sleep. The play-acting of the nurturing role is universal I think. An added joy is to choose and dress toys – creatively putting different combinations of clothes, shoes and accessories together.

All of these moments of play and flights of fantasy are such a precious part of a carefree childhood. It occurred too me that it would be delightful to create animal characters that could be dressed, loved and cuddled for a new generation.

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Design development

Over the years I have designs and developed lots of different animal patterns and I really enjoy making rabbits. I was commissioned to make a lovely bunny for Inside Crochet Magazine and that bunny was dressed a a pretty Liberty print dress. Over time I kept thinking it would be great to develop a whole wardrobe of clothes for a bunny. I also wanted to develop my pattern design to make the toy easier to dress.

I started talking to my publishers at GMC, and we began thinking about different animals I could create and the kind of outfits I could design. It was lots of fun and soon little characters began to emerge. I drew the animals and their outfits first and then I had conversations and email discussions with my precious editor Wendy. The outfits are intended to have a quintessentially English style. Children I know should recognise and like the clothes which their animal will wear.

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That must be me!

Each animal in the book has a character of its own. A couple of weeks ago I visited my oldest friends and their children. I had taken a copy of the book with me to see what they thought. I sat quietly in an adjoining room listening to their conversation; ‘That cat is definitely me, listen to the description – that is me!’ ‘Well we all know I am the fox… I love her cardigan…’. Such precious sounds. A happy smile spread across my face as the imagination of young people was sparked.

When you make things with you loved ones in mind then, nothing is more satisfying then to hear them participate and enjoy the journey with you and get the joy of creating small toys which have a character of their own. If you get to see the book, even if you can’t crochet – I hope you will see and read the humour within it. Some of it is my own crazy imagination, lots of it is due to the fabulous creativity of my editor Wendy and designer Rachel, who captured the joy of the project too.

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I hope you will like it and will be able to think of someone you could make an toy for.

9 thoughts on “Hello New Cute Animal Makers”

  1. I love this book, and so far, have made one bear, complete with dress, shoes, coat, handbag, hat and scarf. I will make more, the instructions are clear, and the actual toy didn’t take too long to make.

  2. Pingback: Hello New Cute Animal Makers – Crochet Portal

    1. I am so sorry Anita, I am not sure it will be published in Dutch. I must ask the publishers to look into it. x

  3. I am also having trouble with bear’s snout. I have tried your tip on adding character but it still doesn’t produce a snout. I am certain there is a problem with the pattern for the one. Please can you help?

    1. Dear Carys,
      So sorry you are having problems. I have seen lots of lovely bears made so it does come down to trial and error. I would say that if you use a safety nose with a shank, then the circular fastener creates a good shape for the nose. Then I make sure I use a good wad of stuffing in the nose and make sure the eyes are tethered to the back of the head as suggested in the video tutorial.
      Thanks
      Emma

      1. Thank you for your quick response. I’ve found adding in 2 extra rounds between rows 3 and 4 has done the trick. I love the book, and have had great success with the rabbits! They are brilliant.

        1. Oh, your cat is gorgeous! I have a 2 year old cat that is VERY fluffy, black and white and looks like a kitten. I have another too, Charlie.

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