Friday 19 December 2014

Mini Pets - Snails, Bugs and Frogs amigurumi patterns

My latest pattern, or rather set of patterns, to make tiny amigurumi snails, beetles, spiders and frogs, is now available in my Etsy shop and Ravelry. The creatures, which are quick to make with minimal sewing, also come with the details to make a toadstool play mat and hollow log.


As a child I loved and was fascinated by all types of animals, and was keen to have all sorts of pets, that weren't always practical. I did keep snails for a short while, and repeated the experience with my children. They make great temporary pets, you just find some in your garden and put them in a plastic pet box with some soil and greenery keep them damp and fed, and then return them to the garden after a few weeks.



However, not everyone wants various creepy crawlies in their house, and so for a more cuddly alternative I designed these creatures, so that the little animal lover in your house can play with them any time they want. You can make snails, two different shapes of beetle, including a ladybird (ladybug), spiders with various patterns on their backs, and tiny baby frogs. Their sizes range from 1.5" to 2.5" long.


 

 




You can keep them in a jar or matchbox, but you can also make them a grassy mat for them to play on, with a toadstool in the middle, and a hollow log to climb in. It has a drawstring around the edge so you can turn it into a bag and keep everything safe.




Of course, you can do all sorts of things with these creatures. It's easy to turn them into key chains, or put small magnets inside as you crochet them to make them into fridge magnets. The beetles would make unusual brooches, the spiders are great for Halloween accessories, and you could make the frogs in sets of different colours and use them as game pieces. You can make them as party favours, or stocking fillers, or make lots for a school or church fair. Whatever you do, I hope you'll have fun with them!

7 comments:

Leigh said...

Hi

I love this pattern set and have made a start today! Just doing the grass mat and wanted to check the instructions. The picture looks like it should all be dc but the increase rounds alternate dc and sc. should I be using sc for the mat?

Leigh

LucyRavenscar said...

Hi Leigh, sorry about that, the grass mat should be all dc. So much amigurumi is sc, I just wrote it automatically! I'm correcting the pattern now and will upload the corrected version to Etsy and Ravelry, so you can download it again.

Lucy

Leigh said...

Thank you. I also assume that since the size of the rounds increase by 12 each time the instructions from round 9 should be 2 dc in 1, dc 7 times, then for round 10 2 dc in 1, dc in next 8 st...

LucyRavenscar said...

You're right, I don't know what happened there. My file did crash at one point when I was writing the pattern, and I had to go back to an earlier version. I thought I'd caught all the corrections again, but I obviously missed those. Sorry!

Anonymous said...

Hi Lucy, just found you via Etsy and wanted to say how much I love your creations. They are so sweet, I bet your children are delighted to have such a clever mummy! I'm making it my new year's resolution to learn crochet in 2015 so will definitely be checking back here! :)

LucyRavenscar said...

Thank you! I hope you end up loving crochet as much as I do.

Debbie said...

Hi, I've recently gotten into amigurumi, and discovered you via your Star Wars creations on Pinterest. I just wanted to say I really love your work!!
I have recently been creating my own designs, but they are very simplistic compared to your little beauties. I hope I can get as good as you sometime, and I will surely be making some of your patterns soon too! Thank you so much for sharing :)
http://inpursuitoftheworthwhile.blogspot.com/2015/04/more-mingurumis.html