Introducing Nelson and Vera

Last month I attended my first Guild workshop, run by Stacey Trock, a soft toy/amigurumi designer (and blogger and podcaster!) from the US. Two sessions were offered and although I ave crocheted amigurumi before, I wanted to attend if only to support the Guild in running the classes. And I’ve never taken a “professional” craft class before, and there is always new stuff to learn (I don’t believe anyone ever knows it all!).

And I am so glad I did! I most definitely learnt a few things, and had a lot of fun too. Stacey is a great teacher, very personable and fun, and she managed a big group – about 18 people I think – very well. And her designs are really cute!

In the morning session we made a start on Vera the ladybird:

Stacey has an interesting method of making her toys – they really aren’t amigurumi in the way that I’ve made them before, as they are bigger than most amigurumi (admittedly in my relatively limited experience!) and they are made in more pieces. And finally, rather than being made using a very tight gauge (to avoid stuffing showing through) they are made with a regular crochet gauge, and you work into the back loop only of each stitch.

This has a couple of main benefits – much easier on the hands, and it is easy to count rows, as the front loops form a sort of “line” for each row. And the stuffing doesn’t show though!

But as you know, I am not a fan of sewing, and in fact, I didn’t make Vera’s legs because of the fiddly nature of making them and then having to sew them on! There were enough bits and pieces as it was! Head, body, two wings, 6 spots, 2 antennae and 2 eyeballs!

So I’ve made a legless ladybird. Lucky she has wings! Here she is communing with her buddies on my (failed) zucchini plants:

And this is Nelson:

Nelson was our afternoon class project and he taught me a very neat and easy (and cool!) way of doing “intarsia” style crochet in the round. Lots of bits and pieces again, but no shortcuts this time, heh heh!

I was worried about running out of the green yarn, so I gave him striped wings – fortunately, able to hide the colour change jog on the underside of the wing.

I made a bit of a mess of sewing his eyes on, but otherwise I’m quite pleased with how he came together. And Connor immediately claimed both for his cot, hence the delay in blogging them, I kept forgetting to get them out for a photo shoot before his nap!

If you have the chance to do a class with Stacey I recommend it – lots of fun, cute patterns and lots of pattern and other support through her blog, Ravelry group and videos and podcasts! The very model of a modern designer.

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