Amigurumi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Amigurumi (Japanese: from amu (編む, to knit) and nuigurumi (縫い包み, stuffed toy) is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. Amigurumi are typically cute animals (such as bears, rabbits, cats, dogs etc), but can include inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features. Amigurumi can be knitted, but the vast majority of amigurumi are crochet.
Amigurumi are usually crocheted out of yarn. The simplest designs are worked in spirals. In contrast to typical Western crochet the rounds are not usually joined. They are also worked with a smaller size needle in proportion to the weight of the yarn in order to create a very tight-looking fabric without any gaps through which the stuffing might escape. Amigurumi are worked in sections and then joined. The extremities are often stuffed with plastic pellets to give them a life-like weight, while the rest of the body is stuffed with fiber stuffing.
The pervading aesthetic of amigurumi is cuteness, or kawaii. To this end, typical amigurumi animals have an over-sized spherical head on a cylindrical body with undersized extremities.
