Book Review – Yarn Cake Amigurumi by Jacki Donhou

Amigurumi as a crochet trend has been around for a while now, but it continues to steal hearts. Many people I know learn to crochet simply to be able to create their own amigurumi softies.

Yarn Cake Amigurumi: 15 Cute Creatures to Crochet by Jacki Donhou includes patterns to make adorable amigurumi animals. These squishy yarn softies would make the sweetest gifts, though you may have a hard time parting with them yourself!

These sweet little crocheted softies require only basic crochet supplies and are designed to be made from multicolored yarn cakes. With large blocks of several different colors in one cake, you only need to buy one skein for your project. And because they’re all from the same cake, you can know that the colors will all work well together.

The book starts with an overview of the basics, including fully illustrated instructions for the crochet stitches and techniques you’ll need to complete the patterns. Then the real fun starts with all of the patterns. Each pattern includes step by step instruction accompanies with full color photographs showing how to make the steps.

The 15 patterns include these sweet yarn creatures:

Bunti the Bunny

Biscuit the Duck

Hazel the Cow

Aggie the Highland Bull

Tillie the Lamb

Shawarma the Betta

Daisy the Kitten

Jasper the Puppy

Emilio the Axolotl

Jacques the Turtle

Mischa the Otter

Weatherly the Unicorn

Romeo the Donkey

Neville the Alpaca

Garrick the Dragon

Being a crazy cat lady, of course I’m partial to Daisy the Kitten. The example shows her stitched in a gray and white yarn with pops of solid white for paws and tails. How fun would it be to change the yarn up to create a amigurumi kitten that looks like your own cat.

Other patterns I especially love in this book are the Axolotl (sooo cute!) and the Highland Cow (that fluffy mane!)

The Details

ISBN-13: 9781784946678

Author: Jacki Donhou

Price: £14.99

No. of pages: 128

Dimensions: 235 x 210 mm

Color: Full color throughout

Next Pattern:

I am just smitten with this felt gingerbread house bag. This would make such a sweet special Christmas accessory for a kid. It’s a free pattern at Benzie Design, designed by Gracie from Hello Gracie Makes. It’s packed with adorable gingerbread house details, like swirls and stripes and scallops adoring the doors and windows.

And while all those details might seem like this would be a complicated pattern, it’s actually not. The bag itself is made from felt, which makes finishes edges unnecessary. (All of those scalloped edges are just cut from felt, no edge finishing required.) The strap is super simple, made from rope with knotted ends. And all those details are made with some basic hand embroidery stitches. Sparkle felt makes it extra cute.

The striped scallop roof is actually the top flap of the bag. A magnetic snap makes it a secure closure. The rope straps are attached through felt loops at the side of the bag.

They rate this project as an intermediate level, and it should take about 6 hours to make start to finish. That’s doable for a Saturday project or a couple of evenings. Full color photos step you through the entire process.

The project includes a shopping list for all of your supplies. They’ve got a shop so you can order all of them from Benzie if you like and get exactly the supplies used in the project. I noticed it includes a pair of scallop shears, which makes cutting all the scalloped edges for the roof and around the door a breeze.

Finished dimensions of the little felt gingerbread bag are approximately 6 ½” wide x 7 ½” tall. That’s the perfect size to hold a small book, a small toy, or a notepad and some cute pens.

Go to Benzie Design to get the tutorial and free pattern for the felt gingerbread house bag.

Next Pattern:

Have you read?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply