Book review- Amigurumi knits

Firstly apologies for the photos, they are rather dark and as you can probably tell taken inside with a flash (lousy weather).

I thought I would have a quick chat about Amigurumi Knits by Hansi Singh.

I think a lot of people who are on Ravelry will have seen some of Hansi Singh's designs, all sorts of fantastic critters made in amazing detail.

This book has some of the best patterns (entirely my opinion), although I have to admit the range is a little odd, from fruit and veggies to sea critters and mythical beasts. The octopus is particularly super, you can see him on the front cover.

I had a go at two patterns, the snail and the Loch Ness monster they have been seen before as FOs.

The first thing I have to say is I would not really agree that they are Amigurumi. To me amigurumi is small, about the size of your palm, I made these in sock yarn and they are still pretty big, easily the size of my whole hand. If they were made in the suggested Cascade yarns they would be quite large soft toys. They are knitting though, no quibble there :D.

The patterns are massively detailed, which makes them look super but also means they take a long time to make, seriously a really long time. You think "ooh a little squishy toy that will take an hour or so", not even close! This is not a bad thing, but something you should maybe be warned about before starting.

The start of the book has a really detailed techniques section, this is very useful and saved me a lot of time as there were things I would need to have looked up online as I went.

I did struggle with both of the patterns I made at one point, it was  case of Ravelry to the rescue as it seems a lot of people had trouble with the same points I did. I think some sort of schematic might have been useful. You need to read the directions very carefully, maybe a couple of times and look hard at the pictures. In the end I couldn't get the belly right on Nessie so made up a new pattern for it.

One of the best things about these was the technique practise. There are a lot of short rows and grafting so if you need to warm up on these this would be a good way.

I would really recommend this book, but I do think you need to be aware of the points above. The toys are so very cute and definitely worth the effort.