Actually, the name of the book Pica Pau and her crochet friends. To be precise, I crocheted something before that, or rather, after 10 years of not crocheting, I tried to crochet a shrimp according to English instructions. Well, the shrimp was interestingly shaped and relatively loosely (unplanned) based on the instructions. (Shrimp 4 was finally as it should be). But my ambition was aroused and I wanted to crochet “properly”, amigurumi to be exact. Am I old-school when I say stuffed animals?
In any case, my medium of choice for inspiration and guidance in a textile area are books. And pretty much one of the first books I came across and liked and in German was Pica Pau 3 (the snail!). Only Pica Pau 3 won’t be out until January (when I want to crochet amigurumi, a week before Christmas) and I wanted to crochet now and not sometime in January. So just order book 1, which at least has very cute little animals and keep your fingers crossed that the book will arrive before Christmas. (My favorite of the puffins is of course a third difficulty guide).
Pick up the book, quickly run to the fabric store, once straight through the wool department. Jup I’m looking for something to crochet the stuffed animal. Oh jeh, that’s thin and what’s in mottled? Understood! Thanks. And another crochet hook. Oh, nice, the wooden handle. (I have a set of crochet hooks, but they are 5 and up, so “minimal” too thick.)
Stuff everything in the backpack in case I get in the mood to crochet during my long train ride. Instead, I had a wonderful chat with my seat neighbor, a former textile machine mechanic (weaving machines). I learned a lot about it there. In short: vegan produced clothing is good (I’m not talking about plastic now. It’s more the use of the products to treat and dye the fabric). Fabric fades forever. We use too much detergent because the detergent just opens up the fibers and doesn’t get the dirt out, the washing machine does that with water and agitation. White fabrics are treated with optical brightening and organic in clothing is a nice label, but nothing more.
After I had leafed through the book in peace, I decided to choose a 1 star model for the first try (I don’t count ugly shrimp there now).
There are only two models in the book with a 1-star pattern: the bat (ugly) and the alligator, which, by sheer coincidence, perfectly matches my mottled green yarn, which I bought on the spur of the moment. The rest of the colors are from Mama’s stock. Then, while crocheting the unknown yarn mix, I realized that some of it is wonderfully suitable for crocheting, while others are just a cramp.
The instructions are written clearly and concisely. It is stated which colors you need, when you have to increase where, the color change, how many stitches per row, etc. If you have never crocheted before, you will find an introduction to all the techniques used in the book at the beginning of the book. The book Pica Pau and her crochet friends really contains everything you need to rework the models. It’s perfect, so to speak, for needlework without the internet (it doesn’t need that here). Even if there is no picture of a certain work step on the model you have chosen, you can find it on another animal.
I only crocheted this one pattern and I can’t really tell what the difference is in the difficulty levels. It seems logical to me that the four-legged friends have 3 stars, i.e. the highest level of difficulty. As for the rest, no idea: difficult stitches, a complicated counting pattern or something? I would say that if you follow the instructions it will work. In principle, the animals are all very similar and simple in structure. Head, body with legs, 2 arms to sew on and maybe some accessories. You should only roughly (or exactly) get the correct number of stitches per round. I admit it, I didn’t always count and quite unashamedly added or removed a stitch. I can now gain weight and lose weight invisibly.
What was quite unusual for me is crocheting in rounds. At first I crocheted in rows, then I switched to crocheting in the round. Just always mark the beginning of the round with a thread and don’t be irritated by the fact that it won’t be a straight row. Crochet works have a right twist. Oh yes, I can only recommend choosing different colors for marking. One row of increasing orange and the next 15 rows of 40 stitches remaining the same purple or so. No tiresome row counting or tally lists. Just see if there are already 14 purple threads.
The hardest part for me was actually stuffing and then sewing. Even if you follow the recommendation first sew then sew (you somehow know it from sewing), there is a possibility of a crooked head. Maybe you could staple first…
As an aside: the crochet hook with a wooden handle was from Lana Grossa. was! Because after almost exactly 3 days and the completion of the amigurumi, the needle and wooden handle went their separate ways. What I think is a real shame, I like wooden handles. But unfortunately the needle creaked a bit pretty soon and moved out of the handle… So I’m expecting more than 3 days of crocheting! A friend told me that the knitting needles she owns from Lana Grossa aren’t that great either. Conclusion: Yes, wool from Lana Grossa, no needles.
Conclusion: It was fun, only that with “Yarn over, Yarn under” was a challenge and also the constantly high thread tension. (Yarn under is very common when crocheting an amigurumi, because when you grab the fasten it is under the needle, the stitches become tighter, more of an X looks and less material is used in general. It really takes some getting used to and if you only sporadically use a Amigurumi crochet, it certainly doesn’t matter that you grab the thread as usual) But you could switch off wonderfully if there were just 20 rows with the same stitches. Although you count almost automatically. You often have to count stitches, so you can’t talk a lot when crocheting amigurumi. By the way, 99% of the stitches are single crochet stitches, which does not require great crocheting skills. Oh, and the animal gets rock hard, so nothing to cuddle.
I can only recommend the book to anyone who wants to crochet one or more amigurumi, with or without crocheting skills. All of the included animals are charming and cute without being overly sweet.
Material: Cotton yarn from Lana Grossa and Schachenmayer as well as a mixture of unknown yarns, fiberfill from Mama’s store
A book: Pica Pau and her crochet friends by Yan Schenkel published by EMF. 20 instructions in three levels of difficulty on 160 pages. Softcover, 21cm x 23cm, numerous illustrations and many photo instructions
