The first ever pattern that I (Cara) designed was a hare, named Luna. I chose a hare because it seemed a fairly easy form that should work well in the amigurumi style. I had made quite a few amigurumi animals already, so I had an idea of what I wanted her to look like and what design to use. A few rough drawings and some scribblings later and I had a very basic drawing of a dismembered hare...it was time to bring her together.
Right 'o, what did I need? I checked back at my drawings and worked out I would need at least 100g of yarn, toy stuffing and some safety eyes. Nice and easy. What yarn did I want her to be constructed from? Who would be buying or receiving her? How did I want her to sit, soft and floppy or rigid and upright? I decided that she
a) needed to made from a soft but durable yarn and
b) should be soft to the touch and have a slouchy appearance.
Time to decide on the yarn (the fun bit!) Hannah had just finished working on a project from Little Box of Crochet using the yarn supplied and recommended it as it was so very soft and had a subtle two tone effect. I did a bit of research online and after feeling the yarn for myself I went ahead and ordered some balls of Scheepjes Stone Washed yarn, in 'Moon Stone'. I also ordered some black safety eyes and a bag of toy stuffing.
Wow, the yarn worked up fast and was so soft, it just seemed to slip easily through your fingers and had a pretty good yardage, which was a bonus. Every evening, after I had put my 2 year old (Sebby) to bed I worked on my design. Crocheting a bit, writing that bit down, crocheting a couple of rounds...frogging them back again and so on. Soon I had a bag of hare body parts ready to be stuffed (not too much though as I still wanted that slouchy look) and sewn together. Stuffed, sewn and now waiting for her face, her character, what a responsibility eh?! With the safety eyes in place I felt all she needed was a simple embroidered nose and voila! Luna was born.
I saw Hannah shortly after and asked her what she thought about the idea of us starting a small online, crochet business, specialising in amigurumi pattern designs. She loved it and agreed to come on board. We came up with our name Chameleon Crafters as I have Bipolar and can be very 'colourful' and susceptible to frequent change hence the Chameleon. Obviously we are both crafters so that's where the Crafters came from!
From there it's just been a very natural progression. We are both very creative and obsessed with yarn so it wasn't long before we wanted to make a start on new pattern designs. All Things Weird and Wonderful is the name of our first range which is made up of colourful, quirky, amigurumi animals.
Hannah tested my Luna the Hare pattern and once it had passed we packaged her into a CIY (crochet it yourself) kit ready for you lovely lot make your own.
ps. She is really very well behaved and completely house trained :)
Big love,
Cara and Hannah
No comments:
Post a Comment