Amigurumi Knits: Patterns for 20 Cute Mini Knits

I've knitted for years, but I've never knitted anything quite as unusual as these imaginative critters. Here's my take on this book: PROS: 1. I have never seen such imagination at work. And when I think of the difficulty of putting these imaginative designs into patterns that ordinary knitters can follow, I am truly in awe of Hansi's skills. 2. There's plenty to learn in these patterns that even an experienced knitter will find helpful and challenging as well. 3. Hansi has included an excellent explanation of stitches and techniques in the front of the book. By all means, read this part before you begin. CONS: 1. Hansi knits Continental style, so not all stitches will work for American style knitters. Because I'm not going to learn another style of knitting, I had to adjust certain increases to suit my knitting style. 2. Although these are marvelously detailed patterns, certain instructions are a bit too brief. I've had to learn to decode her particular style of instructions. In all, a terrific book! These knit animals are suitable for a variety of ages and will entertain the knitter while producing adorable results (see my red anglerfish in images). By the way, Hansi has a new pattern for chameleons. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks challenging. Highly recommended!

I got interested in knitted amigurumi because they work up quickly (I'm easily bored), they're a great way to learn new techniques or brush up on others, and then I have a cool stuffed toy to show for my efforts. However, there are a bazillion other amigurumi books on the market. I can weed most of them out because so many are crocheted, or are too uncomplicated and cutesy for my taste. Then I stumbled upon this book, saw the creatures on the cover and got my hands on it as quickly as I could. This is a very eclectic batch of projects that do not disappoint, running the gamut from relatively simple to detailed.. There are some fine-looking vegetables for you still life fans, backyard creatures, sea creatures, and best of all, a small assortment of cryptids (cryptozoologic creatures). Hope this isn't a spoiler, but I would have bought the book just for the jackalope. The instructions are well written and there are plenty of helpful photographs. I'm utterly in awe of the author's skills and ingenuity.

A delightful pattern book for the beginner and the experienced knitter alike. Wonderful color illustrations and row-by-row guides allow you to turn out completed projects that look just like the photographs. There is a guide that suggests the level of difficulty for each project with the easiest toward the front of the book and the hardest in the back. I originally bought the book for the octopus pattern, but quickly came to love the cute vegetables and the other challenging animals. I also found that the patterns are easily scalable to work with just about any weight yarn to create larger or smaller products. The only problem that I have had so far is that Cascade has changed the colors that it currently offers, so if you are trying to copy a design exactly, you may not find the color yarn that you need.

Really great patterns! Like any other knitting book, it takes a few minutes to sort of get used to the author's way of writing, and how she sets up her patterns, but it isn't anything that cannot be easily overcome. (I've found most books are like this). The instructions are fairly straightforward and easy to follow. I've been knitting for almost ten years and I know I learned a few things from Hansi. The creatures are fun and interesting to knit and definitely provided me the change I was looking for! Each character has a short blurb about it and patterns are ranked on difficulty. I haven't attempted the Jackelope yet, but I am excited to get started!

I bought this becauae I want to make one of the patterns for my next grandson, and I'm glad I did! I could really envision making ALL the patterns here- they are well-designed and adorable, even the odd ones like the preying mantis and the anglerfish! Some seem very straightforward, like the vegetables, the earthworm, and the simple starfish- while others are more elaborate, like the above, the spider, and the hermit crab. All of them, though look like a lot of fun to make, and can mostly use leftover yarns from other projects. While I have not knitted any to completion thus far, the directions are very clear and easy to understand, and they range from projects suitable for beginners to ones that would best be done by those of us with more experience. Highly recommended!

I love this book! I've made the peas, hermit crab, octopus, and jellyfish. I have been knitting for about seven years and found the patterns to be challenging and informative. Singh uses a lot of full color photographs to aid her patterns and they all turn out looking so life-like and endearing. I find it interesting how much she knows about the creatures and veggies and she uses biological terms in her knitting patterns which is fun and informative. I would caution a very beginning knitter against this if they want to do the more complicated patterns, but after a little practice with intermediate projects, this book is very easy to understand and execute and the difficulty of her patterns leads to the creatures being more life like. Highly recommended!

Wäre toll, wenns so schöne Bücher auch in Deutsch gäbe, denn nicht jeder ist der englischen Sprache mächtig und so wird das Nacharbeiten zur Herausforderung.

Great book, have knit many of these animals. Very complex learning how to do some of the difficult techniques, but all the techniques are well described and rewarding to learn. Very good book.

I have knitted a few things from this book and they are great. The patterns are accurate and the extra instructions are clearly written. This is not a book for complete beginners but if you have a bit of knitting experience and want a challenge then I can highly recommend this book.

I've knitted three of the animals from this book already,the jellyfish,the octopus and the spider,I found the patterns clear and well explained,I'd never worked from a chart before or used two of the increases but everything is explained so clearly I got on and did it! These are fun projects,challenging for a fairly new knitter but an ideal way to learn.

I bought this book based on one pattern of the mythical Kraken best known in the movie Pirates of The Caribbean. Wanted to make it for my son. Then decided I would like to make him an entire fish tank filled with these various under the sea creatures. There are also a whole section on making vegetables but I'm not interested in them at this time. But they are cute.