I Rediscovered Crocheting As An Adult, And My Husband And I Have A Tradition Of Creating A Chinese Zodiac Animal Every Year Since 2011

When I was 10 years old, I learned how to crochet and started making my own stuffed animals. I took a break from crochet to focus on my studies, and I rediscovered my love for crocheting as an adult and started my blog called "All About Ami" in January 2011! The "Ami"' is short for "amigurumi", which is the Japanese art of knitted or crocheted stuffed animals.

I started my blog to document all the crochet projects I was working on and soon began sharing my patterns with everyone. My first original crochet design was the "Chinese New Year Doll" in 2011, and this started a tradition that we have been following throughout the years.

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Every year, we design the zodiac animal for that year and share the free pattern with everyone: so far we have 10 designs including the Chinese New Year Doll, Dragon, Snake, Pony, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig, and most recently, the Rat for 2020.

My husband, Ryan, does an initial sketch and then we bring that sketch to life with our yarn and crochet hooks. It has been such a fun tradition, and many people around the world have loved crocheting their stuffed animals following our patterns. These amigurumi designs have inspired people to learn how to crochet as it is so empowering and rewarding being able to make something so cute with your own two hands from scratch.

Even though everyone follows the same pattern, each amigurumi turns out differently with so much character as everyone has their own style and can add their unique details. We try to incorporate different techniques that we can share with our readers, including how to fuzz up the yarn with a dog slicker brush or give more definition to the face with a technique called eye indentation.

I offer all of these free crochet patterns on my blog along with detailed step-by-step photo tutorials so people can follow along. I also offer ad-free PDF's in my Etsy shop if people want an easy to save and print version of these patterns. Being able to crochet stuffed animals is such a fun and unique way to celebrate Chinese New Year!