Amigurumi means “Beanie Baby” in Japanese. Okay, in fact it doesn’t, although it is a Japanese word. It refers to small stuffed knitted or crocheted (but mostly crocheted, yay!) animals, or anthropomorphized inanimate objects.
Some cool, trendy crocheter who is way younger than me introduced me to the concept. I thought they were pretty cute, but what would you actually do with one, or a bunch? My daughter already has a population of stuffed animals rivaling that of a small city, does she really need more? How many of these little guys would I really want to make, anyway? And how many designs do there need to be?
The answers to these questions are apparently collect them, yes, none, and millions—because the ami craze has caught on all over. People collect amis they have made as well as amis others have made. Crocheters buy patterns and materials for them by the ton, and even buy the amis of certain fiber artists to add to their collection.
Me? I don’t get it. I didn’t get the whole Beanie Baby thing, either. Apparently I am not wired to fall in love with animals that don’t come over and wag their tails when I call them. And since they aren’t fiber bearing, either, I really don’t have a lot of use for them.
What I do like about amigurumi is that they have turned a lot of people who are not otherwise crochet lovers, into crochet lovers. Some fiber council somewhere decided that statistically, a lot of people turn to crocheting when they or someone they know is expecting a child, because crocheted baby things are so lovely. I think a lot of people who are becoming caught up in the ami craze will learn to crochet just so they can add to their collections.
Once they have been assimilated, we will turn them into all-around crochet lovers. The amigurumi craze will pass someday—does anyone remember that Beanie Baby prices ran to the thousands of dollars, and now they are in the discount bin at the grocery store? And at least the amigurumi will always be cool because they were not mass-produced—each has a bit of individual character.
In the meantime, someone hand me a hook and some yarn, please. I see a little lion that I might not be able to resist.