Red Heart Amigurumi - Cute or Catastrophe?


     Is this possibly the cutest ami giraffe ever? Yes. Even with it being on clearance at Walmart, I had high hopes. It comes with everything you see here, although my hook was green. Everything is present, including nice thorough instructions.

 Things have been a little hectic around here, 2024 has been a ride and it's not even the end of August  yet. Heck it's not even the middle of August. So I think I can be forgiven for not working on this right when I bought it.

This morning I figured why not give it a shot? 

 Opened the package. The hook is 2.5mm. I can't say what the yarn is bc I took the band off but I think it's DK. The instructions start with a leg. 

With MC, make a Magic Ring, ch1, 9sc in ring. 

The first problem: The hook is rough. It doesn't glide through the yarn, and it catches and splits the yarn. So I swap for my own 2.5mm hook. It still doesn't glide through the yarn, and the yarn is splitting even more, somehow. I switch to a 2.25mm Clover Amour because I know they have good glide. Slightly less splitting. So what the heck is the problem?


This. This is the problem. It looks like embroidery thread. Now cotton is plied like this a lot, with a ton of threads, and I purposely untwisted this a bit to show. But it's very loosely twisted, and so it's very easy to just shove your teeny tiny hook between the teeny tiny threads. VERY easy. Which makes for a messy ami. And frustration.

 

The yarn(s) I prefer working with have a tighter twist. This is part of why Peaches 'n Cream and Sugar & Cream yarn annoy me, they're looser. But not THIS loose. Cottons like Hobbii's Friends cotton or Mainstays cotton are my favorites because they're more tightly twisted.

The PATTERN looks great, I would love to try it with other yarn. And guess what? I have yellow and brown and black worsted yarn. A 3.5 or 4mm hook with that yarn and this pattern, and I might have a nicer stuffie.

 BUT THIS YARN Y'ALL. I rarely toss out yarn, but this is testing my patience. 

 I'll update about the pattern once I'm done. Because Brigit the Giraffe deserves to be made. Just not with this yarn travesty.

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