This is a great pattern for using up scrap yarn from your stash. Each hedgehog requires only a small amount of yarn (plus a pair of 8 mm safety eyes, about 68 pony beads, and the other supplies).
For my first two hedgehogs, I used glitter pony beads that I've had in my crafting stash for at least 27 years. I originally purchased the beads to adorn some Pocahontas costumes for Halloween/dress-up playtime that I sewed for my daughters back in the 1990s.
My daughters on Halloween in the 1990s wearing the beaded costumes.
Now, all these years later, I can give them each an adorable hedgehog
made with the same beads along with a printed photo of them wearing the
Pocahontas costumes when they were little. That's a nifty full-circle
moment in my book! 😁
So tiny and cute!
Little hedgehog feet.
Little hedgehog bum.
The pattern also has a link to an Etsy listing where you can opt to purchase a printable "carrier" for gifting your hedgehogs, which gives them a cute finishing touch.
Since the beginning of the year I have been in the middle of several large, long-term projects and felt like I needed to give myself a mental break and make something that works up super fast but also gives a finished product that is super satisfying.
This Mini-Dino designed by Mary of the MerryMakes blog turned out to be just the project that my weary heart needed. He is SO STINKIN' CUTE!!! And he was really fast and easy to make. I wuv him!!! I also love that Mary has a video tutorial that walks us through every step of the creation process.
I made mine with a 5.5mm hook, which is a larger hook than the pattern specifies, but I tend to crochet tighter than the average bear anyhow, so I think it worked out fine. At the gauge I was working, my dino turned out to be about 6.5 inches tall. For comparison, Mary's Mini-Dinos work up to be about 5 inches tall when made with worsted weight yarn and a 4mm hook. I was also using the yarn-over single crochet technique rather than the more traditional yarn-under single crochet technique that a lot of amigurumi makers use. Mary also works her dinos using the yarn-over single crochet, but I've read that if you use the yarn-under single crochet, your finished item will be slightly shorter than if you used the yarn-over single crochet.
The pattern also specifies to use 6mm safety eyes, but I didn't have any safety eyes on hand, so I used two 10mm black buttons from this kit that I found on Amazon last year. It has black buttons in a bunch of different sizes, so they are useful for lots of various projects. So far I have used these buttons for eyes on a few recent amigurumis: my Zoey Zebra and also my Halloween Melly Teddy Ragdolls Gabby Ghost and Bobby Bat.
Just because he is soooo adorable, here's another picture of Neo posing on the coffee table with my Round Basket for Square Coasters. 😍
Neo turned out so cute that I decided he needed a friend, so I used a small scrap of Red Heart Super Saver in the Zebra colorway to make his friend Scoop. Scoop looks like newsprint from a newspaper, so that's how she got her name.
