Today I wanted to share with you my review of the crochet pattern book, Animal friends of Pica Pau by Yan Schenkel.
I was gifted this book by my mother in law last summer. Now normally I would have a wonder through Pinterest to find patterns I wanted to try but I must admit having a real life, hold in your hands, book was a treat. I didn’t realise how much I would come on to appreciate having it. So thank you mother in law Linda!
I was gifted this book by my mother in law last summer. Now normally I would have a wonder through Pinterest to find patterns I wanted to try but I must admit having a real life, hold in your hands, book was a treat. I didn’t realise how much I would come on to appreciate having it. So thank you mother in law Linda!
I had done a lot of amigurami before but after having a go at some of these patterns I definitely learnt a lot. The information and instructions in the book are great. Everything is well explained and there are plenty of pictures to help you along. I learnt new techniques for making animals, such as how to create animals standing on 4 legs that are crocheted as one piece. Also how to create interest with different colour changes and decorative patterns. Yan also tries to crochet the animals in as little pieces as possible. For example, the two legged standing creatures start at their head and continue down the body in one piece. This is great as it means less sewing pieces together. I also find the animals are more stable this way. If you stuff well enough, there’s no floppy heads or dangling legs.
Another thing I like about the designs is that some of the creatures come with interesting additions like clothes. One of my favourites is the dress that I made for the cheetah. There are also scarves, skirts, boleros, bow tie and a party hat! Again this inspired me to add more details to my own makes as it helps to create interest and character.
There are 20 wonderful designs in the book. So far I have probably made 2/3rds of them. My favourite is probably the rhino. I wasn’t expecting to like him so much but I just love his big cuddly size and interesting shape. Each whimsical character has a little story about them, which only adds to their quirky and fun personalities. There are a few very unusual designs in the book, for example a bat, dragon and Caiman, along with some popular ones like a bear and a unicorn.
If you do a quick search on Instagram you will find tons of other peoples recreations of Yan’s patterns and one thing I have noticed is that the choice of colour ways and yarn can make a huge difference to the look of the finished product. I have seen the unicorn in particular look so different by using variegated yarns or sparkly metallic ones for the manes. So it’s a great opportunity to play around with your yarns and try something new!
If you do a quick search on Instagram you will find tons of other peoples recreations of Yan’s patterns and one thing I have noticed is that the choice of colour ways and yarn can make a huge difference to the look of the finished product. I have seen the unicorn in particular look so different by using variegated yarns or sparkly metallic ones for the manes. So it’s a great opportunity to play around with your yarns and try something new!
This is the second of Yan Schenkels pattern books and I believe she is working on her 3rd. I would highly recommend it to any crocheter. I would say most of the designs are of an intermediate level, however don’t let this put you off if you are more of a beginner. You will learn a lot from it and definitely up your amigurami crochet game!