9 ways I recycle into my Amigurumis
This time I wanted to show something slightly different. In the spirit of recycling, which as you will come to see, occurs more frequently in my next few collections. These are 9 different ways I have managed to use random household things and incorporate them into my amigurumi! Perhaps you can try some of them, after all they were going to be thrown away!
Stray yarn
This is pretty commonly done amongst crocheters, especially for making amigurumis. Because there are so many colour changes often involved, there is a lot of stray yarn being weaved in at the end, sometimes I choose to stuff all leftover yarn into the head or body. The only thing about using this though is that it can cause the ami to be soft and less firm, particularly when you are getting them to sit up or stand. Which leads me to my next point which is what I always use for my ami stuffing and for my family, it is in abundant supply.
Packing peanuts
This is another side story of mine, likely where I got most of my initial inspiration for crocheting little toys and probably my creativity too. My dad owns a little toy museum in Singapore, housing his extensive collection of antique toys and tin toys - check it out here, it’s called Mint Museum of Toys. So the back story is that there is constant packing in my household when I was growing up, tons of toys and tons of clutter. My mum and dad both house many of the fragile toys in huge plastic boxes (in a warehouse because there were too many!) and this is what they used to pack the toys! So you can imagine, I do have an endless supply of packing peanuts at my parent’s house now and it seems such a waste to throw the excess away, so I happily take them and recycle them into my amis!
Ankle weights
Haha, this is another little story. My husband loves working out and he uses ankle weights to help with his training. He was going to dispose of this set when I told him I could use them to weigh down my amis! I stuff them mainly in the legs to make the bottom heavier and help it to stand. There are more tips and tricks to do that and more about Making Basic Amigurumi Bodies here. I also did attempt to make use of them to create magnetic components in my amis but unfortunately the magnetism of these metals were not strong enough across crocheted yarn. It was worth a try!
Tooth pick
These are the easiest to get and readily available at home in the kitchen, I have used them as Gandalf’s staff and Legolas’s bows. Easy to cut up and also easy to paint. I usually do blunt the ends if I intend to let my little one play with them or usually conceal the ends either in the satchel or with cloth over it. Turns out pretty nice as an add on to my Fantasy ami set as you will see later on! There is a short tutorial on how to make this bow and arrow set over here.
Aluminum foil
Talking about the kitchen, I just tore off some little bits of aluminium foil and decided to add that on as Gimli’s axe head! Back when I was still selling these little amis, Gimli was actually my first online Etsy sale, back then I showed a picture of the final piece to my customer and she was like, you forgot to add on the silver hammer! Haha, was too busy crocheting the other little details, I missed out the axe, so I quickly added it back in and she loved it when it arrived!
Non slip mats
While we were on kitchen supplies, I often use non slip mats to line my kitchen drawers, where utensils are placed and pots and pans as well. I got them mostly from Ikea and were pretty cheap, cut up the appropriate sizes and placed them in drawers. There was often some left behind because of the odd shapes and I decided to take them and use them as lining for my amigurumi vehicles! In my subsequent collections, I do use this pretty frequently to help shore up the bigger pieces because it is waterproof and washable.
The full PDF is here instead if you need additional photos and assistance with the pattern.
Paper clips
Now we are on the topic of stationery! Before I starting purchasing craft wire (which I do now because it has a more consistent look), I experimented with bending paper clips :). This was one of my first attempts while making some spectacles for Velma from Scooby Doo. It looks kind of crude right but great for recycling don’t you think? I was so proud of doing this haha, but to be honest, the paper clip was difficult to bend, even after trying it around a pen. Also, too much bending does tend to make it breakable so sometimes it splits into two. Yeah, so long term it was not the best way to use wire work in crocheting so I moved onto buying actual craft wire.
Thumb tacks as eyes
Along the same idea, before I started getting safety or glass eyes for my amigurumis, I actually used thumb tacks from home! If you can tell the difference, the ones over the top half of the picture below were actual glass eyes I purchased, while the ones at the bottom were thumb tacks painted over with black nail polish! You can see the sheen and shine are not really there for the bottom pieces, but the size and the appearance were pretty close to what I needed! There is the comparison side by side in between my fingers as you can see. My full list of Crochet Tools and Accessories are here.
Bottle Cap
This was another silly endeavour by me, I was trying to make Mr Freeze from Batman and at that time, could not find any suitable roundish kind of cap. I did think about those chocolate egg toys with their covers but I could not get hold of one, or they were all opaque in colour. So I used the bottle cap for a water repellent I had at home, which was supposed to be used on fabric to make it semi-waterproof. His head looks kind of smashed in but I thought he turned out ok considering what I was trying to recycle haha! I actually fashioned the whole size of his head around the bottle cap size lol.
Recycled T-shirt yarn!
Ok so this has nothing to do with my usual mini amigurumis but it’s my biggest recycling project ever! I made use of use of T-shirts that were cut out from my parents, siblings, husband, husband’s family to make this massive Pouf. There’s also a whole back-story too on that and how I made it in the end (including the pattern) over here!
Look out for the full Fantasy collection coming soon - where I used craft wires for Legolas and Aragorn, aluminium foil for Gimli and toothpicks for Gandalf! It was all good fun and great recycling too!
