I’m making a set of amigurumi succulents for a friend as part of a quarantine care package. She’s also a crocheter, but I don’t think she’s made any amigurumi yet. I’m getting fairly good at them (see the Amigurumi Chemistry Set post), and they are adorable!
My friend likes plants, especially succulents because they’re easy to care for. Even better are realistic looking fake ones, because you can’t kill them. I thought a set of amigurumi succulents would be a cute addition to the baby plants lining her office at home.
I ran across a cute pattern for amigurumi succulents for free on the furlscrochet.com website here and thought they looked adorable. The pattern was designed by Jackie Laing. I pulled out my trusty Knitter’s Pride Aluminum 4.0 mm (size G/6) hook, Tivoli yarn rolled into double-cakes, and started making succulents!
On the first day, I made the pots. I decided to make all the pots at once so I could use just a single color at a time, which I learned from my chemistry set is easier to do logistically. The pattern says brown yarn, but the picture shows a light tan. I used a bright red (Tivoli acrylic in the color Red, 58) because it went well with my greens and reminded me of terracotta planting pots. The pots ended up being larger than I thought, possibly because I was using a 4.0 mm hook instead of a 3.5 mm hook, possibly because of my yarn. Probably a bit of both, but the pots turned out about 2 inches high and about 3 inches in diameter.
After the pots were done, I started in on the greenery. I made one tall cactus, two arms for it, one round cactus, and for the succulent I made 2 short shoots, 2 long shoots, and the dirt patch. I used 3 different colors of green. For the tall cactus I used my Emerald Green (color 55), the short round cactus is in Dusty Mint (color 22). For the little aloe-looking succulent shoots I used Petroleum Green (color 24) which has a bit of blue in it. The dirt patch was made of a dark brown (color 06). I’ve learned that the smaller the pieces are when making amigurumi, the harder they are to make. The little stubs on the tall cactus were very difficult to get shaped correctly, and so were the early stages of the shoots of the succulent. But I got them all done.
After I made all the bits and pieces, I put faces on the pots. For the chemistry set, I only did the same simple smiley face on them all. But the pattern for the succulents showed adorable expressions that I tried to emulate. I made a cheeky sarcastic looking one, a cutie with big eyelashes, and a smiley one with cute eyebrows. I think they turned out pretty cute!
Then came the hard part, assembly! The cactus stubs got stuffed and sewn on to the cactus. Then the cactus got stuffed and I started sewing it into a pot. Then the pot got stuffed, and I closed it all up. Then came the round cactus, and finally the succulent. Each of the shoots had to be stuffed and sewn to the dirt patch. Then the dirt patch was sewn to the pot.
Then they were all done! Ta-da!
Both the cactus amigurumi ended up in a care package to my friend (along with one of my lotion bars and some chocolate), and the little aloe-type succulent is going to sit by my desk for me to look at and remind me of my friend!
