Our top 10 amigurumi animals

Amigurumi is the Japanese art of crocheting cute animals in spiral rounds. It’s a really simple technique to get to grips with and, once you’ve mastered it, allows you to dream up a whole zoo of little critters. Here, Let’s Get Crafting magazine’s deputy editor Elaine Bennett picks her ten favourite makes to inspire you.

Let’s Get Crafting designer Janice Holmes of Moji-Moji Design has a whole host of adorable amigurumi patterns on her website. We particularly love this bookish owl!

We especially love the fluffy version of June Gilbank’s adorable baby bunnies pattern.

If you can crochet both in the round and in rows, you’ll find Nerdy Knitter’s retro My Little Pony pattern a breeze.

We just want to squish the cute face of this little lion. Find the pattern in the booklet Easy Crochet Critters.

Hootie the owl by Deja Jetmir looks great hanging from your bag and features simple increases and decreases.

Have a go at an amigurumi project tonight with this FREE elephant pattern by Irene Strange. Find it on our website here.

We’re not always a fan of cephalopods, with all those tentacles creeping around, but this cute design from Ruby Submarine has certainly won us over!

Featuring LED lights for eyes, Christine Nast’s Smaug pattern is perfect for Hobbit fans.

This chameleon softie features a lovely spiral tail which is created by using short rows. This is going on our ‘To make’ list straight away.

The key to a successful amigurumi toy is keeping everything neat and precise, which is exactly what Kristi Tullus has done with her gorgeous mouse pattern.

To view a range of free amigurumi patterns from Let’s Knit and Let’s Get Crafting magazine, take a look at our archive here.