Claudia the Crab

With my Easter box gone it was time to research projects for my next box the summer birthday box. I had decided on an ocean/sea theme during the Christmas book sales and I already have the books purchased. Now I just need to decide on the creatures to crochet. I have a couple of "sets" but while I like play set, I'm not completely sold on all the animals that come with the sets. I also have some animals in mind for specific books.

I had seen a few crab patterns and it seemed like a reasonable starting point for the project. I started by looking at a free pattern that gave me the idea for using larger eyes for my crab. You can find that pattern here.

While looking through my ami patterns and books I came across an interesting pattern in Hooked on Amigurumi that intrigued me for a couple of reasons. First, this designer emphasizes joining pieces as you crochet which eliminates a good deal of sewing pieces once when you've finished crocheting them. I've mentioned a few times this is not my favorite part of making amis. This pattern also had more detailed instructions about putting the ami together. That being said I loved the idea of using the larger colored eyes so I borrowed that from the free pattern and added it to the Hooked on Amigurumi pattern.

The pattern from Hooked on Amigurumi is made with an E hook and worsted weight 4 yarn and says it should create about a 6" clam. I wanted slightly smaller animals for my play sets so I hoped I might have red in stock from my Schachenmayr Catania sport cotton stash but sadly I did not. I was able to use up some Knit Picks Shine Sport yarn that has been in my stash for some time. I even was able to use one of those tiny annoying little balls to make the legs and claws. I used a D hook to get the size ami I wanted.