Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small, stuffed yarn creatures. Amigurumi is becoming increasingly popular, a developing craft that is permeated and dependent on the emerging trends of popular culture. With sites such as Ravelry and Pinterest, you can find plenty of unusual amigurumi patterns as an alternative to your usual knitting routine. Here are five unusual amigurumi patterns to get you hooked:

Teacher – Pink Floyd, The Wall

A rather unusual inspiration from Pink Floyd’s album, The Wall. Featuring in one of the most creepy music videos of all time, the teacher shouts the famous line “You can’t have pudding if don’t have your meat.” Complete with the rowdy facial expression, the eerily creepiness of the teacher is captured wonderfully in this amigurumi pattern.

To recreate one of music’s most iconic characters, Mia used Alfazema yarn by Circulo, using a 4mm crochet hook to create his body, before stuffing him with fiberfill. The tie is made from Anne Yarn by Circulo, with a 1.75mm crochet hook. HiyaHiya’s Ultimate Crochet Set would be perfect for recreating this amigurumi pattern.

Pacman and Ghosts

Arcades might not be as popular as they once were thanks to home-consoles, but Pacman and his nemesis’ the ghosts are still as relevant as ever – at least within amigurumi! If you’re feeling nostalgic and want to recreate a quintessential part of your childhood, then this amigurumi set will take you back to the 80s.

To begin your travel back in time, you’ll need worsted weight yarn in the required colours, black felt, and polyester fiberfill. Alison uses a 3.5mm crochet hook which HiyaHiya’s Interchangeable Straight Needles would be the ideal companion to your retro gaming needs. You can find the pattern instructions for Mr and Ms Pacman on Alison’s blog.

Forest Spirit

Whether you believe in ghosts or mythological creatures or not, this forest spirit is an adorable addition to your amigurumi collection. For those a little superstitious, the forest spirit comes with the ability to look after the creatures in your garden; the neighbour’s cat won’t scare away the birds any more!

Various shades of green yarn are used to create the body and head, with red yarn used for the berries on the belly and the mushrooms on the head. A 2mm crochet hook is used to create this adorable forest dweller, HiyaHiya’s Interchangeable Straight Needles would be ideal for this intermediate level challenge.

Jack Skellington

It doesn’t need to be Christmas or Halloween to appreciate this amigurumi pattern – Nightmare Before Christmas is timeless! Tim Burton’s Jack Skellington is such an iconic character that it wouldn’t be too out-of-place to crochet this amigurumi design.

Medium worsted weight yarn was used for much of the body and head, while very fine yarn was used for the nostril’s, mouth, and bat’s eyes. 3.5mm crochet hook was used for the fingers and bat bowtie, and a 4.25mm crochet hook was used for the rest of the body. HiyaHiya’s Aluminium Crochet Gift Set would be perfect for recreating your favourite Christmas/Halloween movie. You can get the pattern instructions at Shimmeree Creations.

Baby Groot

When Guardian of the Galaxy first came out, everybody went crazy for the adorable Baby Groot. For Marvel enthusiasts, there is now an amigurumi pattern that brings to life one of the comic’s most iconic characters; you can even display him in a plant pot.

Twinkie Chan uses worsted weight yarn for the brown, sport weight yarn for the green, and embroidery thread for the black. 5mm and 3.5mm crochet hooks are both uses to recreate this tree-like alien, HiyaHiya’s Nickel-Plated Crochet Gift Set is perfect for dealing with some of the small complexities in this pattern. You can find the self-styled Grooturial by Twinkie Chan on Ravelry.

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Feeling Inspired? Find all our crochet sets in the HiyaHiya Europe store here.