May 2017 – amiguruMEI

The long-awaited Cinnamoroll pattern is here!

Many of you have asked about this character, which made an appearance in the Welcome to Sanrio Land! page in the Hello Kitty Crochet book.

Cinnamoroll was originally cast as one of the many stars of the book, but was later left out so that we could make space for his other friends. Poor pup! But everything is better now as you can finally make your own crochet Cinnamoroll!

I first created this pattern when I was writing the Hello Kitty Crochet book in 2013. If I remember correctly, it was one of the first few designs that turned out looking ok! Sharing this pattern brings back loads of memories. I remember taking one whole month off work just to design all the patterns for the book. I had to organize my time well so I only had about one day to finish up on each character. Which wasn’t a whole lot since I had to design from scratch. I remember having Naoki Urasawa’s Monster anime to keep me company while I crocheted. Not a cutesy anime at all but it kept me going! It has been a great honour working with Quirk Books and also with Sanrio and I really hope you can make the complete set of characters now with the inclusion of Cinnamoroll 🙂

I have been wanting to share this pattern since a long time ago but so many things happened I never got around to it. I hope you will enjoy Cinnamoroll as it’s the sweetest character ever. You can also try giving him a more kawaii floppy head by using thicker yarn and a larger hook size.

Now let’s make Cinnamoroll!

Cinnamoroll amigurumi pattern  by amiguruMEI
Skill level: Easy
Duration: About 4 hours

Abbreviations 
• Ch: chain
• Sc: single crochet
• Dc: double crochet
• Inv dec: invisible decrease

Materials & Tools 
2.3mm hook
Acrylic yarn in white
Light blue embroidery floss
Dark brown embroidery floss
Pink felt
Darning needle Polyester fiberfill
Craft glue

Head
With white yarn:
Round 1: Sc 6 in magic ring {6}.
Round 2: [Inc] around {12}.
Round 3: [Inc, sc 1] around {18}.
Round 4: [Inc, sc 2] around {24}.
Round 5: [Inc, sc 3] around {30}.
Round 6: [Inc, sc 4] around {36}.
Round 7: [Inc, sc 5] around {42}.
Rounds 8-11 (4 rounds altogether): Sc around {42}.
Round 12: [Inv dec, sc 5] around {36}.
Round 13: [Inv dec, sc 4] around {30}.
Round 14: [Inv dec, sc 3] around {24}.
Round 15: [Inv dec, sc 2] around {18}.
Stuff head.
Round 16: [Inv dec, sc 1] around {12}.
Round 17: [Inv dec] around {6}.
Fasten off and weave in ends.

Body
With white yarn:
Round 1: Sc 6 in magic ring {6}.
Round 2: [Inc] around {12}.
Round 3: [Inc, sc 1] around {18}.
Round 4: [Inc, sc 2] around {24}.
Rounds 5-8 (4 rounds altogether): Sc around {24}.
Round 9: [Inv dec, sc 2] around {18}.
Fasten off and leave a long end for sewing.
Stuff body.

Ears
Make 2 with white yarn.
Round 1: Sc 6 in magic ring {6}.
Round 2: [Inc] around {12}.
Round 3: [Inc, sc 1] around {18}.
Rounds 4-5: Sc around {18}.
Round 6: [Inv dec, sc 1] around {12}.
Rounds 7-14 (8 rounds altogether): Sc around {12}.
Fasten off and leave a long end for sewing. Flatten piece.

Arms
Make 2 with white yarn.
Round 1: Sc 5 in magic ring {5}.
Rounds 2-4: Sc around {5}.

Feet
Make 2 with white yarn.
Round 1: Sc 8 in magic ring {8}.
Rounds 2-3: Sc around {8}.
Fasten off and weave in ends but leave a long tail for sewing.
Flatten piece and thread the long tail through the centre of the foot.

Tail
With white yarn:
Round 1: Sc 5 in magic ring {5}.
Rounds 2-12 (11 rounds altogether): Sc around {5}.
Fasten off and leave a long end for sewing.

Designing the face
1. With blue embroidery floss: Sew eyes below Round 9, by making 12 vertical backstitches (going back and forth in the same two stitches from Round 9 to Round 10). There should be six stitches between the eyes.
2. With dark brown embroidery floss: Sew lips below Round 10, between the eyes. Make a loose backstitch four stitches long. Bring your needle back to the centre of this stitch and make a small backstitch to hold the lips in a “W” shape. Add two more small backstitches (near Round 11) to hold the left and right curves together.

Assembly
1. Stitch head and body together.
2. Stitch arms onto the sides of the body.
3. Stitch feet onto the bottom front of the body.
4. Stitch ears in place. They should fall below Round 5 of the head.
5. Stitch tail on at the back. Roll up the tip of the tail until the midway point and stitch it in place.
6. Cut two pink felt ovals and glue onto the cheeks.

P/S At the moment, I’ve been using my iPhone 6 to capture the photos as I only have a makeshift ‘studio’ (which consists of the top of a diaper table, a few planks of wood and a reflector) and 10 minutes a day to come up with the pictures you see here (before I have to bathe my boys, feed them etc etc). I promise that I’ll take better photos soon and go back to my beloved Nikon D5100 DSLR 🙂

As promised, it’s finally here!

To all Anpanman fans, thank you for being patient with me. You can now make your own Anpanman amigurumi with my free pattern. Yay!

If you don’t already know who Anpanman is, you must, must watch the Sore ike! Anpanman series! I recently watched the Sore Ike! Anpanman: Ruby no Negai movie here, if you’re interested!

Anpanman is a superhero with an anpan (Japanese bean jam-filled pastry) for a head. It’s a strange sight, but Anpanman doesn’t mind sharing a bit of his head with the hungry children that he comes across during his adventures.

I first made an Anpanman for my boys when they were still snug in my belly. You can see what it looks like here, along with some Anpanman buns that I baked 🙂

I decided to make another cuter version after seeing all the wonderful Anpanman cookies and buns on Instagrammer @sachi ina’s feed! Her makes are incredibly awesome! I’ve been trying my hand at making cute chigiripan and illust pan (bread rolls with cute prints in them) but I am yet to be satisfied with the results. As I type this, I have a loaf of panda illust pan that I baked this evening, waiting to be sliced and discovered. If you see a picture of it on my Instagram, it means it was a success!

But for now, onto the free Anpanman amigurumi pattern! *Sore ike*!

Anpanman amigurumi pattern  by amiguruMEI

アンパンマンのあみぐるみ
Skill level: Intermediate
Duration: About 6 hours
Description: Anpanman is a popular Japanese character from a picture book series written by Takashi Yanase. I first fell in love with the strangely-cute superhero when I chanced upon its anime series and saw Anpanman pull off a piece of anpan from his head (which is literally an anpan, or bean jam-filled pastry) to feed a hungry child! The series comes with its host of colourful characters and I hope to be able to crochet the rest of them soon!
Abbreviations
 • Ch: chain
• Sc: single crochet
• Dc: double crochet
• Inv dec: invisible decrease

Materials & Tools

2.5mm hook
Acrylic yarn in skin colour, orange, red, yellow and black
Black crochet thread
Darning needle
Polyester fiberfill

Head
With skin colour yarn:
Round 1: Sc 6 in magic ring {6}.
Round 2: [Inc] around {12}.
Round 3: [Inc, sc 1] around {18}.
Round 4: [Inc, sc 2] around {24}.
Round 5: [Inc, sc 3] around {30}.
Round 6: [Inc, sc 4] around {36}.
Round 7: [Inc, sc 5] around {42}.
Round 8: [Inc, sc 6] around {48}.
Round 9: [Inc, sc 7] around {54}.
Rounds 10-19 (10 rounds altogether): Sc around {54}.
Round 20: [Inv dec, sc 7] around {48}.
Round 21: [Inv dec, sc 6] around {42}.
Round 22: [Inv dec, sc 5] around {36}.
Round 23: [Inv dec, sc 4] around {30}.
Round 24: [Inv dec, sc 3] around {24}.
Round 25: [Inv dec, sc 2] around {18}.
Fill with stuffing. The shape of the head should be spherical.
Round 26: [Inv dec, sc 1] around {12}.
Round 27: [Inv dec] around {6}.
Fasten off and weave in ends.

Nose and cheeks (Make 3)
With orange yarn:
Round 1: Sc 6 in magic ring {6}.
Round 2: [Inc] around {12}.
Rounds 3-4: Sc around {12}.
Fasten off and leave a long end for sewing.
Fill with a tiny bit of stuffing.

Body
With red yarn:
Round 1: Sc 6 in magic ring {6}.
Round 2: [Inc] around {12}.
Round 3: [Inc, sc 1] around {18}.
Rounds 4-5: Sc around {18}.
Change to yellow yarn.
Round 6: Sc around {18}.
Switch back to red yarn.
Round 7-10 (4 rounds altogether): Sc around {18}.
Fasten off and leave a long end for sewing.
Fill with stuffing.

Cape
With black yarn:
Row 1: Ch 10. Turn work.
Rows 2-14 (13 rows altogether): Sc 9, Ch 1. Turn work.
Fasten off and leave a long end for sewing.

Arms (Make 2)
With yellow yarn:
Round 1: Sc 6 in magic ring {6}.
Round 2: Sc around {6}.
Change to red yarn.
Rounds 3-6 (4 rounds altogether): Sc around {6}.
Fasten off and leave a long end for sewing.

Legs (Make 2)
With yellow yarn:
Round 1: Sc 7 in magic ring {7}.
Rounds 2-3: Sc around {7}.
Change to red yarn.
Rounds 4-5: Sc around {7}.
Fasten off and leave a long end for sewing.

Assembly
1. Sew nose and cheeks onto the head. They should fall below Round 13.
2. Sew on the eyes, eyebrows and mouth (please see tips on **Designing the face below)
3. Sew body onto head.
4. Sew on arms. You can position them however you like. I gave mine an “Anpunch!” pose.
5. Sew on the legs.
6. Sew on the cape. I just looped the cape around Anpanman’s neck and weaved in the ends.

**Designing the face
Eyes
1. The eyes are sewn below Round 11 of the head, using black crochet thread
2. Each eye is sewn with 12 vertical backstitches that are 2 stitches long.
3. There should be a space of 3 stitches in between each eye.

Eyebrows
1. Instead of rounded eyebrows, I gave my Anpanman “L” shaped ones.
2. I made a loose diagonal stitch that is 3 stitches long and then made a smaller stitch to hold the corners together. Alternatively, you can try making 2 backstitches in the shape of an L (I think the effect would be quite the same!)

Mouth
1. Just one vertical backstitch, 2 stitches long.

As this is an original amiguruMEI pattern, kindly do not claim it as your own. You may place a link to this pattern from your site, but please do not repost it onto your page. Send me a picture or tag me on Instagram @amigurumei when you’ve made your own Anpanman 🙂