Diffi culty:
Intermediate 2 Skills used
Decreasing & increasing Using markers Rounds
Magic ring (see our guide on p84) Invisible decrease
YARN
• Ella Rae Amity • 75% acrylic, 25% wool • 100g/182m/200yd • WPI 9
Colours: #18 Teal Blue, #54 Orange, #41 White, #40 Lagoon Grey
(The kingfi sher uses under 25g each of blue and orange, and under 5g each of white and grey)
YARN REVIEW
June says: “Ella Rae Amity is a 75% acrylic, 25% wool blend, available in a wide range of saturated colours. It feels soft, not scratchy, and didn't itch my wool-sensitive fi ngers. It crochets up into a fi rm, sturdy fabric, which is perfect for amigurumi!”
YARN ALTERNATIVES Save Any acrylic DK yarn
Spend Any wool DK yarn Spoil yourself Any cashmere DK yarn
TENSION
Tension is unimportant for this pattern, provided the pieces are crocheted suffi ciently tightly that they will not gape visibly when stuffed. To test a swatch, crochet the fi rst 3 rounds and then push a piece of fi berfi l behind it. If the stitches stretch open too much and the fi berfi l is clearly visible, reduce the hook size. If you cannot insert the hook into the previous stitches, reduce your tension (crochet more loosely) or increase the hook size.
NOTIONS 3.5mm crochet hook
2 black safety eyes (approx 10mm diameter) or black buttons or beads, felt circles or embroidery
Polyester fi berfi l (or other stuffi ng) Tapestry needle Stitch marker
Designer biography June Gilbank (
www.planetjune.com) is a crochet pattern designer, writer, blogger, and multi-crafter. Inspired by her love of animals and nature, she has designed and self-published over 70 amigurumi-style crochet patterns.
92 | INSIDE Crochet
PATTERN NOTES Colour key
A ‒ teal, turquoise or blue yarn B ‒ orange yarn C ‒ white yarn
D ‒ charcoal grey or black yarn
Do not join at the end of each round; rounds are worked in continuous spirals. Use a stitch marker to mark the beginning of each round. Move the marker up each time you start a new round. To give a clean edge to your colour changes, keep an eye out for the approaching change. As you make the last stitch in the old colour, pause before the last step of that stitch. For the fi nal ‘yarn over and draw through all loops on hook’, substitute the new yarn, so you draw the new yarn through your loops. Continue crocheting with the new yarn. To stop the yarn ends from working loose when you change colour, tie the ends of the old and new yarns together on the inside of the piece. Tie the knots at the surface of the fabric but don’t pull hard on the yarn ends so that you don’t distort the crocheted stitches.
When stuffi ng a piece including colour changes, try to push all the yarn ends towards an area of the darkest colour inside the piece before adding the stuffi ng. If the ends are pressed against the lighter colours by the stuffi ng, they’ll be more likely to show through between the stitches. Stuff until the piece feels fi rm, but not so much that the stitches are forced open by the stuffi ng.
SPECIAL STITCH PATTERNS Invisible decrease (invdec):
Insert the hook into the front loop of the fi rst stitch. Do not yarn over. Insert the hook into the front loop of the second stitch (to do this, you’ll need to swing the hook down fi rst so you can insert the hook under the front loop). Yarn over and draw through the fi rst two loops on the hook; yarn over and draw through both remaining loops on the hook.
Pattern STARTS
BEAK
With D, make a magic ring. Sl st into ring to secure. Rnd 1: 1ch (does not count as a stitch),
Kingfi sher toy JUNE GILBANK “If you walk by a river in the British countryside, you may be
lucky enough to see the fl ash of blue of a colourful kingfi sher. Crochet a kingfi sher of your own, to add colour to any day!”
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