Bonbon the Anteater will be your first pattern in the Bushy Tails Expedition crochet-along!
This fancy chap is your officially-appointed tour guide and once you’ve made him, he’ll take you on an adventure through the jungle to meet his furry friends! Jungle animals are difficult to track in the wild and although I’d love to introduce you officially, all I’ve managed to capture so far is this blurry photo of Bonbon with his magnificent golden tail. When he turns up for his tour-guide post on the 1st of July, I’ll convince him to let me take some decent shots!
The Bushy Tails Expedition is a fur-themed crochet-along starting in one week’s time. In this post, you’ll find detailed information about the supplies required for making your own Bonbon. If you’d like extra information about the event over all, CLICK HERE. For more sneak peeks of Bonbon, see my Instagram post!
Each pattern in the CAL will teach you a different technique for creating fur effects on amigurumi. Bonbon’s pattern in particular will teach you how to create long, silky fur by needle felting! I’ll show you how to create fur using acrylic yarn, but you can also do it with wool roving instead. If you’re using roving, pick your roving colours as listed under ‘COLOURS NEEDED‘ in the following information, and match them to your chosen yarn colours. You will find this and more in the following info below. I highly recommend you read everything to prepare yourself for the project!
BASIC INFO ABOUT THE PATTERN
Terminology: US
Size: 6 cm tall X 20 cm long
Difficulty: Intermediate
YARN WEIGHT
Double knit (DK), which is the equivalent to yarn yarn weight 3, light worsted, 8 ply or 11 wpi.
HOW TO CHOOSE YARN FOR CROCHETING BONBON
Double knit: Choose yarn with a label that calls for a 4 mm hook or that has a weight similar to 2.3 m/g. To determine this, look at the label on your yarn and divide the length by the weight.
Example: 230 m ÷ 100 g = 2.3 m/g
YARN QUANTITIES & COLOURS
COLOURS NEEDED
20g medium colour (for body)
15g medium or dark colour (for ears & tail fur)
5g dark colour (for back legs, front legs and chest)
5g light colour (for front legs, front-leg fur, tail fur and chest)
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NEEDLE FELTING
You can buy wool roving for felting or make your own using acrylic yarn, as described in Bonbon’s pattern. Wool roving is easier to felt with but you might prefer to make your own with acrylic yarn in order to match the colour to your crocheting. Natural fibre will not produce the same silky-smooth result as acrylic when you straighten it. Avoid using cotton yarn for this project, as you won’t be able to felt onto it.
CHOOSE SUITABLE YARN FOR MAKING ROVING
When picking your yarn, you’ll know whether it’s suitable for making roving by checking how the ply of the fibre unravels. If the tip splits into strings like cotton, it won’t felt, but if it frays into fluff that looks like fur, it will felt. A sure way to test is by brushing the end of your fibre with a pet slicker brush as if you’re untangling knotted hair, going slowly from the very tip and working your way up the fibre. If you can brush it out so that it turns into fluff in your brush, then it’s suitable for felting.
OTHER SUPPLIES YOU’LL NEED
FOR CROCHETING AND SEWING
- 2 mm hook
- Approx 10 g of toy stuffing (such as Poly-Fil/ Fiberfill)
- 2 mm black beads X 2
- Black thread for sewing the beads
- Thin needle for sewing the beads
- Yarn sewing needle
- Pins with a large head
- Scissors
- Stitch markers
FOR MAKING YOUR OWN ROVING
- Piece of card/cardboard/cardstock, 15 cm long X ~10 cm wide.
- Slicker brush (a pet brush with fine metal bristles)
FOR SMOOTH FELTING & LONG FUR
- Felting needle, fine (such as the green Clover pack)
- Flat iron (for straightening your hair). Can be substituted with steam from a kettle or garment steamer/iron (see pg 15).
- Felting sponge (or a folded towel)
- Tailor’s pen or a felt tip marker
- Optional: Felting tool (such as the Clover pen tool)
Good luck with gathering your supplies for the expedition! I’ll meet you on Instagram next Friday to begin the jungle adventure!
xxx
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