For my best friend’s birthday, I knew that I wanted to make her something special, and since she’s always liked Hello Kitty, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to try my hand at making some of the beautiful amigurumi patterns out there.

• 1/32 skein of Caron Simply Soft – a worsted weight (4) yarn (above colour A: Off White)
• 1/64 of Caron Simply Soft – a worsted weight (4) yarn (above colour B: Sunshine)
• 1/64 of Caron Simply Soft – a worsted weight (4) yarn (above colour C: Country Blue)
• 1 strand of embroidery floss at 10 inches (Colour: Black)
• 1 strand of embroidery floss at 3 inches (Colour: Yellow)
• 50g Loops and Threads Classic Fiber Fill
• 1 strand of red cord at 6 inches
• 2 Safety eyes (7.5mm)
• Size E (3.5mm) hook
• Super glue

Pattern by Mei Li Lee in Hello Kitty Crochet

At first, I was a bit intimidated by the sheer level of cute-ness in the book, as I wasn’t sure I could make something as adorable as the pictures in the book. However, when I started to read the patterns more carefully, I was struck by the secret simplicity of them! Many of the patterns use similar body parts as the base which makes it a lot easier to make the different characters.

I would suggest definitely taking time to decide where to place the facial features. I was a bit too excited when I made this, and so the face is a teensy bit off-center and the ears are slightly misaligned. This might just be the perfectionist in me though – I don’t think anyone else has noticed yet, or at least they’ve been kind enough not to mention it to me.

For Hello Kitty’s iconic bow, I decided to make my own rather than follow the book. If I’m being honest, this was motivated primarily by laziness since I didn’t have red yarn readily available to me. Still, the pattern looks straightforward enough, and the end result is certainly cute!

However,  I made my bow using a thick red string / cord that I had handy in my scraps box and some super glue. I started off by loosely wrapping the ends over and under each other, just like the beginning of tying shoelaces. I tightened this until the circle was the size I wanted, then added a dab of super glue to hold it in place. Then I bent the two free ends to form the triangle sides of the bow. To fix the ends in place, I used the super glue again. Be patient as the glue does take time to dry, and it will hold better if you aren’t fussing around with it. It  is easiest to have ends that are slightly too long so that you have more flexibility in arranging the triangles and then trimming off the excess once you are happy with the shape. In order to maintain the triangle shape rather than round ends, I added drops of super glue along the string to harden the string into the desired position. If you are more coordinated than me, you’ll be able to do all of this without getting super glue all over your hands, but if you aren’t, no fear! The glue comes off fairly quickly, but it will make your skin feel a little funny when it is dried. I think it was worth it though!

This was definitely a fun pattern to make and I couldn’t help myself from sending multiple update photos to my other friends as I worked through the pattern! I find that the more excited I am about something, the more I want to share about it, and it was so hard to keep this Hello Kitty a surprise from my best friend. I hope it made her birthday a little bit brighter, and to remind her to stay young at heart no matter what age her driver’s license says!