How To Crochet - Easy Beginners Amigurumi Whale Tutorial

Hey guys, I'm welcome to Nicorette in today's video we're gon na go over how to make these really cute little Jimmy quite little whales, and I love them and they're adorable and they're really quick and easy. So this is an amazing beginner project, so I'm probably gon na go a little bit slower with how my stitches are made and to show you exactly how I do things, because the way that I make a megumi my stitch work is a little bit different than Other people not a big deal, I promise it, you can still do them. Even if you don't do your stitches, the same way that I do them, if you just do normal crocheting, but that's neither here nor there. I made this one and he looks like a little cupcake, because I got this yarn. A lot of this has vanished choice. Actually, this one's finished choice. This is a Hobby Lobby, yarn that I was using for the I love that yarn. It'S a little bit like cushiony here I don't know if that's word and it it's really cute and they've got like this really pretty speckled yarn that I decided to make a cupcake whale out of because you know why not make a hot pink tummy on it. Yeah and that's pretty much it so I'm going to be using a size D, 3 Susan Bates, crochet hook, you're also going to need some polyfill, but I don't have on hand right this second and you're also going to need a darning needle for putting in all Your sails addendum, I also forgot that you're going to need some safety eyes or whatever you want to use for the eyes you can just neutral normal buttons so on. However, you want to do it. I like using safety eyes just because I think that they are the safest but other than using like a fabric paint or something if you're doing something with babies, I'm not sure about the safety of safety eyes. I'Ve seen some things that say that it's okay, but a lot of people also say the pirate brain isn't good because they could chew on it. But if you're planning on making this really go mobile or something and you just want to be safe, I'd probably just stitch something on, but I use safety eyes, and this is just what I use and also these are store-bought ones and not the ones from wish Wish does have safety eyes on there and there's for really cheap, but I don't know how safe they are, so I generally get the ones from the craft stores like AC, more or like Hobby Lobby. Alright, alright, let's get started for this you're going to need to know how to do a basic slip, knot how to work in the round and how to do a single crochet. I'M gon na go about slowly doing this so that you can see. I go over and then I pick up my tail and pull forward, so that makes my nice slip knot. I have videos that go slower and in more detail right now, I'm using a worsted weight stitch studio by Nicole and this one it works as a similar weight to the vanished choice, worsted that I usually use, but this one's a really cool nice. It doesn't really show up on the camera that well it's a nice like it's a little bit lighter than this color, though this one reflects a little bit better than what it isn't showing on the camera. So I'm going to make my slip knot, I'm going to place it on my crochet hook. The right way this time and I'm going to chain two. This is essentially creating my version of a magical ring. I just think that this is easier, and I like how that looks. So I go one wrap again notice that I am going from the left to the right. That is what I was talking about with how funny my stitches look. Usually you go from the right to the left. If you do go from the right to the left, the normal traditional right way of doing things, I don't do things the right way. Then it'll come up the same, so you can just you essentially just do a chain, two you're going to place six single crochet inside of this one first chain here: you're gon na skip the second one here, you're gon na go into the first and place six Inside that one stitch, so now that I'm in it I wrap from the left to the right I find I do. I do actually do this first specific reason: I don't just oh hey, you learned it the wrong way, wrapping it from the left to the right, because I'm Dyslexic, so I learned everything kind of backwards and I've just known, really sort of learning to cope with that. But no, actually I did do it by mistake ever, but I actually like how it looks better, so I go in and rap from the left to the right pull through left to the right. I find that my stitches look bubblier looking with Miami Kurumi. So, that's why I do that it's a bit bit a little bit more bumpy, which I prefer how that looks with Miami guru me. So that is why I go from the left to the right, whereas if I went from the right to the left, when I put it in it, comes out looking a little bit flatter, so you can see there this one's definitely bumpy you're. Looking and a little more succinct than my one that I went from the right to the left, so I do actually have a reason for why I go from the left to the right. Alright, so I have two stitches in I'm gon na. Do a third notice. The holes gon na start kind of widening, don't worry your tail when you pull on it will make it all closed shut. So for try not to split your yarn, five and six. So now you've kind of got this almost D shape, because this is kind of going like straight, and what we're gon na want to do next is go into this first spot right here: twice we're going to increase every single one of these stitches, so we're going To go back to our very first single crochet that we made go inside that stitch go inside one go back inside of it and now you're working in the round. So now you're going to go into your next one and place two stitches inside of that one. I would use a slip marker, especially if you're a beginner. I use my tail with all of my slip. Marker needs. Basically, I take my tail and I loop it up and through to the outside, so how many still just over have my last count. Oh and I pull my tail so that way, it nice shuts it one, two, three, four: five, six, seven, eight, nine ten. I need two more so one two and then cuz, I'm increasing one two that gets me to twelve stitches on my piece here. I'M going to be increasing to thirty stitches right now. I have twelve. I do this by increasing six stitches each time, so this is will be, twelve next will be, eighteen, stitches next would be 24, and the next will be thirty. You can tell right here from where I started. This is essentially where I'm at with my work here, I crochet crochet increase crochet crochet increase, and that gets me to where I need to be so here I'm going to show you what I meant by my tail. I take my work. This is my last stitch in my round two I'm going to pull my tail. I looped it around my hand and I pulling it and pulling it right through right there. So that's my beginning of my work. That'Ll tell me hey. This is probably where you should stop in. So, if you don't like counting constantly, I just use that as my tail so now we're going to single crochet 1 increase single crochet, 1 increase. All the way around. This increases six stitches. The next round, like I'm saying so, one increase and if you ever get confused one increase. I do have a written pattern of this. This is not my original idea. These have been on the internet for as long as a Makura me has been on the internet, but I decided to do my own PDF so that it would be easy to find through my youtube channel, so that will be linked down in the doobly-doo. One increase increase, as I split my yarn. One thing I do notice about the stitch studio by Nicole is. It is very easy to split this yarn. I love all the different color choices that they have cuz there is, I always find myself limited. If I just go off of one increase, if I just go off of vanna's choice or just red art, I find that I'm limited, or even just the Hobby Lobby. How many lobby has a really extensive. I love that yarn color choice. I will probably pop up some pictures if I can, but it is crazy and I find that using all these different versions, just good yarn go to crellick yarn. I like acrylic versus wool, for my am I going me because it makes um cup later so this is my last stitch, so this is my last increase and now I should have 18 stitches. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 18. Stitches. I counted right. They part of Ambika Romeo's math, leave it on and knowing what your numbers aren't in counting I've granted most people that crochet. You know that I'm not saying anything new, alright, so I'm 18 stitches now one to increase one two increases where I'm going for my next stitch again, if you're ever confused, I'm gon na be popping up a pattern for a written pattern on this, and I'm also Going to be putting a link to a PDF that you can download and use anywhere, you want down in the doobly-doo, so one one to increase the third stitch three, for essentially that's how I alwaysn't end up counting. It isn't like one two, three four, and that makes it so that when I know my math, the math in my brain works that way. Basically that's how my brain Matt's 1, 2 3 and increase 4 1 2, or I split my own. So that's my increase. Sorry, it's blood, even like God, only part of it on there. Never do that with your stitches, where you're like, oh, hey, I'm going to split the yarn so badly that I'm literally only holding on to one string of what the yarn is drives me crazy. When I accidentally do that, and I find that when I'm working with smaller needles, it's a lot easier to do and I'm working with such a small needle, because I don't want any of my polyfill to show through, because that drives me crazy to work so hard. On anemic of Ruby peace and then all of a sudden, I see all this white polyfill showing through so I've started using smaller crochet hooks just as a way to mitigate that and make it so that the stitches are tighter and so that nothing actually shows through It this is my last ones of my last increase. I am now at 24 stitches, or at least I should be so. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Two, three, four, twenty four! So this is my last increase row that I'm working on now, where I'm going to increase increase, increase. Excuse me I'm going to single crochet single crochet single crochet increase all the way around. So every fourth stitch I'm going to increase, so I'm now actually going to move my tail so that it's a bit easier. You can move it every single time, but I find that just knowing what places helped me. 1. 2. 3 increase. So 1, 2 three and I'm wrapping around my whale tail over there for cupcake, 308, 1, 2, 3, 4 and increase. Sometimes you have to got ta count. Sometimes you lose track happens to me all of the time, or I have to go back and be like obsessively counting what I'm doing. I'M like. Aha crap. I just counted that. Where did that even go it's like asking what time it is and then you don't really absorb it. You'Re, like oh, I counted and did all this work and my brain did in the flow of it so 1, 2, 3, 4 and increase so 5, and because we're increasing six stages every round. If we increase every fifth stitch that will get us to or 30 stitches, that's our goal. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5 increase our fifth increase. 1. 3. 4. I split my yarn darn it. Sometimes you don't notice until you've gone a little too far, and then you have to go back, keep feeling like I'm gon na sneeze, three, the lights, kids are so bright and our last increase set so one two, three four five, and now I'm going to pull Some more yarn out of my little center there I'm going to take my tail pull it out from where it was and pull it back in through that stitch, and now we're going to just single crochet around for four rounds. So we're not gon na do any increasing or just gon na single crochet all the way around. Until I get to my four rounds being done so I'll show you what it looks like once. That'S done be right back alright. So now I have done four rounds. So this is where my marker was one two three four and here I'm going to do my tail real, quick - and I do this before and not after doing all my slip stitching off and doing my belly, this one actually shows drastically what the Bella's gon na Look like because it uses less, I have to talk in. I have to talk in less end and I think that it weighs less yarn. So here I'm going to go in and do a quick little single crochet on my very last stitch and I'm going to chain 5, so 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. And here I'm going to skip these first two stitches here. The last two chains - 4 & 5 chain and I'm going to go into the third chain and here you'll notice that I am going from right to left. Because I think I like how my double crochets look better. When I do it that way, and I'm going to do a quick little double crochet, I'm also going to go into the next stitch and do a half double crochet. It'S a little tricky because these like to be really tight, and I like to split yarn during this all the time and then I'm going to go into the very first chain that I made and I'm going to slip stitch into that. Then I'm going to go into the very first stitch, going through only the front loop and I'm going to slip stitch into that and I'm going to chain one two, three and four, because that first slip stitch counts as my first so one two three four five! Technically, but I'm only going to chain after the slip stitch there and I'm going to repeat the same except this time, I'm only going to skip the first chain right here, I'm going to go into this chain and I'm gon na do a double crochet into it. If I could land it wrong and not split down the entire darn thing there we go, I can crochet double crochet right there, I'm going to go into the next one and do a half double crochet and I'm gon na slip stitch into the last one. Next, I'm gon na go back into that next stitch right there and I'm going to slip stitch right there, alright yeah, no time to cut so here, I'm gon na pull the tail through and into the middle like so that it's going towards the inside, and I Kind of just tuck it on the inside here now you have all these stitches and what we're gon na do next is we're gon na go through the back loop. Only we're not gon na go through the front loop like we did for all of our other. A mugger me we're just gon na go through our back loop for this and we're going to need some weight yarn here, all right. So now I have my white yarn, I'm using. I love this yarn by Hobby Lobby and I just pulled out a ton of it. So you know that's not great. I'M going to go through you're, going to notice all your back loops that there are some right behind your tail. I'M going to pick up the very center one, the one right between your tails and I'm going to loop, my yarn and do a chain one. Next, I'm going to go through the back loop. These are all back loops, mind you and I'm going to single crochet you're going to want to pick up all 30 of these stitches by going through the back loop of each one of these. So this is what makes the nice little Ridge as you're, making a ridge right here. So I'm going to go through there and pull through not go through here and go through this loop. The back loop, that's three! Four! Five! Six seven eat, as I split yarn again. This is really easy to split one thing that I don't like about it: 10: thirteen party: 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. 20, we're getting close 22 23. 24. 25. 26 27 28 29 going through here and our 30th stitch is gon na, be a very right stitch right here to the right of the that right there. So as long as you count, you've got I'd like to keep all my tails tucked in there we're gon na count, 30 stitches so 1. 2. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17, 18, 19. 20. So that is our 30th, and here we're going to just do some decreases. We'Re going to do the exact inverse of how we made our increases, so we're going to go into this first, one 1, 2, 3, and instead of increasing on our fourth stitch, like we did last time, we're going to take our fourth and fifth and double crochet. Those two stitches together I'll show you how I do that again so 1, 2, 3 and now we're going to take this fourth stitch, pull through and our fifth stitch pull through and we're gon na put both of those together with one little loop there. This is called an invisible decrease, so 1 2 or single crochet, 2, together, 3, 4 & 5, again put in or keep it out of focus four five one, two poor together, one lead up to more three five together, nice time. We used to pull that and now we're under the tail four and five alright. So here is where I like to add the eyes. The eyes are usually ten stitches apart from each other from the center. So here's what I do to kind of make sure that they are centered first, I take that stupid tail. I don't! I don't need that there anymore, and I can just tuck it right inside of the body you'll notice, that my body is starting to become a hole of tails because of some pretty tails there. Um in here I have the tail I Center it it's best. I can I take my crochet hook and I push it through the center, and so now I've got this nice marker for where my Center is and I'm gon na take my safety eyes like I said earlier, para don't go fully over that way and we're gon Na count, so this is split between these two, so one two three four five stitches right there, I'm gon na, go above that to the row right before my stitches end and I'm gon na put that right in and I'm going to take my backer and push It on to it right, yeah. I try not to push it too hard, because I notice that if I push too hard it winds up. Looking like it's gon na go through the fabric, so one two three four five, I'm gon na go right. There push it right through and I pushed him a little too firm, but they both look worried about right. It'S not a perfect science, I'm sure it is cuz. You know it's crappy, but still I liked how they all look a little bit different. So now we're gon na go back now that we've added our eyes and we're going to go one two and not to our third stitch. All we do. We do our third stitch, but we're gon na go you'll, see they decreases right there and we're gon na go three four decrease one, two three one. It gets really quick here, two three and four, two, three and four: you notice how quickly these rows start to go because you're doing way less to Jersey, time, two three and four, and then I only have one more now one two three four: I'm really excited About making these, because I'm actually gon na be doing a nice little mobile for a baby, I'm not mine, but a friends, so I'm really excited about making a little nautical themed mobile and I might post a thing on that. I might just post it on my patreon, I haven't decided yet if I'm gon na do like a whole pattern and a whole thing on how I'm doing that, I probably will. If you comment down below. Let me know if you're interested in that, because I am very excited about being able to make this mobile and I'm still trying to figure out how I'm gon na do the metal part. But I, like the circular part, that you need at the very top of a mobile that makes it you know circular and like a mobile, and so here, where is where I usually stuff so I'll, be right back so here I'm going to just take my pieces And honestly, stuffing is always just kind of like the worst part of a McGrew me for me, because I can never feel like I'm actually like doing it right. The first part that I stuff, as I push it towards the eyes so that I cannot feel like I'm just poking myself. I know I'm going to need this much fluff, but you don't really need a lot when it comes to this. I'M gon na take this and take my yarn right there. There we go and honestly it's just kind of like a balancing act like okay. This feels right. I like to kind of roll it around on the inside and then push it in places. I don't know how to describe it. It really is an easy thing to describe here. I just keep penalty, pushing and rolling. Oh it's in there. I will stuff more as I get to the bottom and as I get to the just once I decrease more because I leave kind of this pocket on the inside and the one I could decrease it to like. Only six stitches really like nine and I end up pushing more into it, because I can't work it and decrease it with it being too stuffed because then it becomes too cumbersome. Yeah, that's what I'm going to stuff for now and then now I'm going to do a little bit more a little bit more decreasing becomes a little bit more time-consuming. So here I'm gon na do my single crochet one and then decrease because I'm decreasing six stitches. This round single crochet one for this round and then decrease or shows a single crochet, 2 together decrease, and I tried really hard not to get polyphyletic my noodle, because otherwise I end up with poly fill in my stitch and that's just a pain and the. But to do let's take it way too far, hi my thing I always tend to like migrate up and up and up - and I don't begin to sorry about that - it's it gets circular. I'M also like having a harder time getting it to focus on the stitches, and then I decrease this one and then decrease my to my teeth. My tail becomes my stitch marker at that point because I go right behind it and now I'm going to decrease every single stitch, so I go one. This is my first decrease, I'm going to decrease six times. This is my last decrease row. Two third decrease round here I like to make sure that all of my stuffing is done so I've got about nine stitches left nine to ten, and I get really small and I start balling them and I notice where my stuffing needs to be done so right. There in that Center that definitely needs some stuffing and I'm going to roll it and ball it, and I still have this huge ball that my finger can hold. My finger can go right and fit into so I don't want that for me. Imma go yeah, we'll take it all nice and finished so there I kind of roll the last bit right there and I roll it underneath the stitches and then I have three more decreases to get done and I'll show you how I finish off so one my Journey there's my dubbing needle it's like where to go one. So this is four actually five, because I need to do six five and the sixth stitch you can choose to either decrease or you could do what I do, which is. I skip that last stitch and then a single crochet slip stand to that. I slip stitch into that single crochet and then I do a quick little chain. Where did I buried them under polyfill and so now, you'll notice that you still have a good, sizeable hole? Here'S where your darning needle comes in handy - and this is the way that I make seamless bottoms for my little guys I fold over my edge here - I put my tail into a darning needle. I then go into from the front going out the back of the stitch I pull up through from the inside going out. I pull through two and repeat that all the way around three four again going from the inside out six and then I go back inside and I go underneath we're this big carnivores and I pull and then I pull it tight that closes up all those stitches Seamlessly now I take my tail and go back through that hole and I only go through one of my big things with a meager. Me is. If I took this teal yarn and I went through the white, it would show right through and I don't want that. So I'm gon na do the same thing with my white because it would show right through the deal, so I'm going to only go through the white stitches cuz if there's any kind of like residual tail after I pull on it a little bit and then cut It then, because I'm not perfect, heaven knows so. I'M gon na move all my polyfill and now I'm going to work on my little whale fins and that's all she wrote for my whale. So what I do is I balance somewhere between my eyeball and my tail. It'S not exactly. Usually I go about four stitches. I go into that front loop that is exposed. I'M gon na go back to my stitch studio by Nicole, my main yarn, my in color, and I'm going to make a long enough tail that I can tuck. I'M going to wrap my yarn around and chain one and then I'm going to put four single crochet on the inside of that same loop, I'm going into the same loop each time! So one going back inside the loop two going back inside the loop three going back inside the loop four you'll notice that there's a small hole. Don'T worry when you tuck in your tails it'll become barely visible. I'M going to go back inside that same loop and do a quick little slip. Stitch now we're gon na repeat this. For the other side, I'm gon na cut my tail there. We go you'll notice that you've got two little tails right here. So now we're gon na go back to the other side, where our other little guy needs to go. We'Re gon na go back and go into the center between our eyeball and our tail. I'M gon na make a nice decent shell that can be tucked in, but not too long, because I don't need it that long, I'm gon na repeat so I'm going to go and chain one single crochet for inside all of that same loop, two three four and Then I do a quick little slip stitch back inside of my tail, pull it through just let it loose, and here I'm just gon na tuck in all of my tails. So here I'm going to take my tail. I'M gon na go up from underneath my stitch and kind of go up. The top that's Iraq, my camera geez take my other tail. They don't cut until I get all of my tails done because then I can get it all done at once. Gon na go underneath the stitch kind of like so so it go underneath that stitch going at the top pull it. So it's not super tight. You don't try to like pull it so hard that it's like gon na pull the stitch inside of itself. I guess so now I'm gon na repeat that going underneath above just tucking in my tails and once that's done, my little whales done he's like a super easy project and I adore him and I'm so much and I will Pope Felipe posting. I think keep hitting Mike's lens see if you pull too tight, then you end up with a wonky little thin there, but if Pope just take enough, you know it's kind of like a wiggle a back out so here. Well this too, all over the place tonight. The tail I just upgraded all the tears on my patreon, so if you're interested in patreon, I have some awesome awards that are including free patterns that are usually for sale. So, if you're interested in that, I'm also going to be coming out. The whole line of new and the Kurumi big dolls and a medium super pumped about that so be on the lookout for that I might post some pictures on my Instagram and on all that stuff. If you're interested in seeing some of them, I'm gon na be coming out with a unicorn and Kitty, and I've got to bear all all these are gon na, be basically the same size and they're all gon na have their own clothes sets that they can be Done with it so beyond lilica, for that, I'm gon na be posting pictures on my Instagram and on patreon and all that good stuff and be sure to stay focused on our community board, because I've actually discovered what a community board is, and I can actually do Stuff with it like hey, what do you guys actually want to see like post in the comments like I love interactions and I love reading all the comments. I read all of them, so if that's something you're interested in just message me also I'm on Ravelry. So if you ever feel like messaging me on there and you need help, go there go email me. I love to help and I love figuring out crafty things and perhaps it's kind of my favorite thing. So that's my whale and he is all done. If you need help, there's a written pattern down in the doobly-doo, I've said that probably three times now and do all the YouTube things you know this is not your first day on YouTube, so you probably know all about all the things I have all of them. All the social media stuff I'm on all of it contact me alright until next time, guys bye,