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Flamingo Amigurumi (Irene Strange Pattern Mashup)

This one is finally done!

Throughout June, my niece Claire kept saying she wants to be a flamingo. It's probably related to the school dance that she recently participated. I'm not sure why she thought of the flamingo, as she was part of the corps de peacocks. Maybe because her costume bird's body was a dark pink. As for her playing a peacock.... (˃̣̣̥▽˂̣̣̥) I can't help laughing because she's at the age where she likes to wear pretty things and preen, so... I couldn't help giggling at how suited to the role she played.

But I did make a crochet flamingo amigurumi.... This one is something of a Franken pattern. I initially started with Irene Strange's Chloe the Flamingo pattern but as usual, I didn't follow the pattern faithfully, made modifications, and also incorporated parts from the Flamingo pattern from her book Curious Crochet Creatures. Not my first crochet Franken pattern, the first was the elephant amigurumi made for my nephew Jude, but this one has more parts incorporated into it.

Crochet flamingo amigurumi made with a mashup of Irene Strange's Chloe the Flamingo pattern and the Flamingo pattern from Curious Crochet Creatures.

Her body and neck are from the Chloe the Flamingo pattern, but I adapted it to make the part in one piece so I didn't have to stitch together the upper neck and lower neck as set out in the original pattern. It was only after I completed this part, with the modifications and all, that I realised her book Curious Crochet Creatures, which I own a copy of, contains a flamingo pattern... And that flamingo pattern is designed such that the body and neck are made as a single piece. I feel like an idiot. This is why I should occasionally take stock of the patterns I have huh.... Oh well, the mental exercise was fun and a useful lesson.

She is truly a bit of a Frankenstein, with different parts from the two patterns incorporated together. Her head comes from Chloe the Flamingo, but her beak is from the pattern in Curious Crochet Creatures. Her legs are also from Chloe the Flamingo, but her feet are from Curious Crochet Creatures with the toe bumps and centre ridge from Chloe the Flamingo.

Crochet wings~

Her wings are my own design. I wanted larger and slightly more flamboyant wings, and wanted to include feathers along the wing edge. After some unsuccessful attempts at modifying the wing from Chloe the Flamingo, I ended up replacing the wing with my own design instead. From these 2 flamingo patterns by Irene Strange, I was able to see how using increases, decreases and sc3tog stitches help create shapes and contours. So I applied what I learnt from it to help me make the wings. They still need work, but I'm using them for now.

Overall, the flamingo amigurumi is quite floppy, even after stuffing it quite firmly. The patterns do recommend inserting garden wires or pipe cleaners to hold it up, and I would certainly recommend that. I left them out because I wanted the flamingo to be easy to wash and dry. In hindsight, I think it would have been nicer to have something inside to hold up its shape.

Honestly, I struggled with crochet tension when making this amigurumi. For this project, I used an acrylic-cotton blend, Papi / Puppy Yarn by Tiny Rabbit Hole. It's the same yarn I used for the giraffe amigurumi Claire loves, so I have worked with it before, but I've been using cotton yarn in almost all my crochet projects for over a year now, so I had trouble adjusting my tension for this soft, slightly stretchy yarn. I actually remade the neck and body to try and fix some of the spots, as the first one I made had gaps in which the stuffing showed. Even after the remake, I can still see various flaws and issues in it, like the areas where my crochet tension was an issue, the fact that the head and neck in the remake look a little disproportional to the body, and so on.... Even though Hubby assured me that it's fine. Granted that I'm being overly critical, and it's the maladaptive perfectionist and harsh inner critic speaking. Notwithstanding that, this project was a fruitful learning experience to add to my crochet journey, and I was able to learn new stuff from the patterns. And I hope the cuddly toy that resulted will bring hoy to my niece.

Ooooo! The Chloe the Flamingo pattern also has a useful crochet method on how to add fluffy yarn without actually crocheting with the fluffy yarn itself. This is fantastic news for me as crocheting with fluffy or fuzzy yarn is still a major struggle. I'll be using this method to make some susuwatari amigurumi another time!


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