[Free Pattern] Chinese New Year: Six-Coloured Tangyuan Amigurumi Pattern・农历新年: 钩针编织六彩汤圆

Today the last day of the Chinese New Year, otherwise known as Yuanxiao Festival (元宵节) or Chap Goh Mei (十五眠) in Singapore and Malaysia. Today is again time for family reunion and our traditional Chap Goh Mei dish — tangyuan (汤圆), aka kueh ee. As mentioned before, the tangyuan's round shape resembles the full moon and also signifies togetherness and family harmony. I will not be going into detail about the history and symbolism of tangyuan here since that has been explored all that in a previous CNY post. This Chap Goh Meh, I am serving up a bowl of six-coloured tangyuan (liù cǎi tāng yuán 六彩汤圆) as I wish everyone to have a sweet, fulfilling life and abundance in the Year of the Dragon.

Six-coloured tangyuan for Chap Goh Mei 2024.

The pattern is my Tsukimi dango amigurumi pattern, but for ease of reference, it is reposted below, with minor mods. The yarns used are Scheepjes Catona No.105 Bridal White, No.222 Tulip (pink), No.522 Primrose (yellow), No.520 Lavender (purple), Sirdar Happy Cotton No.799 Fizz (green) and DMC Natura Just Cotton N106 Light Blue. They look darker in my pictures because the amigurumi are wet.

The original plan was to call these wǔ cǎi tāng yuán (五彩汤圆), i.e. five-coloured tangyuan, as inspired by Chinese wucai porcelain and Japanese Kutani porcelain. But the auspiciousness of the number 5 (wǔ 五) depends on context — wǔ cǎi (五彩) sounds like wú cái (无财) which means "without riches / wealth / fortune", so... I went with liù cǎi tāng yuán (六彩汤圆), six-coloured tangyuan — liù cǎi 六彩 sounds like liú cái 流财, which means "(smooth) flowing riches". Sounds much more auspicious. And it doubles up nicely with the jade cabbage dumpling amigurumi I served up at the start of CNY — bǎi cái 百财 and liú cái 流财! I'm not the pantang sort but this year is fan Tai Sui for me and I don't want to tempt anything.

White, pink and green are classic colours in tangyuan. Yellow is an auspicious colour because yellow = gold = money = wealth and fortune. Not sure if it's related, but historically yellow was also considered noble and held in high esteem in imperial China. Only the Chinese emperor could wear yellow, symbolising his special connection with the earth as the son of heaven. As for blue, historically the Chinese associate it with one of the five elements (Wuxing), but blue is a colour of mourning in Peranakan culture so never ever let a Nonya matriarch catch you making blue tangyuan for the New Year or Tang Chek. If my late great-grandmothers saw this, my ears would be blistering for days.

Six-coloured tangyuan for Chap Goh Mei 2024.

Did my best with the amigurumi faces but this area is not my forte. If you're curious about the face of the blue tangyuan amigurumi, I was trying to make this expression of Néma's in Isekai de Mofumofu Nadenade suru Tame ni Ganbattemasu episode 8. (Yeah, isekai. Sure, judge me. Shrug.) But c'mon, that chibi face looks absolutely adorable.

Screengrab of Néma in Isekai de Mofumofu Nadenade suru Tame ni Ganbattemasu episode 8 (00:21:24). ©Himawari/Takagami Yuriko/Futabasha/Mofu Nade Production Committee.

So, I wanted to make actual six-coloured tangyuan to eat for Chap Goh Meh, but I do not have the time (long story). And to be honest, making 5 different natural food colourings sounded like extra labour I didn't need to do or have time for. Yes, I was going to use natural food colouring. On this topic, here's some food for thought. There's been many health concerns associated with artificial colouring in recent years (5, 10 years?), so there's been a trend (mainly in the Western countries) to substitute it with natural food colouring made from fruits, vegetables and edible flowers. If we paused and thought about it, humanity has been using plant-based natural colouring for centuries long before artificial colouring (many of which are petroleum-based chemicals) came into existence. For instance, here in Southeast Asia, it's actually pretty common to use natural food colouring for our traditional foods, and our culinary history tells us that SE Asians have done so for hundreds of years. I mean, just look at all our kueh... Pandan is used for green, blue pea flower for blue, sweet potato or pumpkin or turmeric for yellow, ube (purple yam) for purple, hibiscus for red or pink, gula melaka for brown....... More recently, beetroot, beets, and even red dragonfruit for red and pink. While working on this coloured tangyuan amigurumi, I even learnt new information about other plants that people in our region used, for e.g. bunga pukul empat (Mirabilis jalapa) as red colouring.

SIX-COLOURED TANGYUAN AMIGURUMI (FROM THE TSUKIMI DANGO AMIGURUMI CROCHET PATTERN)

For the original pattern, please go to the Tsukimi dango amigurumi post.

Materials & Tools:

• Yarn in white, pink, yellow, green, blue, purple, or your choice of colours
• 3mm crochet hook
• Stuffing
• Stitch markers
• Scissors
• Yarn needle
• Safety eyes, embroidery thread (optional)

Abbreviations (US terms):

R : round
MR : magic ring
ch : chain
st(s) : stitch(es)
sl st : slip stitch
sc : single crochet
inc : increase (2 sc in the same st)
dec : decrease / invisible decrease
(...) : a set of pattern instructions
[...] : total number of sts in the round

Finished Size:

Approx. 2.8cm × 2.8cm × 2.8cm
(Finished sizes will vary depending on yarn weight, hook size and tension.)

TANGYUAN

Makes 1.
Work in rounds,
R1. 5 sc in MR. [5]
R2. 5 inc. [10]
R3. (sc, inc) 5 times. [15]
R4. (2 sc, inc) 5times. [20]
R5-8 (4 rounds). 20 sc. [20]
R9. (2 sc, dec) 5 times. [15]
Start stuffing,
R10. (sc, dec) 5 times. [10]
If using safety eyes, insert at the desired position before continuing.
R11. 5 dec. [5]
Finish stuffing. Fasten off.
Weave the yarn end through the front loops of the last 5 sts and pull to close the work.
Insert the yarn end through the centre and pull through to hide the end inside the work.

Make another 5 in your colours of choice.

* * *

If you made this amigurumi, do share a picture of your creation by tagging me on Instagram @yotsuba_blythes. I would love to see your creation!

Recently, I received a big uptick in traffic for my pineapple tart (kueh tair) amigurumi pattern, which I posted for CNY 2022. To the extent that some website violated my IP rights to my image. Notwithstanding that, I was very happy to see the different versions that people have made, and to know that my fellow crocheters find them cute and fun to make. The response has been very encouraging and inspiring for me, so I want to thank everyone for sharing the love. Thank you for coming along on this kueh amigurumi exploration journey. It has been a great pleasure to share the amigurumi along with a glimpse of the culture and heritage of my country. I hope it has also been fun and interesting for you. There are still a lot of kueh that serve as great inspiration, and I am still trying to create more kueh amigurumi.

Once again, may you all have a sweet, fulfilling life and abundance in the Year of the Dragon.

Six-coloured tangyuan amigurumi

All rights reserved. Unless stated otherwise, the content and images are mine. Please do not sell, copy or distribute them without my express consent. Sharing of the pattern is welcomed and appreciated. To share the crochet pattern, please link to this post and my Instagram profile @yotsuba_blythes with proper attribution. You are welcome to sell limited quantities of the finished items you have produced from the pattern and including my Instagram profile @yotsuba_blythes as attribution for the pattern will be much appreciated.