In support of making little guys

So this week’s post comes with some homework before we dive in. There’s a video on Shing Yin Khor’s post called Make Little Guys. Go watch it. It’s just under two and a half minutes long. You’ve got the time. Then come back here…I’ll wait…

A writer friend shared this video with me a few weeks ago and I think I’ve watched it about 80 times. Because the power of the little guy is SO strong, it’s literally why I started crocheting in the first place. Because I wanted to make little guys.

Amigurumi¹ origin story

I started crocheting in 2010. I learned kinda late in life. Most people learn from their grandmas or aunts or mom as children. My grandma declared me unteachable about three minutes after trying to show me how to hold the hook with my left hand when I was a preteen.

I had two friends teach me while sitting at my kitchen table on a Tuesday night. I decided to learn right handed, the standard way, since I was learning a whole new skill anyway. The first thing I made, once I had enough basics down, was a little guy. Since then, I have made hundreds of little guys.

Little guys are universal

After maybe the ninth or tenth watch of the Make Little Guys video, I shared it in the art Discord I’m in. Making little guys is so universal that folks in the chat immediately started posting pics of in-progress little guys or little guys they’d made previously or talking up the little guy plans they have for future little guys. And yes, of course, little guys are artist’s favorite things. Why have I never realized this before?? We all have our little guys!!

I make all kinds of little guys

The current iteration of my bio/artist statement talks about making handheld objects and little guys of all kinds fit into that category. Birds and Insects are some of my favorite little guys and I talk about them here. Books can also be little guys to me. Actually, you know what, if it’s handheld and handmade it almost always fits into the little guy category for me. I’m not a little guy gatekeeper.

You know what I’m gonna say

Make your own little guys! Yeah. However you are called to make little guys, go make them. Share your little guys with the world by either selling or giving them away and teaching other people how to make them when asked. I’m going to be thinking about how much nicer the world would be if everyone had a little guy and shared making little guys with others. It’s a possibility I like almost as much as the little guys themselves.

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1. Amigurumi is the Japanese word for small knitted or crocheted stuffed creatures. So you know, little guy, but in Japanese. ↩︎