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I’ve used eyelash yarn on exactly one project before.

The process was so awful that I didn’t pick up my crochet hooks again for a year.

Yes – I hated it that much. The finished result was adorable – but I couldn’t see my stitches while I was working. I couldn’t even find my loop again if my hook fell out!

That project was just using eyelash yarn on the bottom border of a toddler dress – straight crochet with no shaping. The thought of using the stuff to crochet an amigurumi was unthinkable.

Except that I’ve been thinking about it for a few years. 🙂

You see, I had this idea for a little hedgehog. A really cute little hedgehog with soft prickles made of eyelash yarn.

For years I set the idea aside because – eyelash yarn! *shudders*

Counting stitches? Increasing and decreasing? With eyelash yarn?

Nope. Nope. Nope.

But I kept coming back to it and thinking there has to be a way to crochet with this stuff without going crazy.

I looked at all the tutorials. Most of them suggest crocheting it together with a smooth yarn to help you see your stitches, like this. . .

That’s what I did on the dress, and while that made the project possible, it wasn’t even a little bit fun.

I think this suggestion works a lot better for knitting, where the knitting needle tells you right where your stitch is.

Some of the tutorials suggested using a bigger hook. I tried that and it was still impossible to see the stitches. The thought of counting rows and doing increases and decreases was not going to happen.

Inconceivably – The Internet was no help.

So I got out some yarns and hooks and started to play.

And I came up with a solution!

At one point I was thinking about Turkey work embroidery (that’s the stitch I used to make the mane on this lion) and how the finished effect is similar to what I was trying to achieve with this yarn. For Turkey work on stuffed animals you make the animal first and then embroider onto the surface.

That’s it!

Instead of crocheting the actual body of the project with the eyelash yarn – where you have to be accurate with your counts and it’s really important to be able to see your stitches – I decided to crochet the body with smooth yarn and then surface crochet the prickles on top of that using eyelash yarn.

It worked!

Not only was it painless – it was fun! And easier and faster than Turkey work embroidery, for what it’s worth. 🙂

Here’s how.

Now you can add furry yarn to any crochet project! Just make the body first in regular yarn and then add the fur later.

And – it works with other specialty yarns too! I used it with a bouclé yarn to make the fuzzy pajamas that Pippa Puppy is wearing.

Handy dandy links. . .

• I tried a few different yarns, and by far my favorite was Lion Brand Fun Fur. My Joann’s had a pretty limited selection of colors, but if you buy online directly from Lion Brand you can get the full range. Look at all the fun colors!
• That hedgehog I show in the video is a great pattern to start with – very simple and fast to make. Get the pattern here.

You can also use this method to add little accents using eyelash yarn – like Maxwell Monster‘s hairy ears.

I can’t wait to see what you make!

Happy stitching!

Here are handy links to all the posts about yarn. . .

• How to Join Yarn with No Knot
• 3 Ways to Join Yarn without Tying a Knot
• What to Do If There’s a Knot in Your Yarn
• How to Work with Eyelash Yarn
• How Much Yarn Do I Need?
• How to Calculate Yarn Weight from Length
• How to Make a Magic Ball
• How to Use a Ball Winder
• Using a Nostepinne Replacement to Make a Center-Pull Yarn Ball
• How to Make Yarn from Fabric Strips
• Dye Yarn with Wilton Icing Dye

Return to the main table of contents for Let’s Learn to Crochet Amigurumi.

Move on to the lessons for the basic crochet stitches.

Happy stitching!