Free Pattern: Amigurumi Cupcake Tutorial

This is the tutorial I used to ease my way back into crochet after 10+ years of having not done it. My grandma taught me way back when, I want to say I was 8. I kept it up for a little bit, but we moved when I was 10 and I hadn't touched any yarn craft until I was in my early 20s (I believe I was 21 or 22). I started up again with knitting, but wanted to get back into crochet as well. I kept having this problem of my work getting narrower as I went (a problem simply solved by remembering to chain at the start of every new row lol). This tutorial was appealing because 1) it is worked in a spiral, so no starting new rows! and 2) I always wanted to get into crochet plush.

Ignore the awesome quality of a webcam photo n_~
I sent him to my grandma and never got better pics

This pattern was very easy to follow and a great use for scrap yarn. The only stitches you need to know are chain, single crochet, and increase (Knit Simple has a great illustrated guide to crochet). You also need to know decrease if you make the cherry, but I opted not.

The only tricky part might be learning the magic circle technique, although nimoe links to my favorite tutorial for it. If you find that technique a bit daunting, you can just chain 2 and work all your round 1 single crochets into the second chain. It's the same effect, there is just a possibility of  small hole using the chain method versus the magic circle method which allows you to cinch that hole closed.

If you want to make this guy, or just take your first venture into the world of amigurumi, I highly recommend nimoe's Amigurumi Cupcake Tutorial. She takes you through step by step with clear instructions and lots of pictures. She even shows you how to weave in your ends, do a simple straight stitch embroidery, and seam the top and bottom together.

For those of you who don't need a tutorial but still want the pattern without all that extra fluff, here is a version nimoe has of the pattern only.