Ingenious Devices: Wire Brush

Fluffy yarns can be a real pain. You have to modify your pattern (working in the back stitch only), and even then, half the time you can't see what you're doing. If you do make a mistake and want to undo something (and you probably will), it gets all caught up and becomes a complete mess. There is an alternative though; just crochet your piece in regular yarn, and brush it afterwards with a wire brush. The result is a fluffy piece, with no fuss. The brush I use was designed for pets, but any wire bush with pointy-but-flexible teeth should do the trick.

You can brush the piece more or less to give different effects, and can trim the fluff back with scissors if it ends up being too much. I'm working on an arctic hare at the minute - here are the ears before (on the left)  and after brushing (on the right):

Some yarns fluff up in this way more than others, so I would recommend doing a small swatch first to try it out. The hare pattern should be available in a few days, by the way. Watch this space.

Ingenious Devices: Bamboo Tweezers

Before the blog becomes 90% about bugs, lets get back to crochet with a new series of equipment posts! Rather than talk about every tool you could use for amigurumi, I'm going to pick out unusual or interesting items that you could use, but may not have thought of. First up, bamboo tweezers.

I know that people have all sorts of things they use for stuffing their pieces, but I find that custom tools are a bit plastic-ey, and other things just don't work very well. Bamboo tweezers, though, are absolutely brilliant. They work (most importantly), and bamboo is an attractive and sustainable material. Plus they're cheap! My pair are 14 cm long, and taper nicely to a point, which lets you grab the fiberfill and slide it neatly into small spaces.

If you want a pair yourself, they're often listed on eBay as being for handling computer components, or sometimes for jewellery repair.