I have a real soft spot for amigurumi food - after all, who doesn't love cute snacks that smile back at you? Well, very hungry people who would rather eat a snack I suppose.
What I love most about these pretzelgurumis is the payoff. They look so much more complicated to make than they are, so your friends and family can be suitably impressed! I've designed a Pappa Pretzel and Teen Pretzel - originally meant to be a baby pretzel, until I accidentally gave his face an adolescent smirk then decided I loved it!
Right, let's get going!
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
- 8ply cotton yarn (this is what I used, but you could use any cotton or acrylic - just make sure you change your hook size accordingly)
- 3.5mm crochet hook (because we are going to be bending the final product, I went with a hook 1mm larger than I normally do for this yarn to make it a bit looser. So if you have changed the yarn thickness, also go up a bit in hook size!)
- Fibrefill or other stuffing
- If you plan to add a face, safety eyes and black cotton yarn (if you don't have safety eyes you could also embroider on some eyes with the black yarn)
- Yarn scraps for decoration: White glimmer yarn for salt crystals, and assorted colours for sprinkles
- Scissors and yarn needle
- Knitting needle/blunt pencil/anything else to help with pushing the stuffing in as you go, especially for teen pretzel
STITCHES YOU'LL NEED TO KNOW:
- Chain
- Double crochet (dc), and how to increase and invisible decrease
- Increase (inc) = crochet 2 dc into 1 stitch
- Invisible decrease (dec) = pick up the front half of the next 2 stitches then crochet them like they are 1 stitch
- See, I told you this was easy!
Note this pattern uses Australian/UK crochet terms. In US terms, we are referring to a single crochet stitch.
STEP ONE: CROCHET THE BASE PRETZEL STICK
The crocheting part is ridiculously simple - we just need to create a pretzel stick and keep on going! Note this pattern is performed in a spiral, so don't join at the end of each round, just keep going!
If you are creating Pappa Preztel:
- Create a slip knot and chain 2, then perform 6 double crochets (dc) into the second chain from the hook (this is just my preferred method to start off, but you could also do 6 dc into a magic ring if you would prefer). You now have (6) stitches in this row.
- *Increase (inc), dc into next 2 stitches*, Repeat from * twice (8)
- *Inc, dc*, Repeat from * four times (12)
- Dc all stitches, stuffing as you go. Trust me on this - a couple of times I left it too long in between stuffing and it was super annoying trying to move it down. Again because we are going to bend the final product, don't stuff as tightly as you may do for other amigurumi. Do a couple of test bends as you go along to check you're going to like the appearance, and adjust your hook size/degree of stuffing accordingly until you're happy with it.
- Continue your dc-ing and stuffing until your 'stick' is approx 58cm long
- You're near the end now, so if you are using safety eyes now is a good time to secure them. You can also sew the smile on now or leave it until later.
- Yep, that's right, back to dc all, until it is about 62cm long in total.
- Now we have reached the right length, we start to decrease using the reverse of the previous pattern to keep things symmetrical.
- *Dec, dc*, Repeat from * four times (8)
- *Dec, 2 dc*, Repeat from * twice (6)
- Finish off the end of your pretzel stick, using your yarn needle to pick up the outside loop of each stitch, and then weave in end.
If you are creating Teen pretzel, it's the same thing but even easier:
- Create a slip knot and chain 2, then perform 6 double crochets (dc) into the second chain from the hook (6)
- *Increase (inc), dc into next 2 stitches*, Repeat from * twice (8)
- Continue your dc-ing and stuffing as you go until your 'stick' is approx 39cm long
- Secure safety eyes and/or smile if you are using.
- dc all, until it is about 62cm long in total.
- Now we have reached the right length, we start to decrease using the reverse of the previous pattern to keep things symmetrical.
- *Dec, dc*, Repeat from * four times (8)
- *Dec, 2 dc*, Repeat from * twice (6)
- Finish off the end of your pretzel stick, using your yarn needle to pick up the outside loop of each stitch, and then weave in end.
STEP TWO: TWIST YOUR WAY TO A CUTIE PRETZEL
If you would like to crochet a pretzel stick or an amigurumi snake, the good news is, congratulations you are already finished! If you would like to create a traditional pretzel shape, then let's get twisting...
I'm not even going to to describe what to do as it will only overcomplicated things - just follow the pictures below!
Ta-da! You're done (ish)
Use pins to secure the two ends of the pretzel while you sew them in place. I found that pulling the stitch the whole way through to the bottom and tying a knot before sewing th ends in helps the overall pretzel to sit a bit flatter (as it pulls the layers together). If you're not sure what I mean, please refer to the image below:
STEP THREE: DECORATE!
For the pappa pretzel, I created yarn crosses with a white glitter yarn to create salt crystals. For the teen pretzel, I used a mix of different coloured sprinkles (a great way to use up yarn scraps from other projects!)
