There is a crochet book ready to bowl you over with it’s feline cuteness: Dumpling Cats.
If anything was going to get this knitter to drop the double needles and to revisit the crochet hook, it was going to be super, duper kitty crochet patterns.
Dumpling Cats features crochet patterns for about 25 felines with bonus patterns for food bowls and beds. The book also features a special story for each cat. For example, there is patter for “Waffles”, a calico who “spends most of her day lounging around in her cat bed and a good book She’s a voracious reader! She doesn’t mind sharing her comfy spot, as long as you don’t mind listening to her read out loud.” This is so adorable my hands are already twitching to grab the crochet hook! Just like the addictive game, Neko Atsume, you want to collect them all and get to know their stories!
The book contains a table of contents showing the overall finished creatures and accessories. There are the basic cats with their coloring and then there are ones that are dressed up as a fish or a witch.
There is one page of glossary terms and that it all the help that will be give. Basic crochet skill knowledge of castingon, single stitch, adjustable circle, color changing, and binding up should be familiar with the “EASY” patterns. There are no special pages of “how to” instructions for basic stitches or techniques. It goes right into the patterns. The patterns do have photos after certain steps which helps to to make sure you are going in the right direction. For those who familiar with the basics, this is great as it means more pages dedicated to cats. For those who are still learning, this may be a struggle at first.
It took a long time to review this book as because all previous lessons of crocheting had vanished from my mind. I would recommend either taking a basic crochet class or a lot of youtube tutorial videos. The ones that were most helpful were the ones that focused “reading the crochet” pattern and the basic stitches. Crochet work is NOT the same as knitting, so it took a bit for the mind to re-adjust. Especially with counting the stitches.
Below are the finished products of the first and second attempt of the “Cheeks” pattern. I chose “Cheeks” to try out as it was only one color and considered an EASY pattern. The major mistake for the first attempt was that I increased the pattern a tad bit too much. When the pattern called for 48 stitches all around, I didn’t realize I had 80. It made for an interesting cousin of “Cheeks”, though!
First and second attempt of the “Cheeks” pattern
Side by side of my attempts next to what “Cheeks” is supposed to look like
The second attempt came up out much better although it is not quite “Cheeks”. Other than the obvious color change of using purple yarn instead of white yarn, I did struggle with the ears and missed the puffy cheek marks. The pattern was split into sections of the body, tail, and ears. The body was mainly keeping track of increases and decreases. The ears and tails required knowledge of adjustable rings and sewing the parts onto the body. It was harder to see the stitches on the adjustable rig to place the new stitch correctly which may account for the ears looking so off.
“Cheeks” pattern. Close up of the “ears”
Happy “Cheeks”
These were the two finished products of the pattern attempt. There are various piles of tangled yarn and discards piles of questionable results. The need to create such cute critters fueled the willpower to keep going. Minus the weeks of giving up and worrying about my ability to keep track of number between 1 and 50, these were worked over two days. Four days for the first attempt as it was during a particular binge session of a Korean drama series Which may, most likely, have also lead to overlooking the stitches.
Once the techniques clicked, it was indeed a relatively easy pattern and I adore both my adorable “Cheeks” creatures. This book will definitely encourage me to continue working on my crochet skills. I have my eyes on particular cat pattern that involves a crown.
Dumpling Cats is available now from Dover Crafts!
You did an awesome job!