Welcome to my little shop - I'm Svenja & I'm happy you stopped by!
I'm a crochet & amigurumi designer and have a soft spot for ocean creatures. Next to crocheting, I love indulging myself in various other handcrafts, such as creating small accessoires or stickers.
I hope my designs bring other people joy ❤
Connect with me here:
Below you can find my favorite crochet tools & materials and where I get them. Of course, this is all very subjective, and only my personal preferences & something else might work better for you! I decided to be very precise with the things I mention here, since I also always love it if someone else shares the specific items they use.
Tools
Crochet Hooks
I really like the grip of these hooks and that the hook itself is a bright white color. The range of sizes is also pretty big - my favorite hook size is 4mm!
Stitch Marker
Of course, I love to use my own handmade stitch markers, which I designed exactly to my needs & taste. Other than that, I really like the flower-shaped plastic stitch markers from Tulip, which have a super soft feeling & can be put in and out of the crochet work very smoothly.
Needles
The clover needles are super smooth and come in various sizes and shapes. They are perfect for sewing crocheted parts together.
Stitch Counter
I love everything about this stitch counter: the size, the color, and how well it works!
Yarn
MY SEAROSE • RITO HOBBY
These are my two favorite online shops for ordering my yarn. Both offer a selection of my favorite yarn brands mentioned below. The delivery is always fast & I have never had any issues with my orders yet. For all other crochet tools and materials, I mainly stick with local stores or Amazon.
Scheepjes Cahlista
This is my go-to yarn for most of my projects. It works perfectly together with the 4mm hook, and for me is a great balance between thin and thick. The color range is very big & reliable - I switched to this yarn after my previous brand kept switching yarn colors and even rotating colors out of their sortiment entirely, which was very frustrating!
Alize Velluto
I really grew fond of this yarn for my chunky projects. I usually work it together with a 6mm or 9mm hook, depending on how big I want the result to be. Plushies made with this yarn are super soft & huggable. Single crochets worked in rows also have a very unique look with this yarn, which I like a lot!
Scheepjes Catona
For me, this yarn is like the smaller sibling of the Scheepjes Cahlista. The color range is also super big & color names and numbers even match up with the Cahlista yarn. I love to use it for projects together with a 3mm hook (but it even works down to a 2mm hook for me). The yarn has a bit of a shimmer to it, which gives an elegant finish.
Materials
Stuffing
Fiber Fill
I use 100% polyster fiber fill for all of my crochet plushies.
Pipe Cleaners
If I want to stuff very thin limbs and give a plushie the ability to stay in different poses, I like to use pipe cleaners as stuffing for those parts.
Eyes
Black Safety Eyes
Most of the time, I stick with black safety eyes in varying sizes depening on the size of the plushie. I still draw from the first box set I got, so if you plan on making lots of crochet plushies and critters and always want to have the right eye size at hand, I think getting one of these box sets is a good investement.
Black Pin Eyes
In the rare cases I need eyes smaller than 5mm, I use these kind of pin eyes with a stick at the back that you need to bend yourself so they work like a sew-on eye.
Colored Glass Eyes
These sew-on eyes are a lucky find at a local craft store in my area. I haven't found a great place to get eyes like these at a similar price online yet!
Magnets
Magnets are such a cool, magical tool to add to plushies! I tried a lot of different magnet types and ended up with neodymium magnets, which are both small and also strong enough to stay magnetic through two layers of crochet. I came up with this idea inspired by the remora fish, but now also use them a lot if I want to have a switchable accessory for my plushies, like a hat or something they can hold.
Closures & Holders
I recently started making designs that are not only plushies, but also functional with my whauble accessory trio of pouch, purse, and key chain. Here are the closure and holder elements I use for them:
I hope this list is helpful for someone - feel free to reach out and let me know if there's any other tool or material where you'd love to know what I typically use or where I got it! ❤
DISCLAIMER
The products mentioned on this page are all unpaid advertisements and just my personal preferences. However, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases (i.e. if you should purchase anything through one of the Amazon product links, I get a tiny share of the product price from Amazon).