Sea Dragons, Snugglers and Large Dragons. A Recap of the First Quarter of 2025.
Although I planned to write a recap for each month, this year is just flying by. Now that the holidays are over, I’ve been working more on designing and less on market prep. At this point, I do not have any markets planned for this year and really want to mostly work on pattern design and pattern testing.
I started designing patterns pretty soon after I learned to crochet and discovered how much I enjoyed making amigurumi back in 2016. Back then I didn’t know much about pattern testing and most of my designs I didn’t even type up. Instead I mostly just saved them for my made to order listings of plushes. So one of my main goals this year is to go back through my old designs. I want to type up the ones that were never typed and revamp them so that they can work in both chenille and regular acrylic yarn. The first pattern I revamped is my chibi Eevee pattern. In my original pattern, I used the brushing out method to make the neck fluff so I redesigned that in order to work with fur yarn instead.
I also have never done pattern tests for other designers before this year. Starting in February I was excited to start getting picked for tests. I tested Nori the Sea Dragon by and Skampi the baby sea dragon by CreatitiveoutletCrafts. These patterns are super cute and they work up quickly! I learned new techniques on short rows and adding separate pieces together. The patterns are really well thought out and there are descriptions and photos to help with those techniques that may not be commonly known.
My obsession with dragons continued when I got accepted to do the Fourth Dragon test by Wooleytunes. This pattern makes up a huge dragon that has distinctive toes and a lot of texture details! I think this pattern would be a great fit for anyone looking to make a dragon to watch over their bookshelf!
My next test was an adorable snuggler based off of Kiki’s Delivery Service. Jiji by fairytale.crochets was an absolute cutie and was super quick to work up. It gave me the chance to work more with my cricut and cut the felt eyes out. Although these ones are just glued on, I think in the future I will try needle-felting them on instead for more security. And next time I may make one with a big red bow!
I was amazed and excited that I got picked to test Esmee the cuddly baby by Maris_Stuffies! This tester call was going on at the same time as my Eevee pattern so I was sure I wouldn’t get picked. I’ve done other patterns by Maris_Stuffies before and just like all the others, this one did not disappoint! Her patterns are always well written and I always learn some new techniques. She does a really good job at making those techniques easy to understand and follow.
Filbert the Fairy Dragon by tabbathaleemee is sute a cute little pattern that I tested! There’s a lot of versatility in where you sew the legs so you can either make him stand or lay down. Filbert works up really quick and I plan to make more in all sorts of color combinations.
Aerie the Mini Dragon by wicked_stitches_crochet is another super versatile pattern. In this pattern she gives you instructions to either make Aerie as a stuffed plush or a snuggler. There are also different ear and horn types to pick from so you can have some fun making dragons in all sorts of variations!
The last test I did in April was the Flareon snuggler by pebble_crochets. This pattern was so easy and turns out so cute and cuddly! I originally made one in Bernat Blanket but I had to go back and make one in Feels like Bliss. Of course, this lead to me to want to make them all in Feels Like Bliss so I have added Espeon and Umbreon to my collection.
It’s been amazing testing patterns for all the incredible designers out there. I’ve also spent a lot of time working on my own designs as well! My first project of the year was to celebrate the year of the snake with my Tsuchinoko pattern. This design was a suggestion from my wonderful husband. A tsuchinoko is a creature from Japanese folklore. The name translates to “child of hammer” because of the flat part of the body. This pattern was fun to design and it works up pretty quickly.
Later in January I also started work on a small Dragon snuggler that I decided to name Jade. My obsessions with dragons did not end with the start of the year of the snake. This small snuggler had a lot of variations before I decided on her final design. I think what led me to making Jade was the excitement for Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. Although Jade’s signature color was green, I also made a version based off of Tairn in all black, with a bit of glitter. I also made an adorable gold one with metallic gold thread woven in for Andarna. And finally I had to add Sgaeyl to finish up the trio! This pattern works up quickly and is low sew.
My family and I had a trip to Disney World in December and I saw so many of those magnetic plushes that sit on your shoulder. It gave me the inspiration to try out using magnets in my designs. So I decided for Valentine’s Day to design some kissing dragons! Vale and Tina are Dragons with magnets in their noses so that they kiss! This pattern took me some time to work out so that I could figure out how to curve the tails nicely. I love how when they are opposite each other, the tails can make a heart.
I haven’t done as many small, free patterns as I would have liked so far. Last year I designed a small bunny. I put it aside because it was after Easter before I knew it and I was focusing on other things. I’m glad I did, because when I found the notes on the bunny, I was able to redesign him slightly so that he would be low sew. You can find him for free in another blog post on his page, or if you’d like to support me and you want a PDF printable version, you can purchase him in my shop or on my etsy.
And the last project of this quarter, and I think probably my favorite are Sakura and Kohana, my cherry blossom dragons. This was another amazing idea from my husband and I just ran with it. I had been wanting to design my own large dragon for awhile so I took this as the perfect opportunity to do so. After I started designing Sakura, I thought it would be really cute if she had a baby to cuddle with, so I added Kohana to the project list. These dragons turned out better than I could have hoped for and I think there is a lot of room for making mods for different types of flowers.
These first four months of this year have flown by and I am amazed by how much support I have had. I have gone from maybe 400 followers on Instagram to almost 950 in that short time. This is more than I could ever have expected. I have also made some crochet friends while doing other designer’s pattern tests and in the tests that I have done myself.
