One girl + one book = 18 adorable softies!

Adriana’s 18 completed softies

Here’s a riddle for you: What do you get when you give one enthusiastic and talented crocheter an exciting book full of adorable crochet patterns for animals? You guessed it—a collection of unique completed softies!

We received a message from author Stacey Trock about a fan who was attempting to complete each of the crocheted animals in her book Crocheted Softies. That’s 18 animals in all! As soon as Stacey sent us the photo from her fan, Adriana, we couldn’t stop gushing over Adriana’s adorable animals. We especially loved the unique stripes and lush colors Adriana used to make the final pieces her own. Stacey was so excited about this endeavor (and so were we!) that she agreed to interview Adriana about her completed softies for the Stitch This! blog. Take it away, Stacey!

I design stuffed animals for a living. There’s no doubt it’s a fabulous job. And I’m often asked what the best part of my job is. Is it getting to play all day with yummy yarn? Being surrounded by adorable toys? Seeing my name in print on the covers of books?

Sure, all of those things are great. But do you want to know my absolute favorite part of my job?

Seeing photos from people who’ve made animals from my patterns. It’s how I know that someone else used what I made (the pattern) to create something fabulous all on their own. You see, my passion is helping others crochet and make adorable animals. And seeing a photo is how I know I’ve succeeded!

So, you can imagine that I nearly FELL OFF MY CHAIR when I discovered that Adriana was on a mission to crochet all 18 animals from my second book, Crocheted Softies.

I kept close tabs on her progress, letting out a little squeal of delight each time she shared a new animal.

And now, I’m ecstatic to share with you: Adriana has completed her goal and crocheted every one of the patterns from Crocheted Softies! Isn’t that amazing? It’s such a fabulous achievement that I have to shout it out to the world. Or at least, share it on this blog!

After you’ve finished fawning over the adorableness of the critters above, come check out this little interview I had with Adriana.

Stacey: So you crocheted all of the animals in Crocheted Softies! What inspired you to take on such a task?

Adriana: I’ve always had an obsession with stuffed animals. When I found your book while browsing online, I just had to get it. The idea of making my own stuffed animals was just too exciting. I had seen that most amigurumi are small, and that didn’t really appeal to me as much as big huggable ones. After finishing the first softie, I just couldn’t help but start another. They are really addictive.

Stacey: How long have you been crocheting?

Adriana: My mother taught me to make chains when I was about 5, and then she taught me to crochet when I was about 10. So I’ve been crocheting on and off for about 11 years. I actually hadn’t crocheted that much until now.

Stacey: Which softie was your favorite, and why?

Adriana: This is a tough question, because I love them all and they are all super cute. But I’m going to pick the elephant. I think it might be because it was the first softie I made from this book, and I remember being really excited about it. And even after making all the other ones, there was still something special about that elephant.

Stacey: Were any of the skills new to you?

Adirana: The loop stitch was new to me. I actually had never even heard of it before. It isn’t really hard to do but it takes practice to get the loops looking even. I do recommend practicing with the microbes before moving on to the alpaca. I did the opposite and I regret it now. I think the loops on my alpaca would have looked so much better if I had practiced the stitch more.

Stacey: I absolutely love your snake. You added in the cutest stripes! How’d you get that idea?

Adriana: When I saw the snake, I knew I wanted to do stripes. Every time I was going to work on a new animal, I searched online for pictures to get an idea of what colors I could use. While doing this for the snake, I saw a picture of a Coral snake. I liked how it was striped and decided to do something similar on mine using some yarn I already had.

Stacey: What’s in your future crochet plans?

Adriana: I am definitely going to continue to make more stuffed animals. Right now, I am focusing on making some FreshStitches patterns but hope that, in the near future, I can design some of my own, using the skills I learned from you.

A final note from Stacey: “Aren’t you motivated to pick up your crochet hook? Most people probably won’t make all 18 of the animals in Crocheted Softies. But if you have the urge to do one or two, be sure to show me your photos, because that’s what makes me happiest!”

Share your photos with Stacey on Ravelry and Facebook, or by email.

To give you the opportunity to try Stacey’s amigurumi patterns—and to experience her easy-to-follow amigurumi how-to—we have a free amigurumi pattern from Stacey that you can download today. Download the “M. Richard the Whale” pattern free!

Thanks to Stacey and Adriana for sharing such a cool project with us! If you’re feeling inspired, you can order Crocheted Softies right now—you’ll get the eBook free when you order the book, so you can start stitching right away.

Have you ever completed all or most of the projects from one book? What made you most excited about the patterns? Share your story in the comments!

See more of Stacey’s softie designs in the gallery below.

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