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Amigurumi Designer Interview – LIL CROCHET LOVE

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Welcome back to CoCrochet Tour – Month 2, the Designer Interview series throughout 2021, featuring 12 famous amigurumi designers. Who we are gonna meet today? Let me introduce to you Baiba – the talented designer behind Lil Crochet Love! Read the interview to know more about her and the motivation being a hot seller on Etsy! Plus, grab her beautiful Donut patterns for Free as her gift to my readers!

amigurumi designer interview - Babai from Lil Crochet Love and her amigurumi. designs
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The interview is inside 2021 COCROCHET TOUR – a year-long Amigurumi Designer Interviews, that will feature 12 famous amigurumi designers, listen to their unique success stories, and have the wonderful gifts from them. You can read more about CoCrochet Tour and other interesting events in 2021 here.

2021 Designer interviews
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FOLLOW BAIBA – LIL CROCHET LOVE

INSTAGRAM

ETSY SHOP

Let’s have a talk with Baiba, and know more about her and her design career!

AMIGURUMI DESIGNER INTERVIEW

 1. Please, tell us a little about yourself and your designs.

My name is Baiba and I am the creator and designer of @LilCrochetLove. I am a mom of two, boy and girl and I love crafts.

I started my business 5 years ago, that time I was living in Ireland, but in 2019 we came back to Latvia and now we are living in my childhood home. I love kawaii designs, sometimes when I am looking for inspiration, I just look at the cute kawaii pictures on Pinterest for some cute ideas. 

2. How long have you been crocheting?

I always have a big passion for crafts, especially crochet. My grandmother taught me to knit/crochet when I was a small child I was left in her care while both of my parents worked.

I remember my first project was a blanket for my barbie doll. I crocheted my first amigurumi when I was 7 months pregnant with my boy, it was a monkey with big round ears, found the tutorial on YouTube, rewrote the pattern to my notebook and that’s where it all started. My boy was born in summer 2015 and when we came home from the hospital there were 3 cute amigurumi animal toys waiting for him in a crib.

3. Why crochet? What is it that interests you?

Crocheting is good for your body as well as being a mood lifter and stress relief. Especially for wintertime, for those long dark evenings, what could be better than sitting in a comfy chair, feet up and with your crochet project in your hands. Sometimes I knit as well, but crocheting is really what I like the most.

crochet amigurumi pink octopus
amigurumi crochet donut
amigurumi crochet food : water melon, pear and apple

4. Where do you usually get inspiration from for your designs?

I get my inspiration from my children, from cartoons they are watching, from nature, also from other amigurumi designers. Most important for my designs is beautiful color combinations and cute kawaii inspired faces.

5. Tell us about your happiest moment since you became an amigurumi designer?

My happiest moment was my first sale on Etsy, I remember I was cooking dinner and heard a Cha-Ching sound from my phone, I was so happy that I was dancing around my apartment and burned my dinner. 😀

Also, a very happy moment that boosted my business a lot was when a popular Facebook page shared my Octopus pattern and I got loads of sales on Etsy.

amigurumi designer interview - Babai from Lil Crochet Love and her amigurumi. designs

6. What is the most struggle that you have faced during your design career?

The hardest part was and still is to find time for crochet because the house requires a lot of work and if you have two small children who need a lot of attention, then finding time is even more difficult.

7. How did you start to be a professional designer and treat the hobby as a business?

I wouldn’t call myself a professional designer, because I’m still learning a lot, learning how to run my own business, I think I’m just lucky that I can earn by doing what I really like.

I started to see my hobby as a business when my family and friends were passionate about my work and inspired me to open my Etsy shop and of course when people from all over the world started to show interest in my products.

8. What is your strategy to grow a design business? How did you start to promote yourself and which platform?

The first thing I created was Instagram and Facebook business pages, I started putting pictures of my works, followers and interest appeared, then I opened an Etsy store.

It is very important to advertise your business on as many platforms as possible. The Pinterest platform also helped my business grow a lot, every time I put in a new product, I immediately pin it to Pinterest.

As a good friend told me, each product has its own buyer, and how will the buyer find it if it is not advertised?

crochet octopuses
crochet strawberry
crochet animal blankets

9. I saw that you have tons of sales on Etsy and other sales platforms, what you think is the main factor that leads to your success today?

 In my opinion, the most important thing in online business is good quality pictures, bright, colorful, and without special filters that would deceive people.

For beginners who start selling Etsy products, I recommend finding and joining Facebook groups where people share tips on how to successfully start a business on Etsy. For me, it was a Facebook group called “Handmade is better with Kendra Goodrich – Help for Etsy sellers and makers”.

10.  You are famous right now, but I know that it would be a long story behind with all the effort and of course, luck! What is your advice for people who want to be a designer and live with a career?

I simply wish people never give up and believe in themselves and their talents!

Bye Baiba and thanks a lot for your interview. I hope you enjoyed the interview as much as I did. And yes, I also wish you, who want to become a crochet designer, or want to start your own business, never give up and believe in yourself!

In case you are new to amigurumi, check my Ultimate guide to amigurumi for beginners to learn from scratch this beautiful art!

IT’S TIME FOR GIVEAWAY

Free donut amigurumi crochet pattern from Lil Crochet Love with step by step photo tutorial for beginners.
Save the pattern into your Pinterest board for later use

To say hi to my readers, Babai has a free pattern of her Donut – the best seller in her shop for us! You will find the written pattern below, but if you want to grab the PDF printable patterns, visit her Etsy shop.

NOTE BEFORE STARTING

The copyright of this pattern belong to Babai – Lil Crochet Love, please respect her work by not copying, selling, translating, distributing parts or all the pattern.

Keep this page opens while crocheting is the way to support me and my small business, so that I can share more and more to you.

Work in continuous rounds. 

Do not join or turn if not instructed in the pattern. 

It is suggested to use stitch markers. Place it at the first or last stitch of the row and move it up when working. 

ch – chain sc – single crochet sl. st. – slip stitch inc – increase dec – decrease

MATERIALS

Yarn in three colors – light brown, light lilac, and yellow
2.25 mm crochet hook (or the size you need depending on your type of yarn)
Tapestry needle
Polyester stuffing
Scissors
Stitch marker (optional)

DONUT FREE CROCHET PATTERN

With light brown color yarn ch 24, sl. st. into the first chain to make a ring.
Work in spiral, do not join the rounds. Use a stitch marker to mark the beginning of each round (optional).
R1-R2: 24 sc (for 2 rows)
R3: (3 sc, 1 inc) repeat 6 times (30)
R4: (4 sc, 1 inc) repeat 6 times (36)
R5: (5 sc, 1 inc) repeat 6 times (42)
R6: (6 sc, 1 inc) repeat 6 times (48)
R7: (7 sc, 1 inc) repeat 6 times (54)
R8: (8 sc, 1 inc) repeat 6 times (60)
R9: (9 sc, 1 inc) repeat 6 times (66)
R10-R14: 66 sc (for 5 rows)
R15: (9 sc, 1 dec) repeat 6 times (60)
R16: (8 sc, 1 dec) repeat 6 times (54)
R17: (7 sc, 1 dec) repeat 6 times (48)
R18: (6 sc, 1 dec) repeat 6 times (42)
R19: (5 sc, 1 dec) repeat 6 times (36)
R20: (4 sc, 1 dec) repeat 6 times (30)
R21: (3 sc, 1 dec) repeat 6 times (24)

R22: 24 sc, sl.st. to close round, leave yarn for sewing.

Using a tapestry needle sew the first and last round together. Stuff the donut with polyester filling while you sew. Secure the yarn when finished and hide it in the donut, cut off the leftover yarn.

free amigurumi crochet donut pattern for beginners

FROSTING

With light lilac color yarn, ch. 24, sl.st. to make a ring (leave around 20 cm yarn at the beginning). Work in spiral, do not join the rounds. Use a stitch marker to mark the beginning of each round (optional).
R1: 24 sc
R2: (3 sc, 1 inc) repeat 6 times (30)
R3: (4 sc, 1 inc) repeat 6 times (36)
R4: (5 sc, 1 inc) repeat 6 times (42)
R5: (6 sc, 1 inc) repeat 6 times (48)
R6: (7 sc, 1 inc) repeat 6 times (54)
R7: (8 sc, 1 inc) repeat 6 times (60)
R8: (9 sc, 1 inc) repeat 6 times (66)
R9: 2 sc, ch 4 (into the second ch from hook work 1 sc in each of 3 remaining ch), 4 sc, ch 6 (into the second chain from hook work 1 sc in each of 5 remaining ch), 3 sc, ch 3 (into the second ch from hook work 1 sc in each of 2 remaining ch) 2 sc
repeat () 6 times, sl st into the last stitch, cut off the yarn leaving 30 cm tail for sewing.

Now it is time to make sprinkles, use different color yarn on a needle. Make stitches all over in different directions to make it look more real, when you have made enough sprinkles secure the yarn making few knots with sprinkle yarn tales and cut off.

SEW THE FROSTING TO THE DONUT!

Thank you for reading and see you next month in EPS 03 of COCROCHET TOUR 2021!

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From Joy with love!

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