Pattern by Lily – Felicity Fiber Crafts

Have you played Kirby’s Dream Buffet yet?? The game is super cute and super fun! I was so excited for it to release that I crocheted a chonky Kirby of my own. I want to share the chonky Kirby love, so I’ve released the pattern here for free! Please enjoy creating your own Dream Buffet Kirby amigurumi, and tag me on social media if you create one! 🙂 (my twitter is @felifibercrafts and my insta is @felicityfibercrafts 😀 )

Stitches and techniques used:

• Magic ring
• Single crochet
• Sewing
• Needle felting (or other method of applying a face)

Materials used:

• One skein of worsted/aran weight pink yarn (I used Red Heart Super Saver in Perfect Pink)
• One skein of worsted/aran weight red yarn (I used Big Twist Value in Varsity Red)
• **A small amount of either 100% acrylic or 100% wool yarn, or some felting roving in these colors:
  • Dark pink (for his cheeks)
  • Black
  • White
  • Blue (for his eyes)

**Note, you can substitute needle-felting his face for cutting pieces out of felt sheets and gluing or sewing them on. You could also embroider his face if you prefer. 

Notions used:

• 4mm crochet hook
• Scissors
• Polyfill stuffing 
• Tapestry needle for sewing and weaving in ends
• Size small needle-felting needle for his face
• Sewing pins
• Removable stitch marker  

Gauge:

Not very important for this pattern 🙂  (Although if you use a significantly thinner/thicker “worsted” weight yarn, your Kirby may look off… For instance, Caron Simply Soft is a very thin “worsted” weight yarn, and Caron One Pound tends to be thicker… Keep this in mind when choosing a yarn to use, and adjust your hook size if Kirby isn’t looking the way you want!)

Stitches and Techniques Explained

• MR – Magic Ring
  • A method for beginning a flat round. You may substitute for any method you like. 
• inc – increase
  • Place two (or more) stitches in the same stitch. 
• dec – decrease
  • I use the invisible decrease method. To do this, place your hook in the front loop only of the next stitch, from bottom to top. Then place your hook into the front loop of the next stitch, from bottom to top. There should be three loops on your hook. Yarn over and pull through the first two loops, then yarn over and draw through the remaining two loops. You have decreased by one stitch. 
• Working in the round
  • When I work in the round, I always offset my increases and decreases on even-numbered rows in order to make a smoother circle. So, for row 4 of the body, I wrote the instructions like this:

4. *sc 2, inc* repeat 6 times (24 st)

But what I actually work is this:

4. sc, inc, *sc 2, inc* repeat 5 times. sc. (24 st)

Likewise for row 6 of the body, the instructions are:

6. *sc 4, inc* repeat 6 times (36 st)

But what I actually work is this:

6. sc 2, inc, *sc 4, inc* repeat 5 times. sc 2. (36 st)

You can see that I “split” the first group of sc in half, which offsets all of the increases for this round. Offsetting the increases like this makes for a smoother circle, and I recommend you do it for every even numbered increase and decrease row. (But it isn’t required.) If my explanation wasn’t clear enough, please try searching online for “how to crochet a perfect circle” and hopefully you will find a better explanation. 🙂

• Sewing pieces together:
  • I recommend following this tutorial here: https://www.supergurumi.com/how-to-sew-amigurumi-parts-together 
  • I roughly do this, although sometimes I have to split the stitches I sew into. I also don’t mark the entire area with pins, I just keep my piece pinned down until I am done. I recommend going slow and steady to keep the pieces from shifting.

Pattern:

Body:

Using pink:

1. 6sc in MR (6 st)
2. inc in each st (12 st)
3. *sc, inc* repeat 6 times (18 st)
4. *sc 2, inc* repeat 6 times (24 st)
5. *sc 3, inc* repeat 6 times (30 st)
6. *sc 4, inc* repeat 6 times (36 st)
7. *sc 5, inc* repeat 6 times (42 st)
8. *sc 6, inc* repeat 6 times (48 st)
9. *sc 7, inc* repeat 6 times (54 st)

10 – 19.   sc in each stitch (for 10 rows total) (54 st)

20. *sc 7, dec* repeat 6 times (48 st)

21. *sc 6, dec* repeat 6 times (42 st)

22. *sc 5, dec* repeat 6 times (36 st)

23. *sc 4, dec* repeat 6 times (30 st)

24. *sc 3, dec* repeat 6 times (24 st)

25. *sc 2, dec* repeat 6 times (18 st)

Stuff body firmly

26. *sc, dec* repeat 6 times (12 st)

Finish stuffing if needed 

(seriously, stuff this super firm to get a nice round shape)

27. *dec* repeat 6 times (6 st)

BO, leave a long tail and close hole with tail.

Arms (make 2):

Using pink: 

1. 4sc in MR (4 st)
2. inc, sc, inc, sc (6 st)

BO and leave a long tail for sewing. Trim the first tail from MR to around 3 inches (7.5cm) and stuff into his hand with back of crochet hook. 

**Note. If his hands are too small for your liking, please add a round of sc to increase height. 

Feet (make 2):

Using red:

1. 6sc in MR (6 st)
2. *3sc in first st, 2sc in next st, 1sc in next stitch* repeat once more (12 st)
3. sc, dec, dec, sc 2, dec, dec, sc (8 st)

BO and leave a long tail for sewing. Trim the first tail from MR if needed and stuff into his foot (shoe?) with back of crochet hook. 

Carefully pin the hands and feet to the body according to the picture and then sew. 

Brief Needle Felting Tutorial:

I am no expert at needle felting, so if you are brand new then I recommend finding a tutorial video or blog post online first. I will explain how I needle felt the faces. 

**Note, I usually use acrylic yarn and split the plies to make roving. I find this method is a lot smoother than using the roving from a needle felting kit. (But I have more colors in the kit, so sometimes I mix and match). The instructions say to split acrylic yarn, but if you already have wool roving then you can just use that. It’s up to you. 🙂

1. Take a small amount of black acrylic yarn and split the plies. Pull them apart and fluff them so that they resemble wool roving. 
2. Take a small amount of the black roving and roll it between your fingers until a small oval is formed. (You want this to be around the size of his eye. A little bigger than a grain of rice.)
3. Place the oval on Kirby’s face where you would like an eye to be. Start gently poking the oval with the felting needle. Be careful to poke the needle directly up and down– any wiggling or changing angle could break the needle. 
4. Once the oval is sticking to Kirby’s face, create another one for the other eye and gently poke it onto Kirby’s face. It is much easier to make adjustments, or pull the felt off and start over, when the felt is only lightly stuck on his face. 
5. Add more roving as needed, adjust the shape, you can even remove the felt and start again if needed. Do this until you are happy with the shape and placement of Kirby’s eyes.
6. Continue gently poking the felt until the surface is smooth and securely stuck to Kirby.

For pink Kirby, his eyes will be black at this point.

7. Take a small amount of the blue acrylic yarn and split the plies to make roving. 
8. Take a very small amount of roving and roll into a ball shape. The ball should only be around 3mm in diameter. You don’t want this to be too big. 
9. Gently poke the roving in a small circle towards the bottom of his eyes. Be very gentle, because if you poke too hard, you’ll poke all of the roving into his eye. The needle should only go about 5mm deep at most. 
10. Repeat step 9 for the other eye. Be careful to make the eyes even. Once you are pleased with their shape and size, lightly poke all over to secure the blue felt to the black. The surface should be smooth and the blue felt should not easily fall off. 

For pink Kirby, his eyes will have blue dots at this point.

11. Now take a small amount of white acrylic yarn. Make roving out of it the same way you have been, and pull an even tinier amount to make a little ball in your fingers. The diameter should only be around 2mm. 
12. Carefully and gently poke the white ball onto the upper area of his eye. Repeat for the other eye. Adjust as needed, and continue poking it to smooth and secure it once you are pleased with the shape and size. 

13. You can stop at this point, or you can add the two little extra shines by repeating steps 11 and 12 (but with even tinier balls of roving)

With the additional eye shines.

14. Take a small amount of the dark pink acrylic yarn and split the plies to make roving. 
15. Take a small amount of the roving and roll it into an oval shape between your fingers, slightly smaller than the eyes were. 
16. Place this on Kirby’s face according to the image and lightly poke to secure it. Repeat for the other side. Make adjustments as needed, and once you are happy, finish poking the cheeks to secure and flatten them. 

17. Take a small amount of black acrylic yarn and split the plies. Take one of the plies and trim it to be around the length of Kirby’s mouth (a little larger since it will shrink as you poke). Gently untwist the ply a little to fluff it, but don’t pull the ply apart to make roving. 
18. Start poking the mouth onto Kirby, starting with the corners and then the lowest point of his smile. Continue poking to make the curved shape and secure the mouth. 
19. Optionally, you can add a tiny amount of roving to fill out the corners of his mouth some. I think it adds a cute effect. 

Kirby’s completed face! 

Please note for pink Kirby, his cheeks will be dark pink.

**Final notes: Personally I am not a fan of needle felting faces. I almost always have to redo pieces, and it winds up getting very frustrating. But the result is so worth it in my opinion. I just wanted to mention this in case it frustrates you too. You are not alone :’)

Congrats, you are done!! 🙂