Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful Book Review.

 Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful

By Narumi Ogawa
Illustrated by Dylan Haley
Published by: North Light Books, 2007
Website http://misterfunky.com/index.html

Mr. Funky’s Super Crochet Wonderful is a pretty cute crochet pattern book. It has patterns for both amigurmi animals and small fashion accessories. The book has full patterns with charts for nine animals with variations and sixteen patterns for accessories. Some have multiple parts such as a hat and scarf set. The patterns are fun and easy to follow and allows for an endless variations. Switching up ears, tails, clothes, and eyes can lead to a numerous different types of animals. For example the book has a pattern for a cat that could be a dog, a bear or even a person with some mods. I especially like the bear bottle cover. The pattern is written for a plastic water bottle but can easily be made to fit a baby bottle, or a thin tall reusable plastic or metal bottle.


I like the simple shape of the animals and the uncomplicated construction. I think the design of the animals is accessible to younger crafter who want to make amigurmi but may be nervous about some of the other more articulated styles found on the internet or in other books. It is a good staring point for making animals.

The accessories are basic accessories made more fashion forward with the use of creative yarns. The book has hats, scarves, a bag, some pins and a pair of mittens. All are good basic shaped patterns that can be customized with unique yarn choices or add ons. I think the mitten pattern is especially nice and can be customized in endless ways. I don’t often see crocheted mittens. This book could be a good resource for basic go to patterns in a variety of yarn sizes.

I liked this book it is so cute. It has adorable illustrations, the color and layout of the book is young and fresh and geared towards modern crocheters without being cloying. The pattern style is fresh, easy to follow and well laid out. I think it would be great for younger crocheters who have mastered the basics of the craft. The illustrator has taken the photographs of the finished projects and drew backgrounds and accessories around the photos. Also the accessories are modeled by animals instead of people so cute. My niece thought it was the” cutest ever.’

None of the patterns are overly complex so I would rate it an intermediate level book. However be warned the book doesn’t have a how to crochet section so you should know how to crochet before you start. I also like the fact that it has both charts and written instructions. The charts are big and easy to read and come with a symbol guide. It does have a tip section at the back with some basic assembly information. I learned a tip from the book, use a one size smaller hook to do your decreases. This makes a smaller gap and keeps the stuffing from popping out! Nifty.

I was disappointed to see that it did not have a basic stitch guide in it but it is not a deal breaker. I also found that some of the patterns such as the mittens had illustrations drawn on top of the project photos. The mittens had snow drawn on the tips of the mittens and thumb, very distracting since that is something you want to see when you are working on the project. Even though the animal models are super cute I wonder about the fit of the hats on real people I guess that is what Ravelry is for.

Overall this is a very fun book with good patterns. I am planning on making the Bunny in a Dress pattern and the On the go Water bottle cozy for Christmas gifts so look for those in the future. I would recommend this book for teens and fashion forward crocheters looking for something fun and fast to work on.