Here’s a ponderous question for you. How many monsters are too many monsters?

During the past few months I haven’t been able to get enough of these brightly boggle eyed beasties and as a result I’ve created two more fully finished monster patterns and made a lot more others besides.

Firstly I finished a pattern started nearly a year ago (I know – shocking how time flies!) This pattern started out as a pair of three eyed monsters originally called Lotty and Dotty.

They were one of my entries in the AmigurumiPatterns.com design contest last October. They thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the contest and aren’t at all jealous of Jeepers and Creepers for making it into the Monster Amigurumi book. However they did go on the back burner for a bit, but every monster has his day and they have finally emerged into the footlights and now have their own pattern in my Ravelry shop.

I’m often finding it difficult to keep up with myself these days but I’ve made a big effort to finish off several archived projects recently.

The most sensible thing to do was to work on a couple of monster designs at the same time, while I was in a monster mood. I tweaked Lotty and Dotty’s pattern notes, hastily scribbled into my notebook so long ago, and made them into three different characters.

Spotty is the closest relative of the original pair. His three eyes probably give that fact away.

To shake things up a bit I gave the new version of Lotty two eyes.

And the new Dotty now has one eye.

All together they make one big, happy family of proudly pimpled monsters. They get soooo excited every time it rains eyeballs. I should reckon there’s a few good games of marbles to be had with that downpour!

My favorite part of these crazy creatures? It’s gotta be those Jazz Hands!

While I was in the mood for a marathon eyeball making spree I finished off another similar design. I called these Stalk Eyed Monsters.

Love how they have no qualms at all about staging a mass invasion of my desk!

They’ve even weedled their way onto my computer screen.

For reasons which are quite obvious the green one is called Trevor the Treble Eyed.

Double Eyed Dorothy, most unsurprisingly has two eyes… Yes, the clues are in the names here folks.

Poor old Single Eyed Samuel has to make do with just the one eye, but what he lacks in depth perception he more than makes up for in being able to spy over tall walls and fences.

There’s no getting away from that feeling of being watched around here. Monsters or cats, there’s always a beady eye or two (or three, or four, or five, or a squillion…) pointing in my general direction.

While I’m tucked up in my cosy arm chair, making a bucket load of eyeballs…

…monsters peek out from everywhere and the cats take their turns keeping me company.

But who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by these mischievous little creatures, either the furry or the woolly kind.

After finishing the Stalk Eyed Monsters I had a rummage through my 4 ply yarn stash and decided to have a go at downsizing them. Picking up a 2 mm hook I set to the task.

Very soon, Trevor, Dorothy and Samuel had a little brother or sister to keep them company. The little ones really look up to their older siblings.

As well as making my own designs I couldn’t resist creating a family of Toby the Triclopses by Noah of Younique Crafts, another crazy creature featured in the Amigurumi Monsters book. I’ve been making them mainly on car journeys when it’s often easier to indulge myself by following someone else’s pattern instead of writing a new one of my own.

Working up these big, fat eyeballs always puts a smile on my face and now I have three three eyed Tobys. As well as being bookfellows with Jeepers and Creepers they also like hiding out with them under the table in my bedroom, right next to the radiator.

They had better enjoy it while they can because as soon as the weather gets colder they’ll be fighting the cats for that spot!

These are just some of the monsters that I’ve crocheted so far this year.

So back to the original question of how many monsters is too many monsters? I’m still not sure but I think I may be getting close here!

I’m now officially taking a break from creating and crocheting these oddball beasties for a while. I have other monster designs in the pipeline, hiding out between the pages of my sketchbook, but I really need to concentrate on other projects for a while now.

I’ll be announcing some news on a new pattern which will be the focus of the next Ami-Along organised by AmigurumiPatterns starting on the 9th of October 2017. If you look carefully you may be able to spot a sneak peak of a small part of it in one of the photos in this blog post. I can’t wait to share more news about that with you all once things get underway!