Susuwatari - Soft, Cute and Easy Toy!

Hello)

I just want to apologize for the knowledge of the language, it is non-native for me, so I would be grateful if you specify errors)

Like all fake adults, my husband and me love to watch cartoons :) And a special place among them is occupied by the magnificent cartoons of the famous Japanese cartoonist Hayao Miyazaki. These bright and unusual cartoons immerse themselves in the incredible atmosphere of fairy magic and amazing Japan!

Our son is still too young to watch and understand them, but he loves toys very much. Therefore, once one night we decided to arrange a surprise for him and made the characters of the Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro cartoon characters - susuwatari.

Susuwatari (Japanese: ススワタリ, 煤渡り; "wandering soot"), is the name of a fictitious sprite that was devised by Hayao Miyazaki, where, they are identified as "black soots" in early subtitles, as "soot sprites" or "dust bunnies" and as "soot gremlins" in the Walt Disney Studios English dubbed version. In Russia they are called like a small ember or ember-baby (I hope this is the right meaning :) )

After all, they are so soft, comfortable, lovely. And still very light, you can hug or throw up, kids will be delighted!

Materials and Tools

To create these cute black balls, a single skein of yarn, scissors, small eyes for toys and a glue gun are enough.

- Yarn: For coal we took black yarn 100 g - 280 m., 75% acrylic, 25% wool. One hank is enough for 10-12 embers (it all depends on the desired size and fluffiness) From the same yarn we took strings for tying coals. We just cut them off from the same yarn, but you need to consider that they have to be strong enough, you have to tie them very tightly, you need to not tear them. It is convenient to work with bright threads of contrasting colors, they will be clearly visible and will be easy to find inside the pompom. Only then it is necessary to cut the color part deeper, so as not to flicker.

- Scissors. It is better to take sharp scissors large enough, so it will be more convenient to work.

- Eyes for toys, we have about 5 mm., But the pompoms turn out quite fluffy, so it is better to take the eyes bigger, ours are slightly lost in the threads.

- Any glue gun, glue sticks can be black or transparent.

Winding

We found a very simple way how to make a lot of pompoms at once, for this we use a chair!

We turn him over and use his legs as a support. In addition, you can use any other fixed structures, for example, a table (but you need to consider that it is most convenient to work with an inverted thing).

The edge of the thread wrapped around the legs of the chair and tied. And then the simplest - reel the amount of yarn you need. The diameter of the desired pompoms is directly proportional to the amount of yarn (the larger the diameter, the more yarn you need for the pom-pom to keep the shape). , then you can use the whole hank on one set of embers, they will only be more luxurious and rounder.

After you have finished winding the yarn, cut the thread and tie it to the next thread, just so as not to interfere.

It is not necessary during the process of winding to strongly tighten the thread, like a bowstring in a bow, otherwise difficulties with tying may arise.

Tying and Cutting

Determine the approximate size of the pom-poms that will suit you, depending on this, prepare as many threads for fastening. Extreme threads on the sides should be placed as close as possible to the legs of the chair, otherwise you will have to cut too much.

The approximate distance between the legs of the chair is 44 cm, we decided to make 6 balls, for this we use 5 adhesive threads 25-30 cm long.

Tie pompoms need putting maximum effort, firmly tightening. Well, or ask for help of a strong man :) The most convenient way is to tie threads with a double knot a few turns around the winding, this will help make the balls more accurate.

There is more tension near the legs of the chair, and it is even more difficult to tie it up, so you can skip the thread inside (so that the yarn does not mix) and first remove it from the legs of the chair, and then tie it, but this is not necessary.

When all the threads are tied, cut each space between the middle of the threads with scissors.

Creating the Desired Form

The resulting lumps shake well, it is more convenient to hold the ends of the threads. Now look at your future ember from all sides and cut sticking extra threads from all sides, make it round!

Carefully cut the fixing threads along the length like the rest (we can see in the photos that they are not cut, but we plan to tie them and hang them, so we still need them, we cut them a bit later :))