Amigurumi (Jap. 編み包み, lit. knitted stuffed toy) is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, and nuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll. Amigurumi are typically animals, but can include artistic renderings or inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features.
Such definition is given on Wikipedia.
Here is an illustration from Japanese designer Annie Obaachan's book " Amigurumi Animals" with little cute amigurumi on a picknick.
My amigurumi story started relatively recently, but it is rapidly gaining momentum. When I decided to make a small crochet animal once, I haven't even suspected that there is such an art in Japan, that have already widespreaded all over the world and has a fancy name 'amigurumi'.
Amigurumi is what you fall in love with at the first sight. After finishing your first cute little creature, you can't stop making them. Suddenly a lot of ideas come to your mind, you see bright colorful pictures, develop schemes and they also want to become alive. Moreover, when you imagine a happy friend's/relatives' face, who have been presented with your amigurumi - that's no doubt at all, you have to do it, you have to proceed and give birth to those ideas in your head! Otherwise, they just won't let you sleep at night. :)
So I took out my dust-laden hook, chose the thread, remembered the basics of crochet, that my grandma taught me when I was a child, and started crocheting. After searching dozens of schemes in the Internet I chose one - the most simple for me and the process began...