If you love cute amigurumi dolls and characters but have never crocheted before (or even if you have), the following collection of videos is a great introduction to the craft. What's the difference between amigurumi and standard crochet? For starters normal crochet is done in a line and amigurumi is typically done in the round. But there's plenty more to learn, and that's where these amigurumi how-to videos come in handy.

Design your own amigurumi monster class at Craftsy.

If you don't know how to crochet, there's some terminology you're going to need to learn for amigurmi. Crochet needles come in different sizes (and some are better for amigurumi than others), plus you'll want to know about casting on, working with a stitch marker and more. Rag Princess Sews gives a very helpful tutorial.

Tutorials for Further Learning:

Starting with a ball project, Mynkat Creations explains how to work increases and decreases, working the chain, how to choose stuffing and much more. How detailed is her tutorial? It comes in two parts!

In the second part of Mynkat Creations amigurumi ball-making tutorial, she goes into detail about making an invisible decrease stitch (so hard to find you'll be amazed).

Afraid you might have missed something in all of those stitches? Crochet Geek has a separate amigurumi ball tutorial that covers much of the same crochet techniques but then slows down the video. That way you can see how she's placing the hook in her rows so counting stitches and navigating loops are much easier to understand.

You learned how to do amigurumi to make cute toys and dolls, right? Well, it's time to move beyond the ball. Allison Hoffmann of Crafty is Cool fame makes some of the coolest amigurumi dolls around (just check out her book "AmiguruMe: Make Cute Crochet People"). Here she takes what you've learned making a ball and adapts it into a little monster. Let the cuteness roll!