Amigurumi Link

I spotted the free pattern for this amigurumi Link floating around the internet awhile back and immediately thought of my brother, who's love of Zelda reaches an almost disturbing level of intensity (he has branded himself with Triforce tattoo- a permanent tribute of devotion to Ocarina of Time).  Obviously an amigurumi Link was the perfect present for his 25th birthday, so I stored the pattern away in the catalog of my mind (and uh, on Pinterest), and looked forward to starting this project in May or so- plenty of time to leisurely stitch away with a completion date well in advance of his mid-June birthday. 

Fast forward to five days before Gifting Date, and I realized I had a problem when I hadn't really started yet.  I value precision over speed when it comes to crocheting--which is another way of saying that I'm slow.  I also have a job, which, you know, eats away at a lot of crochet time.  I am pleased to say I did finish before I saw him on his birthday, but my desk may or may not look like this:

*Note the chopstick sawdust

The original pattern for this Link is by the Japanese crochet artist Becchin, and I used the English version that was translated by Tanoshimou here (it's free!)  The pattern for the accessories, including the sword, sheath, and shield are by Stephanie at All About Ami and can be found here (also free!)

Some notes about the patterns:

1. Becchin's pattern calls for each row to be joined after completion.  I stopped joining after the torso and just crocheted the rest of the pieces in a spiral.  Joining resulted in a weird seam on the back of the torso, so I'd recommend eliminating it altogether. The finished result looks much smoother.
2. The accessories pattern calls for a size 2.0 mm crochet hook, but I used a 2.25 mm for the shield and scabbard and a 2.75 for the sheath.  I originally did the sheath using a 2.25 mm as well, but the result was too small to fit the chopstick sword (and was subsequently thrown across the room at 11pm the night before my brother's birthday).
3. I wanted my shield to be a little bit shorter and more compact, so I eliminated rows 9 and 10 in the shield pattern and skipped straight to row 11 after row 8.  The original pattern is more true to size since the real Link's shield is pretty tall, but I was going more for the spirit of the thing and didn't want the super tall shield to block the view of his body from the front.

Some fun facts about the finished product:

1. Link's boots, shield, sword, sheath and hat are removable (though if you take off his boots he has stumps instead of feet, which is sort of creepy).
2. Due to Becchin's ingenious construction, the head can be turned, posed and even removed (also creepy).
3. The sword is a the cut-off end of a chopstick.  Turns out its surprisingly difficult to cut up a chopstick with scissors, FYI.

Here he is from the side:

And from the back:

Here's a closeup of his shield, the design of which I embroidered with grey yarn and red and yellow embroidery floss:

And here he is defending my house from its demon resident, Gareas:

I was really pleased with how Link turned out, and even more pleased with my brother's reaction.  It elicited a hug- yes, a hug- which doesn't sound like much, but is pretty astounding for two siblings  who prefer to keep their physical interactions limited to the violent/annoying variety.

Happy birthday, brother!  Have fun with your new friend.