ah-mee-goo-roo-mee

OK, what are amigurumi? Blogger M.E. Williams explains on DIY Life:

"Well, nuigurumi (noo-ee-goo-roo-mee) is a Japanese word that means stuffed doll, but it refers to sewn fabric items. Ami (ah-mee) is from a word that means crocheted or knitted. So, an amigurumi (ah-mee-goo-roo-mee) is a crocheted or knitted stuffed doll."

Crochet itself isn't anything new. In fact, most agree that the craft aspect of crocheting happened in the early 1800s in Europe.

Fast-forward to 2007, which is when the first amigurumi books began hitting bookshelves in America. Like most things, Japan had a jump on the trend years before it traveled Pacific to America's shores.

But before the books, the Internet was abuzz with this crochet sensation. In fact, patterns, pictures, guages -- anything remotely related to crochet was saturating the Web, according to one of Ravelry's founders. That's how the idea for Ravelry was conceived, to organize the chaos and utilize the Internet as a unique medium that could join thousands (over 500,000 actually) of crochet enthusiasts.