A woman who crochets miniature Pokemon characters is the talk of the internet after posting pictures of her creations online.
Tessa D’Achille is a huge fan of the Japanese games, which were first released in 1996 and followed by an anime series in 1997.
D’Achille told the Press Association: “When my little brother and I were younger we used to spend hours at the neighbour’s house trading Pokemon cards and battling – you know, when we weren’t building forts in the forest behind our house.”
However, she never had a Gameboy to play the games herself, so when she was older and went to university, she decided to get into the games using an emulator on her PC.
This sparked an idea: How about creating her favourite characters in crochet form?
She said: “I’ve always loved creating things. As a child, I used to tear up entire boxes of tissue to make barbie clothes, to my mother’s dismay; but eventually I realised that yarn was a much better outlet for my creativity… My inspiration to make them actually came from playing the games as an adult – I wanted to create even cuter versions of my favourites.”
As far as D’Achille remembers, her first Pokemon creation was Charmander. Since then she has gone on to make more of our favourites such as Pikachu and Squirtle, although Cubone is her favourite.
Her creations have received a lot of positive attention online. “Since Pokemon was such a huge part of so many childhoods, I think nostalgia plays a big role,” D’Achille said.
Her end goal is to make all 151 original Pokemon, and she is even posting the patterns for the individual characters on her website for others to join in with. If you want the patterns earlier, you can sponsor her on crowdfunding site Patreon.
She also has an Etsy shop, where she sells her other creations, including clothing.
