Nomai (Outer Wilds) Pattern
Solanum, my beloved! (just kidding!) I am so happy to share this pattern for the Nomai from Outer Wilds - it is a bit of an involved pattern, and probably not for beginners, but I will do my best to explain what I did! Please feel free to message me if you have questions. As always, if you use this pattern, please link back to my page, and tag me here on tumblr or @ erin.gurumi on instagram! I love to see what people make!
I used a 3mm crochet hook and these yarns:
Loops and Threads Impeccable in Walnut Tweed (horns)
Red Heart Super Saver in Warm Brown (face)
Red Heart Super Saver in Cream (hair)
Red Heart Super Saver in Paddy Green (space suit)
Red Heart Super Saver in Gold (trim)
Raspberry scrap yarn (glove/shoulder/thigh)
^Head:
Rather than the usual amigurumi method of starting from the top/bottom of the head, I started from the front of the face and worked toward the back - this let me make the back of the head in the cream color to better match those ancient Nomai murals!
6 sc in a magic circle in Warm Brown
inc 6x to make 12 stitches
(1 sc, inc) 6x to make 18 stitches
(2 sc, inc) 6x to make 24 stitches
(3 sc, inc) 6x to make 30 stitches
Add eyes (I used 12 mm cat eye safety eyes), and nose/mouth (you can do embroidery, paint, etc... I used marker!)
Switch to Cream, 8 rows of 30 stitches
(3sc, dec) 6x to make 24 stitches
(2sc, dec) 6x to make 18 stitches
(sc, dec) 6x to make 12 stitches
dec, until closed, stuff and finish off
Make two of these of course! To make a teardrop shape like this I start with a round amigurumi shape then kind of flatten it down -
6 sc in a magic circle in Warm Brown
inc 6x to make 12 stitches
dec 1x to make 11 stitches
dec 1x to make 10 stitches
dec 1x to make 9 stitches
from here, decrease until the shape is closed, then add one sc to the top to make it extra pointy - flatten the drop and attach to the sides of the head!
This is the usual method I use to make "standing" humanoid amigurumi, where you make two legs and then connect them by crocheting around them - this time it was a bit more involved because of the many color changes and doing a couple rows of crocheting in the back loops so that I was able to attach her tabards and collar
6 sc in a magic circle in White
inc 2x then (inc, sc)4x to make 10 stitches
1 row of 10 stitches in White
change to Green, 5 rows of 10 stitches
change to Gold, 1 row of 10 stitches
change to Raspberry, 3 rows of 10 stitches
Stuff and finish off one leg, stuff and keep the other leg
As I'm making the torso, rather than counting how many stitches until I get to a dec, I just eyeball where the decrease will go (for example, in the center of the back, or behind a leg)
On right leg, color change from Raspberry to Green, chain 1, slip stitch into left leg, sc around both legs (~20 stitches - if it ends up more, just decrease in back to that)
1 row of 20 stitches in back loops (important for adding the tabards!)
1 row of 18 (one dec behind each leg)
1 row of 17 (dec in back)
1 row of 16 (dec in back)
1 row of 15 (dec in back)
1 row of 13 (one dec in front, one in back)
1 row of 12 (dec in front)
change to Cream, 1 row of 12 in back loops (important for adding the collar!)
Finish leaving a long tail for connecting the head
This is where it gets a little wonky, as I was really just eyeballing the widths of the front and back tabards and using what I had available in terms of the backloops. I also found that crocheting one way resulted in the "flaps" tending to point upward rather than downward, but... I'm not sure if it has to do with how you hold your hook?
Holding ami upside down, attach yarn by right leg with a slip stitch, sc 4
turn, sc 4 (repeat 11x, or however long you want the tabard to be)
You know, I realized part way through that in the back of the Nomai space suits, they actually have two separate bits of fabric (it's super hard to tell from the front!) So I think if you wanted you could make it more accurate you can split the rest of the back loops in half and do this twice, it is basically the same as the front!
Holding ami upside down, attach yarn by left leg with a slip stitch, sc ~13
turn, sc 13 (repeat 13x, or however long you want the tabard to be)
After finishing both the front and back tabards, I crocheted around it with the Gold yarn. Just slip stitch the yarn into one of the stitches (it looks like I started in the back left corner) and crochet around, possibly going into the back loops at the waist if you need to! In the bottom left pic you can see I tried with a White trim first and didn't like it, so I switched to the Gold!
Quite similar to the tabards, except that I went around the neck a couple times to make the shoulder and back collar before starting to crochet back and forth to make the longer front piece.
Start with ami upside down, attach yarn at ami's right shoulder, sc around the back loops (12 stitches)
On second round, increase in every sc, (24ish) -
Stop when you are where you want the collar's front piece to start (I would say ~ 2 stitches past the center of chest) chain 1 and turn, sc 3ish across (or however many you want , chain 1 turn, sc across again (only two rows tall).
Attach Gold in the back and add trim similar to the tabards
Straightforward, but a bit of a pain due to all the color changes in such a small space! Believe in yourself!
6 sc in a magic circle in Raspberry
1 row of 6 stitches in Raspberry
change to Gold, (inc, 2 sc)2x to make 8 stitches
change to Green, 4 rows of 8 stitches
change to Gold, 1 row of 8 stitches
change to Raspberry, 3 rows of 8 stitches
At this point I attached the arms to the body, saving the head for later (I probably could have attached the head now, I just didn't want to while experimenting with her antlers and hair)
I was surprised at how not-bad these turned out, as I really was winging it... I used the foundation single crochet (fsc) stitch (look up tutorials for this!) and some futzing with the orientation of the pieces to make the "branches" - I honestly don't know how necessary it is, but here's what I did:
5 fsc, turn piece upside down, 2 fsc
finish off and re-attach yarn with slip stitch at turning point, 1 fsc
finish off and re-attach yarn with slip stitch 2 stitches from end, 1 fsc
Upper connector (make 1):
5 fsc, leave tails for connecting
I used a candle to VERY CAREFULLY burn the fuzz off the antlers, so they would be a bit smoother and shinier. If you want to do this, please be cautious, mindful of the type of fiber your yarn is made of, and if you are little, have an adult help!
I then attached the connector to the two upper antlers (just using the tails and knotting them together, but I am sure a dab of hot glue or fabric glue would work fine!) and attached all antlers to the brown yarn of the face, then finally attached the head to the body! As for weaving in ends, ugh I just tried to tie them off and hide them as best as possible!
Adding hair: I reached the image limit, but adding hair is pretty straight forward - What I do is cut lengths of yarn ~2x as long as I want the hair to be (in this case about 7 inches), and then use the crochet hook to thread them through a stitch. If you want them to be more secure, you can tie a knot, but I never bother since my plushies aren't handled very heavily. Since the back of the head was already done in Cream, I didn't feel like I needed to add hair until all the surface was hidden, so I just added until I liked how it sat! Make sure you add hair under her chin for a cute lil goat beard!
PHEW! That is a lot! Let me know if you try this pattern, especially if something seems unclear or wrong/missing, as I am not sure I did a great job explaining all of it! And please, tag me here or @ erin.gurumi on instagram if you end up making her, I would love to see! Outer Wilds is such a special game and I am very happy with how she turned out! Good luck!
