Do you have a picture of the critters?
Linda C

here is the pattern with pic :)

Here is a link that might be useful: otama

It looks to me that you would just crochet a ball and stop decreasing and crochet straight for as many rounds as needed for length of tail. Here's a pattern for a ball:

Here is a link that might be useful: ball

But don't forget to sew on the facial features before the ball gets too small at the opposite end.

Thank you so much Donna, that link is quite helpful ;)

Do those stitches look like single or half double crochets?

Then the diagram looks like there are 6 on round 1;, 12 on round 2;, 18 on round 3; 24 on round 4,5,6,7;, 18 on round 8;, 12 on round9;, then 6 on rounds 10 thru 15.
I would just space the increases or decreases evenly on the round.

The nice thing about living on Okinawa when I was younger was buying alot of Japanese crochet books (I still have them). None of them are in English but they all have diagrams just like the page you linked to Sarah. See the little orange arrows on the right hand side at the bottom of the page? Click on them and each one will take you to a diagram page, still in Japanese, but the picture diagrams are easy to look at and pick apart ;0). There are other links on this page and the diagram pages, could be helpful to you. You might have to press the ctrl key if you have a pop-up stopper program running on your computer.

Hope that helps.

I'm recovering from a cold and I guess I needed something else to do with my time, but I just made one of these (without the face lol) and wrote out some instructions for how I did it if anybody wants it.

Hugs

I would like the instructions please :) Especially on how to make that darned foundation ring. ;) If it was started with a chain and then joined it would be easier, but its weird and i just cant get the hang of it.
I was able to make a square last night YAY!!! but i just couldnt get the circle.. ah well, practice makes perfect!!

While I was looking for a better graphic to display the foundation ring technique for Sarah, I came across a site where someone had written out the pattern for the otama. There was a link for the foundation ring, but it took me to the page Sarah already linked us to. I am posting the link for the pattern. Sarah, it isn't difficult at all to do the foundation ring. The problem is that the pictures show everything a little too cramped. You just wrap the yarn in a clockwise circle (the picture shows twice, but I have never found that once is not enough). Just hold the circle together at the top with your left thumb and whichever finger works for you (middle for me) and insert your hook into the circle and pull up a loop. If you are going to do single crochet, chain one over the loop and start making your single crochet into the loop. When you join at the end of the row or crochet into the first single crochet you made, you can then pull the tail to tighten the ring (a little harder when you wrap twice). Then, just weave your ends in. I hope I haven't made it sound complicated. Once you try it, you'll see it's easy.

Here is a link that might be useful: pattern

Wrap yarn around your middle finger at least twice.

Slide crochet hook under the thread but over your finger, yarn over, pull through from back to front.

Slide crochet hook over the thread and yarn over hook, pull through first loop.

Next slide crochet hook under thread, yarn over hook, pull up a loop, then yarn over and pull through both loops on hook, 1 sc (single crochet made).

Repeat this last step until you have 6 single crochets on the yarn ring. (You can slip the ring off your finger after making the first sc, just be careful to crochet around all the thread in the circle.)

Pull short end of tail yarn tight closing the ring of 6 sc.

Insert hook into first stitch made, yarn over, pull through both loops. Slip stitch made which closes up the ring.

Decreases are made by pulling up a loop in the next two stitches yarn over and pulling through all three loops on hook.

There are 15 rows of single crochet with decreases starting on the 8th row

Pattern:

Rnd 1: Make ring, 6 sc in ring, join with sl st.

Rnd 2: Ch 1, sc in same stitch as joining and 2 sc in each sc of previous rnd. Join with sl st.

Rnd 3: Ch 1, sc in same stitch as joining, *1 sc in next st, 2 sc in next st* repeat from * to * around, join with sl st.

Rnd 4: Ch 1, sc in each stitch around, join with sl st, end off. Sew face on here then go to next step.

Rnd 5: Join new color, sc around. Join with sl st.

Rnd 6 & 7: sc around and join with sl st.

Rnd 8: beg decreases. Ch 1 sc in same stitch as joining, *draw up a loop in next 2 sts, yo, pull through all three loops on hook (one dec made), sc in next 2 sts*, repeat from * to * around. End with sc in last st, then sl st to join.

Rnd 9: Ch 1 sc in same stitch as joining, *dec over next 2 sts, sc in next st*, repeat from * to * around, sc in last st, sl st to join.

I would stuff fiberfill in at this point then continue on with rnd 10.
Rnd 10: Ch 1 sc in same stitch as joining, *dec over next 2 sts* repeat around, end with sc in last st, sl st to join.

Rnds 11 - 15: Ch 1 sc in same stitch as joining, sc in each st around.

On last round cut yarn long enough to sew with, tread with a yarn needle and close the end by pullin yarn through each stitch and pulling tight.

BY GEORGE i think i've got it!!

Zipper and Donna thank you both so much!!! My circle isnt the prettiest in the world but at least its a circle!! YAY!!!! Im starting to get the hang of this!! i might just have my very own otama by the end of the day!! *crossing fingers*

When I was a little girl, my grandmother taught me to make snowflakes....but since my little fingers couldn't get the hang of the foundation ring....she told me to use bone rings to start.

Linda C

Sarah, I went wandering around the site you linked. I haven't a clue what the purpose of those little fishies is, but they sure are cute as can be. If you click on the links you see little gardens of them. There's even a tiny bear with his own pet fishy. Adorable!

Teri they are adorable arent they?? I have one done so far, and its a bit rough looking but i hope to have a whole basket full of them!!! My kids get a kick out of the one i made, throwing at each other, at ME, the even took it with them to their dads house to let the cat play with it LOL

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped me with this project, theres no way i could have done any of it without you guys *HUGS*

There are gazillion of these things pictured in the google search link posted below.
I like the one that looks like a flower:)

Here is a link that might be useful: otama pics

It seems it doesn't matter as much how you start them. Only that you have no hole in the center. I found these directions in my travels. It's called the magic ring. It's a very simple way to start a circle and leave no opening; complete with illustrations.

Here is a link that might be useful: magic ring

Teri, that is a very good link you gave us. That is exactly how I start when I am crocheting in the round. This site does a better job of explaining it than I did. Thanks.

I agree. The author of that page, whose name is also Donna, is a great teacher. She's very creative and comes up with some fabulous designs.

For future reference . . .

Google's translation tool is the bomb!

Go to google, and click on Language Tools.

In the meantime:

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.otama.tv%2Fetc%2Fmake.asp&langpair=ja%7Cen&hl=en&safe=off&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools