Ana Paula Rimoli is a fabulou crocheter who specializes in Amigurumi (a Japanese style of crocheting small toys which more directly translates to ‘cute animals’)
She has written 2 books about it: Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet and Amigurumi Two: Crocheted Toys for Me and You and Baby Too
Ana Paula Rocks!! (just in case you were curious)
I saw an interview with her on Knit & Crochet Today where she told the story of how she got started. The gist was that she started crocheting toys when she was pregnant with her first child, Oli (who is now 5) and found this Japanese style toy to her liking.
After designing and crocheting for 9 months she realized that she had far more toys than she could ever use, so she decided to sell them on etsy. Her toys became such a big success on etsy that she ended up writing a book… and then another; voila, a legend is born.
Her blog, though it hasn’t been updated in a while is also a lot of fun to check out, and best of all it has a whole bunch of free patterns!
Hook and Needle Girl 