I am trying to find something that I can put in my amigurumi toys (little stuffed animals) with the stuffing to weigh them down so they sit up and not fall over. These are about 7" to 10", so it has to be something small and not sharp so it doesn't poke through. I don't want to use any type of food and it should be something that is ok in water in case they need to be washed. I need it to be very inexpensive (or free, maybe scraps of something) since I'll be using alot of it. Thanks so much!

You could try rice. Also you can buy plastic 'beads' for weighting toys.

I'm a crochet beginner.
I want to teach myself how to crochet because I'm really interested in amigurumi (Japanese crocheted stuffed animals.) Unfortunately, most of the online amigurumi patterns neglect to tell me what size hook to use.

What hook sizes should I buy as a beginner? Which sizes are best for amigurumi?

Are you going to crochet with yarn or thread? If its yarn go for a size G which is most often called for and used in the 4 ply yarn. If its thread get size 7 as that is used mostly and the size 10 thread is called for. If this does not help contact me.

I am a beginner at crochet and I have no clue at all. I have my friend helping me but I want to get a head start. So if anyone could explain basic crocheting and websites with patterns for crochet amigurumi toys that would be great!

Crochetme.com has some good tutorials for learning amigurumi. A simple pattern can be found here:
http://crochetme.com/amigurumi-dude
They also have an article/tutorial here:
http://crochetme.com/amigurumi-deconstructed

Lately, Lion Brand yarn has been publishing tons of free amigurumi patterns at their website, lionbrand.com. I think you have to register your email address to use the patterns, but they're free.