hello dolly

so another first for me...i seemed to have ventured into the world of 'amigurumi', which is a japanese phrase that means "crocheted or knitted doll"--or so i'm told. this little dolly was a free pattern on Annie's Attic site today, and i just thought it was so cute i had to try it. I've never made a doll or toy before in crochet, but the pattern was really simple to follow and didn't take up alot of my yarn stash.

in a weird way, she reminds me a little of my 'drowsy' doll i had way back when i was too young to remember how old i was when i got her...i'm a little rusty on embroidering, especially faces free hand, but i think she came out okay, and i really like her little blond curls. some may question the wisdom of making toys, as i don't really have anyone to make them for, but i guess i made it for myself--to see if i could. i suppose i should clarify that the site did not exactly call this 'amigurumi' as such, but it resembles the various toys i've seen displayed on the net on other peoples' blogs and forums. oh, and an update: i've named the sock monkey 'nigel'--cause i kept humming the song 'making plans for nigel', by xtc, all day yesterday--yes, yes, i should be locked up for sure.

what's in a name?

so recently i was visiting the crochet forum, looking at the nice things everyone makes and checking out patterns and blogs and such, and i happened upon someone's link to their sock monkey...this intrigued me as i had a misty, murky memory from my childhood of hearing stories about my sister having a monkey (i thought it was a sock monkey, but my sister informed me it was just a big stuffed monkey mom & dad won at a new year's dance or something) and how my oldest brother didn't like the monkey and was mean to the monkey (being the typical hellion of a boy that he was) then i read a little about the history of these sock toys--how apparently somewhere around the early 1900's, women started making stuffed toys out of these sturdy work socks their husbands wore, and then i happened upon a pair of cee's old work socks:


he doesn't have a name yet (yes i've decided he's a he) although cee did suggest "stinky", as he's made from a pair of his old work socks...or "mickey" as he's a monkey, and his fave group as a youngster was "the monkees"--even though mike was his fave monkey--i thought mike was a bit of a "so and so" myself--mickey was the funny one...any other suggestions?? he really is quite saucy, perched up there on the dvd rack, chillaxing without a care in the world...oh to be a sock monkey on a dvd rack...

it's not that easy being green

so here it is....the first "grown-up" sweater i've ever made in crochet...excuse the crappy pictures, but as i've said before, i'm no photographer. this sweater pattern was from a book called 'from knit to crochet'...a way to make knitted-looking patterns with crochet stitches, or so the theory goes. anyway, without further ado:



and a little close-up of the cabled pattern. from the full view picture it looks like the one side is longer than the other, but this is just a trick of how the sweater was hanging/draping...really it's straight, lol. the sleeves are a little too long for me, and the pattern panel seems to curl up a wee bit at the bottom, but then i had a good look at the picture in the book and theirs did the same thing, so i don't feel so bad. this is the first pattern that i've followed in which i actually found a couple of errors--mostly typos i suspect, but still, any novice would get frustrated following it. the rating was easy and front post doubles (which made up the pattern panel) are not easy to do, not if you don't know what you're doing anyway. also the trim calls for reverse singles, which are really awkward to do as well, especially for a so-called 'beginner' so i don't know who they think they are foolin', cause it ain't me. this sweater is super-dee-duper warm, too, like only wear in the dead of winter warm, still--next winter look out cause you may see me wearing this green monster. then you can run screaming the other way...suddenly i have an overwhelming craving for an avocado...peace out.

i'm just quackers

and voila, an up-to-date picture of our beloved "pet" duck, jemima:


taken about 1/2 hour ago whilst she was reposing on our front lawn (about 2 feet from our door) and snacking down on some delicious bread crumbs. she's looking right at you in this picture...in fact her eye will probably follow you wherever you go in the room, hee hee. the neighbours came over to take their own share of pictures too, so i'm not the only loony "bird" around here...

if it walks like a duck....

eureka! jemima returned!! we spotted her easter sunday under the tall pine tree by the driveway, sitting there just as pretty as can be with drake. we watched them for a while, walking around the grass, eating bits of this and that. i put out some bread in case they decide to visit us again.

happy birthday to ay and bee

lemon sorbet

finally! it's done done done...the innocent-looking sweater that became my nemesis is complete. one gaffe on the front which is completely obvious to me and probably no one else, but it is finished, thank goodness. this sweater, the pattern for which came from a vintage (circa late 60's-early '70's by the look of it) baby book from the uk that cee's mum gave me, is called a "lacy matinee coat", but i have renamed it "perseverance":



what's that you say? yes, i had the buttons for this one. picture should be clickable to see the pattern in all it's lacy confounded glory...again this is made with some antique baby yarn i had leftover from a project from days gone by. perhaps when that little moppet has little moppets of her own this sweater will be gifted to her. in the meantime i'm thinking of framing it.

will she or won't she?

i saw my sweet little jemima's hubby drake waddling around across the street yesterday...i wonder if she will visit us again this year? it was this time last year she decided to make our front yard her resting place. she visited every day for a few weeks, staying longer and longer each time, partly because we were putting out bits of bread for her to eat, and i named her jemima, after beatrix potter's jemima puddle duck. then we got worried that a couple of the neighbourhood cats would come and eat her, because she was so docile and seemed really tame, she let me get to within a foot of her and wasn't bothered at all. she brought her hubby to visit too, a mallard drake i just called "drake". at this point they seemed to be attracting the other neighbours attention, and one evening we had 4 ducks waddling around our lawn. after that they went away, probably to do their nesting and such, and we didn't see them anymore. this picture was taken on our front lawn right by our front window, where she liked to sit.

i'm still working on that frothy little sweater that gave me so much gyp. the pieces are all complete (there is one obvious goof but i'm just too sick of looking at it anymore to rip it out and fix it) they just need to be sewed up, that is the part i hate the most. i'm sniffing around a crochet sweater pattern for myself, which will be a first, as i've never made either an adult sweater or a wearable for myself before. i hope i can figure out the pattern. in the mean time we are still hoping for dry dry weather, as our roof will not be done until mid-May at the earliest.