More unicorns! I swear, this little guys are the only thing people would have me crochet! Beautiful blankets, creeper toys, even the My Little Pony plushies I have planned.... Nope! None are enjoyed as much as these little chibi unicorns! I think I have made nine of them so far, maybe more! Most of them have been gifts, but since people have been asking me to make them for other people, I have started asking for a donation to the Aching Arms charity. These guys made such a difference when we lost our son last year, and it's nice to be able to give something back. I usually ask for a teddy bear to be donated in Quinn's name - a plushie for a plushie seems fair to me! It seems like such a small thing, but having that bear to cuddle when you have to walk away and leave your baby in the hospital - It's actually a very big thing.
As always, the pattern used is the Shy Little Unicorn, by Ana Paula Rimoli. The pattern is available as a paid download from Ravelry, but I have it as a pattern in a book - "Amigurumi Toy Box". It is a very simple pattern, and I have had very little difficulty in mastering it. In fact, parts of it are becoming permanently embedded in my memory now. It's not often I have to pull the pattern out to make a unicorn - usually only when it's been a while, to refresh my memory!
The first unicorn was actually finished a few weeks ago, before the end of the summer holidays. I started the latest three plushies at the same time, but one of them had a rush on it as it was for my son's LSA at the school he just left. Of course, it had to be ready before school broke up, and so it was the first to be finished. Fortunately, the unicorn was much loved! I do like it when gifts I make are appreciated - A lot of effort goes into them.
The remaining unicorns were a little less hurried. The first is a gift to my niece for her first birthday. I have made unicorns for all of my nieces, and so I couldn't let this milestone pass without making one. I'm hoping she will like it, though I am sure she will be completely spoiled on the day. I haven't seen a kiddies birthday go by yet in our family where the kiddie isn't spoiled - My son lead the way for this. Ooops! The second was a request from a friend, who wanted to give a unicorn to his friend as a birthday present at the end of August. It's finished well in advance (for a change!) and has already been delivered.
Hopefully I won't have to make any more unicorns for a while. They're very cute, I do agree, but making so many of the same thing can get very dull after a time. It becomes almost a chore to make something so cute, and surely that in itself is a crime to crochet?
I got more yarn! Yeah, I know, I really don't need it. I mean.....This is how my yarn stash is currently looking, minus the yarn for Sophie:
But I am a sod for a good yarn box. This will be my last though, because I have gone too crazy on yarn lately. I seem to have developed a compulsion for buying yarn, and I need to reign it in before I bankrupt myself! (Okay, maybe it's not quite that bad.....but it could be!!)
When I heard about this yarn box from Dye Candy a few months back, I couldn't help but sign up for it. The theme is My Little Pony, and while my 11 year old son does love MLP, I am not convinced that he will trade his epic Minecraft blanket for a much smaller My Little Pony one.... So while I know I am going to make a blanket with this yarn, I have no idea who I am going to make it for!
As the yarn is sock weight, I plan on making a knitted blanket - one with mitred squares like this tutorial shows. I am hoping that the squares will be of the right size to work with sock yarn, while at the same time being able to show off the colour changes in the variegated yarn properly.
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I have never done this before, however - I am still very much a novice when it comes to knitting. I can knit a scarf, sure, but I haven't really tried anything else. It will be a while before I get around to this blanket though. So fingers crossed that it works well when I do get to it! If not, I may find myself switching back to the trusty old granny square.
As I may have mentioned in the past, I have three furry little bundles of assholery sharing my home with me. Yes, I just called them assholes, but yes, I am masochistic and I love them for it. I am sure any cat lover knows this feeling all too well. My cats are Heidi (10), Greebo (5) and Wicky, (3).
Wicky (short for Gallywix - a character from World of Warcraft) is the youngest and therefore the biggest asshole going! Oh sure, he looks pretty enough, but underneath that fur is the biggest cat-jerk known to man! But he's so cute, so what am I going to do?
The other day I noticed that he was chasing yet another bottle cap around the floor, out of the rubbish bin. He does this all the time. Seriously - It doesn't matter how much I spend on cats toys, something out of the rubbish will always be much more amusing. Just like cardboard boxes and clean laundry are the comfiest beds, and the sofa is the best scratch post! But as the masochistic cat lover I am, on my never-ending quests to fulfill my cats' desires, I decided that I would make him a toy that he might actually play with - A catnip mouse.
I don't know why I decided to do this, because he has had catnip mice from the store before, and lo - he actually only played with the mouse for all of ten minutes - but it was something to do, and for those ten minutes he left both my sofa and my laundry alone. Success? I think so!
For the catnip mouse I used worsted weight cotton from Sugar and Cream in the Jewel colourway, with a 5.5mm hook. The pattern was found on Ravelry by Meelai - The Easy Peasy Catnip Mouse Toy. As the name suggests, it really is very easy to make. I made two mice, and each one took me less than an hour. I stuffed the mice with standard toy stuffing bought from Hobbycraft, and a small amount of dry catnip that I bought from the pet department of the local Wilkos. I am sure that it can be found in any pet store though.
The most difficult part of making the toys was after I got the catnip out from the cupboard - My catnip came in plastic tubs with little caps on. Once the caps were removed all three of the cats started going absolutely mental. Trying to pour dried catnip into the toy with three cats trying to knock it out of my hands was quite the challenge! If anyone else intends to make one of these mice for their pet, I strongly urge them to do it without the cat in the room at the time!!
I made two mice for three cats, and I did expect to have to make a third as the initial interest in the mouse was pretty mental. But, as with any toy I have provided for the little fur-demons, after ten minutes the novelty wore off and they haven't touched them since...
Oh well.
It was my son's teacher's last day of school today. We only got a couple of days warning and didn't have a lot of spare cash lying around, but he was incredibly upset about her leaving and wanted to give her a present. Of course, he only decided this yesterday, at about 6 o'clock in the evening... It's par for the course with him really - Like when he decided at the last minute that he wanted his name on the Creeper blanket I had already designed, got supplies for, and started making....
I don't really mind - but time was very short. He decided at about 6 o'clock in the evening, on a night where I had other arrangements that would keep me busy until about 11pm, and he needed the gift by 8:30 the next morning.... So what to do?
Ravelry to the rescue!!
I trawled Ravelry for ages, trying to find a gift that would not only be quick to make but one that I had the supplies for in my stash. For some reason, Home Alone 2 came into my mind - the scenes where the kid gets the two turtle doves from the Christmas tree and then gives one to the pigeon lady? I decided that it would be super cute if I made two Amigurumi minis, one for my son and one for his teacher. And with his help we decided that a cat would perfect.
I found the pattern for these on Ravelry - It's the Amigurumi Witches Cat, by Lucy Collin.
The pattern is incredibly quick to work up, albeit a bit fiddly - especially if you are masochistic like I was and use the recommended colour yarn - Black! I found I couldn't tell one stitch from another, and couldn't see where to put my hook a lot of the time. But that is a problem with my bad eyes, not the pattern at all!
I used some sparkly Poundland yarn that I had in my yarn drawers with a 3.5 mm hook, and for eyes I used some 6 mm black safety eyes. I did have larger coloured eyes, but they were brown and they just didn't look right. Since black cats are lucky, the black seemed like the perfect colour to wish his teacher all the best in whatever she does next, and I did try to add a four-leafed clover charm to the neck, but it was just too big and the poor cat kept face-planting the desk!
The cats definitely seem to be a hit - Obviously I can't know what his teacher thinks until school quitting time, but they are very popular on Facebook, and my son was showing his friends on the way into school. They all made the same "Awwwwww!!" noise. So I am assuming this is a good thing!
Now there's nothing left to do but wish his teacher all the best in her new life.
I am definitely starting to get blanket club withdrawal! I am missing that lovely, squishable softness that is the merino... I know it's not long until pack 3 arrives, but in the meantime I have decided to get to work on the mini blanket I have planned with the scraps from the larger one.
I decided in this post that I wanted to do a mini circle-in-a-square design, to match the main blanket but on a smaller scale. And it's really working out quite well! Considering I only had the smallest amount of each colour left I am getting a rather large number of circles done!
As you can see, I'm being really naughty and not weaving in my ends as I go - I am sure I will pay for that later - but right now I just want something quick to work on. Instant gratification!
The squares are working up very quickly, and it is small enough (at the moment) to just pop in my handbag and take out with me. So many of these have been crocheted while in cafe's or at my mum's. So far I have six completed squares, and 29 unfinished squares that are basically just circles. I still have some ends of yarn left and I am going to join them together to make multicoloured circles.
And very soon I should have the third pack to add to it!
