A Little Serenity

I've been away from the blog for a wee bit, but I've certainly not been away from my hooks and needles. This marks the start of my finished projects premieres!

I reached the halfway point in the crib mobile project (referenced here) and thought it was a great time to share.


First, there are the actual Papillon supercuties, Macy and Elly:




. . . and (sans tails), here are my interpretations of the pups:



This one's Elly:


And this one's Macy:


This evening, I finally stitched the tail onto one of the two kitties, Serenity. The real kitty looks like this:


. . . and allow me to introduce you to my crocheted interpretation of Serenity (and, yes, I used the pattern that I sell on Etsy!):

Oooh! It's going to be difficult to let these little ones go! :)

Vrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooooooooom!!!!!!

Today is my nephew Liam's third birthday. He and I are kindred spirits: he L-O-V-E-S cars about as much as I love yarn. When we gathered at my parents' home to celebrate Christmas/winter holidays, he would continually ask my boyfriend and me, "Wanna play cars?", and, in fact, I did play cars with him for quite some time.

So, what do you give a little car-loving guy for his birthday? Well, another car!

I was going to try and freeform a car, but then I stumbled upon an awesome "Race Car" pattern by Etsy's Nustsaboutcrochet13. Problem solved!

This pattern contains three completed pieces: the car, and the removable driver with a removable helmet.

I did some mild modifications, but, overall, I just followed the pattern as written. (It's a great pattern, by the way!)

I will admit that my yarn choice is a bit odd, but there is a method behind my madness: the yarn is the remnant from a skein I used to make my brother Kevin (i.e., Liam's father) a hat about two Christmases ago. Now, father and son can match. :)

Happy third birthday, Liam! Let's play cars!

Now There Are Papillon Heads: A WIP Sneak Peek!

Typically, I'm not the type who likes to document my amigurumis while they're in an "in progress" state. A crochet head rolling around the table without a body almost always evokes nervous laughter and comments about how "weird" it looks to see a future plushie out of its completed context.

That said, I just had to share this image--it certainly made me laugh!

If you look at my first blog entry, you'll see how I took a group picture of the first WIPs (Works in Progress) to watch for in my blog:

To date, the demon gang has grown (I'm almost finished with the seventh "good egg", which I haven't photographed yet)

I've turned gold (yarn) into a Stumpy pencil and an in-progress pattern

I've turned gray yarn into a Wordy and trumpet-tooting elephant

The Papillons are actually represented by the teeny-tiny kitty that's sitting next to the shaggy-haired doll (and sitting atop the mint green box).

In early Autumn, I met a woman who asked me to make her a set of amigurumi dolls of her five pets: two cats and three dogs. Two of the dogs are Papillons. I'm not working with any patterns--instead, I'm creating these little ones based on pictures of the real dog and cat cuties! Let me tell you, between their bottle-like noses and large ears, it was quite challenging to get these dogs' faces just right.

When I went to take pictures of the heads, I set them atop a reference picture of the dogs. . . and ended up finding it so funny that I took a picture of my ami-heads atop the picture containing the real pups' heads.

If you're one who doesn't like to see her/his amigurumis incomplete and out of context, check back at the end of the week--I'm hoping to have all the pieces for these cuties completed and stitched together before the weekend's over. Also, if you're more of a cat person, be sure to check back next week!

Sixty-Six Percent

Six down, three to go! My DePaul Blue Demon "Good Eggs" are settling into their new digs quite well. So far, they declared today DGEAD--Demon Good Egg Awareness Day--and paraded across my couch.

This evening, they decided they'd make a great cheerleading squad, and they tried their "hand" (well, figuratively, since they don't have hands) at getting into pyramid formation.

Overall, these little demons are quite cute and sweet. Perhaps I'm procrastinating completing their army because I'll be quite sad to see them go.

Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It's Back To Work I Go!

In my next life, I'd like to be an heiress who could knit and crochet the day away!

I never find any type of vacation, holiday or break quite long enough to do everything on my "to do" lists. This winter break from work has been just the same as all those of the past.

Enough with the grousing! I want to take a moment and share the item I most enjoyed creating during my winter break--Stumpy:



Oh, he's such a stout and flirty little fatty. I mean, look at those eyes! Don't you just want to kiss him and squish him???


Stumpy's not my first attempt at a pencil. During the summer, I made a larger (and thinner) pencil and pet apple for my friend Julie. Julie had taken an enormous leap in her life: she quit her job and began earning her degree in elementary education on a full time basis. Pencil and Apple were my congratulations gifts to her.


While making that pencil, I kept telling myself I should take notes, but I didn't. (Schade!, as the German might say!)

I made Stumpy freeform, but took copious notes all along the way; I hope to reproduce him and write his pattern in the near future. He's a big guy, but, unlike the original pencil, he has more girth than length. He's actually big enough to be a roll pillow! As a point of reference, check out how he looks in relation to "real" highlighters and pens:


Alas, I must get ready for work. . . that is, for the work that pays my rent. :)

Happy New Year!