My May

The weather really turned cold by the end of the month. We've broken out the extra blankets, and there are frost warnings already. There's been a lot more rain. I heard about the 30x30 Challenge, which is to spend 30 minutes outside every day for 30 days, starting on 1st May. I wanted to do it, but then it rained for 3 days straight, with barely a 30-minute letup, so I decided to wait until Winter is over before trying it. Of course, I want to spend as much time outside as I can, but at this time of year it would be quite difficult to do it every day.

What I've been sorting ...
My KonMari adventure has been continuing. I've almost finished my clothes, and most of my accessories. I've unpacked a lot of boxes in the last few months, but there are still quite a few things packed (or lost??!) which mean I can't gather everything in some categories together to KonMari them.

I'm also pleased to say that I've unpacked all my books now, which was No. 96 on my 101 Things in 1,001 Days list.

My hair decos. Not too many?
What I've been making ...
I finally finished this crocheted mushroom. I wanted to make one as part of the Mori Girl Challenge, and, I have to admit, this project did double-service. I had two Geocaching Travel Tags to send off. The Travel Tags can be attached to any small item you like, and the tracking code turns it into a trackable item. It's then placed into a geocache for other players to pick up and move to another cache. There's more information here for the interested.
One of the fun things about creating a trackable is to attach something to it that will be fun for other players. And that was the problem! I didn't know what to attach them to. Being me, something handmade was preferable, but I'd been procrastinating for months because I couldn't think of anything. Then an idea struck me: make amigurumi mushrooms!
I (quite cleverly if I do say so myself) embroidered the tracking code under the cap of the mushroom but unfortunately I can't show it to you. It's against the rules. Otherwise anyone could log the trackable when they aren't actually in possession of it.

At this stage, I've almost finished the second one. I used a different pattern so I might write a separate post with my thoughts comparing them.

I also started a new design for a knitted monster plushie. I've made crocheted ones before, but I wanted to see if I could design a knitted one. I ran out of steam though, when I couldn't decide how to do the arms.

What I've been dreaming of ...
Not so much dreaming, but meaning to get around to it. With the rainier weather, the garden is greener than ever. I've started to notice dandelions popping up all over. They're one of the few wild plants I can recognise and know to be useful. There's a wonderfully informative post on The Woman Who Married a Bear on the very topic, so it just remains for me to give it a try.

Selections from Instagram

Mulled wine and drinking games for the Eurovision Song Contest:

I planted a tree! Well, more of a small shrub, really.

I also decorated the fernery a bit more with this gnome from Daiso:

Speed Posting, Part 4

I'm going to try and keep this short today as I want to get back to crafting! After the doctors' appointment, and doing some dishes and laundry, etc etc. I'm home sick from work today (or should that be 'sick'...?) but I haven't had much of a chance to do anything crafty. Here are the photos I promised last time though:

It's amigurumi - in chihuahua form!

I finally finished the amigurumi chihuahua that I started in July last year. That's a whole year, people! It shouldn't take that long to finish, even if it was my first one! I was too hurt (both physically and emotionally!) by the memory of all the needle wounds from sewing the arms and legs on. But he is done at last! Actually, the main reason I got on and finished it was so I could take back possession of the really cool beauty case I was using to hold the project. But don't tell him, he's very sensitive! He's currently sitting on the bookshelf waiting for a name.

Next up is the scarf I made for a work colleague of a friend. It took a lot longer than I'd hoped, and I feel pretty bad about that, but apparently she loved it! There are ups and downs to making things to order, the main up being you have a guaranteed sale! I'm still enjoying working with different textures and colours of yarn, so I wouldn't mind making some more.

I've also been working on my third kokeshi doll:

I'm still a bit iffy on how the proportions are going to turn out, but I'll have to wait and see I suppose. I have an idea for how I will embellish the body but I'm not going to reveal that yet!

I started a second cat blanket to donate to the Lost Dog's Home today. The first one is nearly finished, so I felt justified. I was working on it this morning in bed while I was listening to the Hound of the Baskervilles talking book and drinking coffee. Geez, I could get used to this lady of leisure thing!

I also re-jigged my sidebar a bit, for anyone who may be reading this independent of a reader. It now has a 'non-yarn projects in progress' section. This reflects the projects I have started and want to start to do with the Retro Crafts book I mentioned in my last post. Yes, I'm still obsessed with it! For a while I wanted to make every project in the book. But I admit that might be a little too crazy, even for me! I'm hoping to have time to work on my painted things tonight.

Gotta go now!

[Later:]
I finished the Farmyard Pencil Cups!

Mosaic Monday Amigurumi Style!

Just a quick update on what little I've been doing over the last few days. I started the newest scarf which is to be in pinks with purple accents. I like those colours, so I have no problem with that, though I'm starting to run out of yarns of the appropriate colour and thickness. Oh no! Don't tell me I have to have S.E.X. again!*

I spent a little time on Sunday organising the hobby room. I re-stacked the boxes of cans from the factory outlet trip so that I could sit at the big desk, and amalgamated two piles of random stuff that were on the desk into one so that I had some room to do stuff on it. When it comes to tidying, one pile is better than two, right? Baby steps!

I managed to clear enough space to get out my pencils and some scrap paper and draw out the cutting pattern for the monster softie that's been floating around in my head. The one that popped into my lop-sided brain when I was having a quite painful but very remedial massage a few weeks ago. He's been fighting to get out ever since. Unfortunately though, when faced with the prospect of digging the fabric out of the place where I'd previously stashed it, my will gave out. It seems I stashed it a little too securely.

So I moved on to crochet. (Hence the amigurumi featured in this week's Mosaic.) I got out my second kokeshi doll that I'd so heartlessly abandoned a while back. I decided I didn't like her shape - her neck was too narrow and tapered. So I ripped back to face level and re-did it. I'm much happier with her now and hopefully I'll finish her soon.

Then I remembered that I'd promised to test a pattern for kittenbite, a fellow Etsyer. It's an amigurumi bottle of beer. I managed to get nearly half-way through it last night while I was watching a documentary about the search for extra-terrestrial life. I'm having fun with it. Results as they come in.

P.S. Can someone find a way for the creative yet time-poor to do two things at once? Has anyone tried knitting while on a treadmill? Doing weights with one hand and drawing with the other? No? Never mind.

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* S.E.X. stands for Stash Enhancement eXpedition. Sorry if I frightened you-all there for a second.

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Photo Credits:
1. Amigurumi Mushroom Friends, 2. amigurumi splish splash baby whale 02, 3. Amigurumi Bear Water Sprite, 4. Flock of Amigurumi Birds, 5. Amigurumi Sheep, 6. Amigurumi Costume Party, 7. Amigurumi (Crochet) Ghostiecake, 8. Creature Feature: Alien - amigurumi, 9. amigurumi momma bird and baby

The rumours of my death....

Ok, I won't lie to you. I haven't been beavering away industriously in the time since I last posted. Not at crafting, anyway! Just about every night for the last 2 months, my routine has been this: Go Home. Get changed. Drive to gym. Work my ass. Drive home. Collapse on couch. Grunt. Maybe work on something really simple and mindless. Go to bed.
My fitness level has gone up from near the bottom of 'Fair' to near the top of 'Average' on their incomprehensible yet whizzy chart. Yay!!

I'll keep it quite short cause I'm not really in the mood for blogging, but here I find myself. I started working on a new kokeshi doll, but things kinda petered out when it came to the part where I had to cut some felt decorations for the body. For some reason, I just couldn't be bothered getting out the scissors. Oh well. One day, I'm sure.

I made some zines for swaps on Swap-bot. I had a lot of fun making these, though I got a bit behind on the send-by dates and had to slog a bit. The first one is Randomnosity. The theme is randomness. There are experiments, activities, articles, stories and poetry. There are instructions on how to make your own dice out of origami. All hand-drawn by me. It took quite a bit of work, and I hope it makes sense! The second one was to be about a recurring theme in my life. I wrote it about a blue ute that I often see driving recklessly around Melbourne. It's a spine-chilling tale of fear and paranoia. And road rage.

I can't decide which one I'm more proud of actually. (*head swells*)

Available in the shop now!

I keep getting creative urges at work, which is great, except I'm supposed to be working! I've set up a little dinosaur diorama in my potted plant (which I've named Jeremy) and I always have my ideas notebook on hand, just in case. Last week, I was waiting for a batch to process on the scanner. A fine-liner pen had appeared there recently. There was an almost-full book of sticky notes. What else was I to do? I doodled some characters that have been swimming around in my head for a while onto the bright pink sticky notes. I snuck them into my bag, took them home, and incorporated them into a collage in my art journal. The full-page photo came out really blurry, so I'll only subject you to the detail:

It's on a background of discarded envelopes that I also stole from work. I coloured over them in pencil, then stuck on the doodles and random bits of ephemera floating around on my crafting desk. I also did a sketch of a cat in gold texta, airbrushed a couple of shapes and globbed some liquid paper on there as well for good measure.

Then, on the weekend I bought some stuff at the supermarket and I always forget to bring my enviro-bags, and I ended up with 6 plastic bags. Six! I was so environmentally ashamed! So I decided to revive an idea I had a few years ago to make a bag out of plastic bags! (I know, everyone and his canary has had that idea since then, but I don't care.) I read about the technique of cutting up a bag to get a continuous strip in a book a few years ago. I got out a crochet hook and did it:

It's been my 'brain-dead gym-junkie zombie' project for the last week or so, so it's coming along well!

I toyed with setting some goals to do with my craft and my shop, e.g. to have 50 items listed, to make so many amigurumi, etc. But time and motivation factors are very low at the moment. Oh well, what are you gonna do?

Oh, I nearly forgot. I'm working on a top-secret project that can't be revealed under any circumstances, under pain of death! It's a moderately big one, intricate and hopefully well executed. If it works out I'll be really excited about it. Just a few more days...

What I Did at Easter

Yeah, I know, I'm a bit late on this one. I've been busy, OK?

Here we go...
I was so happy with the first mouse I made, that I tried it again with Maus II:

ze front

ze back
The embellishments are orange wool instead of red, but basically he's the same. I'm not quite as happy with the overall shape, but meh, he's good enough.
I also finished the zine I've been making. It was quite the epic production. All will be revealed when I can get some proper paper to print it out!

Also, I've been obsessed with kokeshi dolls at the moment. These are Japanese dolls traditionally made of wood, with a rounded head and cylindrical body. The bodies are painted with either floral or striped designs. One of their distinguishing features is that they have no arms and legs. Kokeshi dolls were probably originally used as massagers in the hot springs area of Japan from which they originate. Other theories include that they were teething toys for babies, or that they were sentimental keepsakes for parents who had been forced to sell or abandon their babies. Kokeshis seem to be the source of quite deep sentiment - artisans name each doll and sign it on the base.

Ok, essay mode off now.

It got me to thinking though. Firstly, they're so cute!!!
Secondly, they have no arms and legs! Perfect! The one thing that was putting me off churning out hundreds of amigurumi was sewing all those bloody arms and legs on!
Thirdly, they're embellished with cute little flowers etc on their bodies. This appeals to my need to sew buttons and sequins on stuff right now.

Kokeshi are me! It's a revelation!

My first Kokeshi. Her name is Chihiro.

Here's the top of her head with her hair clip.

Here is her base; I embroidered my signature here.
At first I was disturbed by the fact that she had no hair. Then I got over it. Also, her head is almost freakishly large. But, you know what? Who cares! I love her! I'm really quite proud of her.
I've started a second one, which has a flower theme. I love her too!

I'm just giving them away!

Last night I made Mouse:

I made him as a going-away/thank you gift for a the guy who's been training me at work. His cat is a major part of his life, so I thought I'd make him a cat toy. I started out using the pattern from the book I bought on Sunday, but I didn't really get it, so I just made it up. It turned out so much better than I expected. I was going to make the eyes out of felt and add whiskers, but I really like the simple, embroidered effect of the face. I almost regretted giving it away, but I'm trying to be a vaguely good person. (Sure, Sparky's birthday present is 4 months late, but she will get it eventually!)
It took a much shorter time to make than I thought it would (about 2 hours). I might make a few more for the shop, put bells in them, something like that.

That gave me enough time to work on Frankenstein's Toyster for a bit. His body is all finished, and I just need to make his head now.

Right now I have to finish my next zine though!

The New Years Resolution Bandwagon

I was gonna wang on and on quite a bit about New Year's Resolutions, but schnyeh *shrugs* They don't really work for me as I'm lazy and tend to forgive myself too easily, therefore can't drum up the guilt-driven motivation to actually stick to them. Plus, I've had the lyric from Crowded House in my head for the last week: "It's no New Year's Resolution, it's more than that..." Which is hardly encouraging. Nevertheless, I jumped on the bandwagon and wrote some in my notebook while I was waiting at the tram stop on Friday (the fact that I made them up 5 days after the fact shows just how into them I am).

At the risk of causing much running and screaming, I'm going to indulge myself and list them:

1. Go on a holiday - on a plane.
I'd already been wanting that for about 6 months, so I don't think that counts.

2. Keep a weekly art journal.
I did actually start this one. Currently it looks like something an 8-year-old would produce. I'll probably force myself for a month then it'll fizzle out.

3. Lose weight.
The most common and most pathetic NY Resolution ever. I just like food too much. It may just happen accidentally though, who knows?

4. Complete list of 1001 Things to Do Before I Die and do 10 of them.
Aside from the fact that there's currently only 880 items listed on it, I'll probably choose the 10 lamest and easiest things to do. It goes without saying that activities such as bungee jumping will not appear on the list.

5. Keep in contact with my friends more.
A Noble sentiment, some may say, but it don't say "The Knitting Hermit" up the top there for nothing.

Enough of this self-indulgent drivel. I finally got around to taking a photo of the hat I made about a month ago:

Who is that whimsical maiden?
I'm quite proud of it actually. I made the whole thing up from go to whoa. I even made up the decreases around the top (which is apparently called a star increase amongst those who like to give names to things). I'm always amazed when things turn out the way I wanted. It does happen, sometimes.

Then for about a week and a half, I didn't do anything. Well, that's not strictly true. I sweated, I moaned and I cursed. You know what I'm talking about. Well, my poor boyfriend does, anyway! Normally I try and be more philosophical about the heat, but when you're just itching to make stuff on the inside, it's hard. I did start making some puzzles for an activity-book zine that I'd been thinking of for a while. Crossword puzzles, mazes, that sort of thing. But even that was too much after a while.

Then finally it cooled down enough for me to play with my new needle-felting kit! Woohoo! I love it! I made a randomly-shaped blob to practice on, and I ended up with this:

Baby Monster!
I turned an amorphous green peanut into an Embryo with just a few stabs of a very sharp needle! This needle felting stuff is so fun! You can even make 3-dimensional shapes with it (see it's little arms). You can make proper sculptures with it, but you need a spongy foam block as a base, which I don't have at the moment, but I'm having tonsa fun with what I have. It's very cathartic, stabbing away....

I made the Embryo as practice, so that I didn't stuff up when finishing...
tadaaaa! The Left-Handed Monster!

Deformed love!
I really went to town on this one and gave him elbow and knee patches, 'claws' on each arm and leg, a lovely pink wart, and a funky little hairdo. I felt a bit sorry for him and gave him a little needle-felted rudimentary arm on his armless side, as well. I realised when I was some way into it that his arms are actually on his right side, but, schnyeh, who cares?

I just lurve heeeeem! Now I'm going to sell heeeem!

And I also made this I-Pod Cozy:

It was pretty crap before I put the embroidery on. Now it's almost half-decent. I went through an obscene phase of wanting to embroider stuff. Small stuff, too. Considering I violently hate anything that involves threading something through something else, I think I did OK. I'm currently working on another one with a felt backing. This time I did the embroidery first (onto a piece of felt). It's the crocheted backing I can't be bothered with. We'll see.

Bored now.

Bye.

Back to work for you!

Play time is over, kiddies! It's back to work for me. After a couple of days of nail-biting after signing up for a temp agency, the lovely lady called me - about once every five minutes! (Not complaining, though!) Apparently I'm hot stuff, and I have a pretty good-sounding gig to keep me going full-time for at least the next month.

I wasn't sitting around twiddling my thumbs on my time off though, oh no! I was furiously knitting and crocheting and sewing and drawing away. I made this on Cup Day:

Don't worry, I stopped to watch the race!

I also finished the Creamy Scarf on the same day:

So fluffy!

Then I felt like more of a challenge, so I worked for a while on the Heirloom Baby Blanket:

Bad, bad, evil picture!

I know it's hard to make out, but I think it'll be wonderful in the end. I'm making it for Sarah and Adrian. I decided that I wanted to make something a bit more special, well, heirloom, basically, instead of churning out acrylic gew-gaws all the time. I started it a while ago, but it was in the back of the cupboard for a while. I get it out when I feel like something a little more brain-worthy.
The stitch markers on it are from an amazing Etsy shop called Hide and Sheep. It has beautiful accessories for knitting; I wanted to use something special instead of just bits of wool like I normally do.

Then, I got out my sewing machine and whipped up some pouch-type things to keep my knitting in:

So much nicer than a plastic bag, no?

I also started a couple that are more like handbags, with handles at the top, in blue corduroy. Then the light bulb on the sewing machine conked out, and it started chewing up the fabric, which I took as a sign to do some crocheting instead.

I got inspired by the sequins that I'd crocheted onto the pouch, and I decided I wanted to do a wool embroidery. I'm not showing it here because I can't decide if it's naive and quirky, or just plain hideous. It does have a crocheted 'frame' which is actually quite good though. Maybe next post.

Then, I felt like amigurumi-ing it up, so I started a creature. I wanted to make it as unsymmetrical and strange as possible, and I may have just succeeded. I call him The Deformedest Little Monster. He's almost finished, so I think I might wait until I've gone all the way (ahem) before I take a photo.

Speaking of finishing stuff, I have a real problem. I always told myself that I'd have no more than 12 projects on the go at any one time. I currently have 17. And that doesn't include the AIDS Baby Vest which I decided not to count as it's a charity project. (Sneaky, huh?) So I had a look at my projects, and I vow to finish the following projects within the next week:

- iPod Cozy
- Skinny Nature Scarf
- The Deformedest Little Monster
- Boo-tay & Mi-Uh
- Firey Scarf (It just needs the fringe trimmed, for fuck's sake!!)
- Flower Facewashers (This one might kill me - all the weaving in.... nooooo!)

- Not to mention the two bags that I'm half-way through sewing
- and the embroidery which I still have to neaten up

Aieeeee!

Things happening

I know I haven't posted in over a week, sorry about that, but there have been quite a few developments. Where to begin?

First - I did a little work on Ami Chihuaua, and he now has 2 back legs as well as a tail. I now have several puncture wounds in my fingers - and one in my lip, don't ask - so Ami has been shoved into the back of the cupboard to think about his behaviour for a while. No pictures because I was too disgusted.

Second - I accidentally bought some more vintage knitting patterns on Ebay last week:

Aren't they amazingly retro? I just had to, because, you see that one titled Afghans in the centre? I'm actually making the one on the front cover! I found that very booklet in a pile of magazines at my Oma's house when I was about 14 years old, and spent a few minutes copying out the instructions. I've been working away on it in fits and spurts ever since, never quite knowing if I copied it out correctly. I hadn't even looked at it for about a year, but seeing and buying this booklet has spurred me on to do at least 3 rows on it!:

Wedge no. 8. 6 to go!
And I bought the other booklets cause it would be a waste of postage money just to order one item. Plus they have the most amazing pictures in them. They are giving me ideas for making zines with the pictures and adding captions and copying the text and using it as a background. I even thought about making one with some of the knitting patterns I have made up and binding it nicely and adding some drawings and making maybe 10 copies and selling them. Being on Ravelry and seeing "Designed by ApartmentCat" from "The Barely Competent Knitter" has gone to my head, obviously! I'm taking those podcasts and websites that say anyone can make zines way too seriously! I keep getting all excited about things, but I don't have the time to follow through anymore. I need to structure my time better.

On the aquiring things front - I also received my first issue of KnitSimple magazine last week. I had forgotten that I'd subcribed to it, when a mysterious envelope arrived from Sweden (?!). (Perhaps that's the 'rest of the world' distrubution cetnre?) It's put out by the same people who make Vogue Knitting, but unlike that magazine, it has projects for people who DON'T have the technical skill of Meg Swanson, the patience of Richard Rutt, the imagination of Barbara Walker and the chutzpah of Elizabeth Zimmermann. People like me, for example. Unfortunately, it's prone to the same utterly lame and annoying puns of its more sophisticated parent. For example, a pattern for legwarmers is called Fiddle-Dee-Knee. A blurb about decorated bowls is titled Bowl Me Over. A pattern for a cowl-neck jumper is called Cowl Play. I started reading them out to my flatmate, and she begged me to stop. I had to put it down and take a breather when I got to page 10. However, when I got to the actual patterns, there were some really nice ones. There's a 3-colour vest I'm coveting quite badly. Some of the baby things are very nice too (more on that later!!)

More acquiring things - I was at Borders lst Thursday, I had a 30% off voucher, what was a girl meant to do? I bought this:

Yes, I finally have the seminal work by the knitting goddess herself! *bows down and worships* Though it's a new edition, it's a photostatt of the original. So it seems more authentic. I'm reading it right through, even the technique instructions, and savouring it.

I'm starting to realise that this post is quite long, so I'm going to cut it short.

Mindless knitting:

Firey Sideways Scarf - crocheting, technically
New Project:

Boo-tay
Why baby gear, I might hear you ask? Cause I'M GONNA BE AN AUNTIE!!! First I was flabbergasted. Then I was scared. Then I was excited. Then I thought, 'what do I knit first??' I could go on, but I've already said I won't. How can I top that? I'll just finish there.

Knittin' Time

Things are coming along nicely. Which is quite surprising considering how much full-time work cuts into your crafting time. *sighs*

I finished the main part of the first Jayne on the weekend, so I started the second one. I always do it when I have to make two of something. It cuts down on the Second Sock Syndrome. The hats are coming along so quickly though! I'm really happy with them so far:

Jayne 1

Jayne 2
Sorry, I just couldn't resist trying them on!
I'd say if all goes to plan, they'll be finished by the end of this week! Yay!

I also started my amigurumi journey last week. I decided to start with the Ami Chihuahua that I found on Ravelry:

Puppy Guts
As of tonight, I've finished the head, body ears and legs. I still have the tail and muzzle applique to go. And the optional bandanna around the neck. To be honest, I wish I'd chosen something a bit simpler for my first one. All the little legs etc are a bit fiddly to make, and the head is a different shape to the picture. But as Boy says, it'll probably take more of a proper shape when it's stuffed (I hope!). Or else it'll just be stuffed! E-heh-heh Bad pun, excuse me! I don't know what came over me.

The Ami Snake pattern is looking really good to me right about now though...

Last but not least ... I finished the Boy scarf tonight!!!:

What a handsome neck!
Yes, that's right, poor Boy no longer has to go around with a freezing cold neck, in the coldest winter since it was last really cold. He seems to like it, and I really like it too. The only disappointment is that I used a wavy cable pattern that I made up. But it's difficult to make out the pattern with the yarn I used, but it's so lovely and squooshy and warm that it makes up for that.

I am freaking out a bit, cause when I put things on Ravelry, people seem to see them. I know it's supposed to be a knitting "community", but I'm the original Knitting Hermit, and I'm not used to other people taking an interest in or even noticing what I do craft-wise. I mention this because I entered the wavy cable pattern for the Boy Scarf in as an original pattern made up by me. A few days later, one of the administrators of the site sent me a message asking if they could use my photo of the Boy Scarf to illustrate it! As if it was actually good or something! I was very flattered, but I was also a bit freaked out. I never thought of myself as a designer, I just make things up as I go along because it's easier and quicker for me than trying to figure out a pattern most of the time. *shrugs* That's just how I work. To me it doesn't deserve to be singled out on a website. I'm just lil ole me! Barely Competent, like it says!

*tries to hide behind a bush*

Stuff It!

On Tuesday, I embarked on a stuffing odyssey!

First, I stuffed my fruits sachets:

A lemon (lemon-scented), an orange (mandarin-scented) and a lime (bergamot-scented). Well, I had to make do with what I had, okay? I dripped a couple of drops onto a cotton ball and placed it in the middle of each one as I was stuffing it. I have to say, I'm very impressed with the results. The scent is much stronger than I thought it would be, and being essential oils, they actually smell like fruits and not jelly babies. They are currently nestling in my underwear drawer, and make me smile in the morning when I'm getting dressed.

Next, I stuffed my magic square mini-pillow:

It's made from an experimental magic square (actually 4 attached together) that I made after I read the modular knitting book. I had made about 5 more squares, but in the end I couldn't be arsed making any more sachets out of them. I knitted a back using 2 shades of purple acrylic, sorry, Muggle Wool held together. Then I attached them together by crocheting around the edges with variegated pink wool, 2 rounds. I scented it with lavender essential oil. The back is much stiffer than the front, so the front puffed right up, making a very cushiony effect. I quite like it. It's currently in my bed, so all I have to do if I'm trying to get to sleep and I'm feeling stressed is put it near my face and I feel much more relaxed.

Speaking of relaxed, or the opposite of relaxed, I also worked on Ami Chihuahua that night as well:

As you can see, I didn't get too far. I'm really, really, really wishing I'd chosen the snake pattern as my first project! See the tiny little leg?:

It's tiny!! I managed to stuff the body, close it up, stuff the legs and the tail, and sew the tail to the body before I gave up in exasperation.

The following night I drew instead.