Oh, my gosh.

I have TOTALLY been missing all the yarny goodness on Crochet Me!

While taking a little break from work this morning, surfing the science blogs, one person commented she had a pattern on there. So I went to take a look - it's for a crayon-design baby blanket. Which is nice, and which I'll keep in mind if any of my art-inclined friends or relatives turn up pregnant.

but what really grabbed me? The toys.

(seriously, yo, I must be going through a second childhood or something because lately I have been all about the making of toys and the finding of patterns for toys.)

Like the crocheted inchworm. I mean - so cute.

And a frog with a drawstring mouth THAT EVEN COMES WITH FLIES FOR HIM TO EAT! (yes, I am shouting, but that is just so amazing and wonderful and the kind of thing I would have gone nuts over when I was a kid. (and the suggested "mod" of making an anteater with ants - even better.))

And the Swatchies: a simple idea, true - but how nice if you were making a gift for someone out of a lovely yarn, and you wanted to keep a little keepsake of it for yourself? You could even stuff them with cedar or lavender and use them as sachets.

and there's a basic set of instructions for Amigurumi-type toys (I've seen Amigurumi animals on other blogs; apparently it's Japanese for "knitted or crocheted toy" and the idea is you just kind of make them up as you go along and decide what kind of animal or person or creature you are going to have when it's done.

And for those fans of sea-life, there's even a cuddly octopus.


I don't crochet nearly as much as I knit, but these critters (especially that inchworm! I mean, seriously - an inchworm!) make me want to pick up a hook again.

Oh, and Loxoceles has promised us a knitted trilobite pattern! So if you made a Nautie, they will have something to eat.

(I haven't made a Nautie yet but I intend to. Not sure what yarn to use but I've got plenty of oddments; might even try doubling some leftover self-striping sockyarn to make an auto-stripe shell).

And another memory...many years ago, when I was a kid in grade-school art, and we were making things out of clay, I made a trilobite paperweight (well, my version of a trilobite anyway) for my dad, who is a geologist. I don't think he used it much even though I painted it gold and blue (the colors of the University of Michigan, his alma mater, and which also happened to be the school colors of the University of Akron, where he was teaching at the time).

maybe I should knit a trilobite for him this Christmas and slip it in his stocking...just for old times' sake.