Smile, Smile, Smile

1. This is what I'm TRYING to do. For various reasons, the anxiety issues (I always figured they were subclinical and not requiring treatment, but if they don't go away on their own this time...) have cropped back up. Also my short-fuse temper is coming back which is not good. I had to bite off something I was going to say to someone Friday afternoon because it would have been something I seriously regretted. Even if the person probably deserved to hear it. I used to have a really short temper and managed to beat it down and smooth it out over the years, but when I'm stressed, it comes roaring back. Maybe I need to increase my intake of B vitamins for a while. (I have already cut out caffeine - given up tea until exam week is over - to try to get rid of the anxiety).

2. The title is also an allusion to a much-loved song by Pinkie Pie in an episode from this season. It was, I admit, a little different from what I expected: I keep hearing "Smile, darn ya, smile" in my head when I hear the title of that song, and the song from the cartoon is MUCH different.

But at any rate, I finished the Pinkie Pie amigurumi last night.

For the first photo, I wanted to take a picture of the pony "blank" - the finished body before the mane, tail, face, and "cutie mark."



It does  not look that much like a pony at this point, but that kind of makes sense as the original pattern was for a fawn. I do set the ears further back than shown on the example fawn in the pattern book; it seems that the cartoon ponies' ears are pretty far back on their heads.

And here's the finished Pinkie Pie:



There are always some challenges in grabbing something that exists in two dimensions and pulling it through into the third dimension. Pinkie's mane and tail, in particular. I stalled a bit on the crocheting of her because I was debating how to do the hair. My first thought - which is what I ultimately went with - was just using strands of the boucle yarn plain, and "locking" them in as I did for the other ponies. But before that, I tried crocheting spirals to see if that would look more like the signature 'do (It didn't, but I might reserve that idea in case I ever do a Rarity). Then I wondered if I could knit or crochet up a "shape" and try to make that take on the weird shape her hair has in the cartoon.

In the end I went with the plain boucle, because it was easier, and because an existing-in-a-three-dimensional-at-least-marginally-"real"-world Pinkie Pie would have her hair as separate strands rather than one big clump.

The color isn't *perfect*, either, it's a bit darker and more purplish than it should be. But oh well, it was stash yarn.



And  side view. I think the "cutie mark" (balloons) turned out fairly well. Those can be hard to do on a comparatively small toy.

Another thing I do with these is an old tip I learned from reading Margaret Hutchings' book on making teddy bears. In there, she discussed the different types of eyes. The book was written back in the 60s before a lot of the modern lock-washer type eyes were available, and she was advocating that, especially for toys for small children, embroidered or appliqued eyes were much wiser than the old-style glass eyes (which sewed on like a shank button, and could be pulled off and swallowed...or pushed up a nose or into an ear). One piece of advice she gave for felt appliqued eyes, which I've almost always used, is to put a tiny bit of stuffing behind the eye just as you finish sewing it on, because it makes the eye stand out a bit rather than sink back in the head, and gives a more "lively" appearance. I think this is true and it's a small thing that can really improve the look of a toy.

I will say I think I figured out part of the appeal of these for me...I mean, using this specific pattern. The finished product is roughly the size of a kitten, if not quite the same configuration as a kitten. And there is something appealing about things that size.