Toys and happiness

I openly admit it: toys still make me happy. Whether it's a little figurine of a cartoon character, or a stuffed toy of a cute animal, or a squishy stress ball, or some of the fun science toys out there, I like having them around.

So here are a few recent additions.

First of all, this is one I made over break. Recently, a new species of octopus was discovered, and the person who got to name wants to call it Opisthoteuthis adorabilis (No, really. And they have to wait for official OK from whatever the board governing this is but I admit I am really, really pulling hard for them getting to give it the specific epithet "adorabilis" because really, it is, and we have too many other species out there with specific epithets like "horribilis" or "spinosus" so we need something that is openly adorable).

Not long after the discovery, a pattern for an amigurumi showed up on Ravelry. (For some reason, crocheters are super-fond of cephalopods. I don't know; your typical squid or octopus could be annoying to make, all those legs (10 or 8, depending on species) would get tedious). I wonder if it's maybe partly a memory - at least, in many of us Gen-Xers - of the yarn octopus with braided legs that was a really common Girl Scout or summer-camp craft. (I had a couple. One of them had seven legs because I misjudged the size of the sections, and my mother referred to it as a septopus, which I didn't find very funny)

But anyway. This one is fun to make because instead of lots 'o legs, it has a ruffle:



I followed the pattern as written - they direct you to crochet in the back loop (which really looked like the front loop to me, but I figured it out) and that gives it the slight ridgey texture.

I used Vanna's Choice, which is my favorite amigurumi yarn because it has all of the good points of a 100% acrylic (durable, holds its shape) but is softer and a lot less hard on the hands than some of the other 100% acrylics. The color is called "Brick."



Originally, I was going to call it "Shortstack" (the original pattern gave that name; it's a flapjack octopus, get it?) but when I got the eyes installed (it was before the little "ear" pieces* were attached)
 I said to my mom, "it looks like one of the 'ghosts' from Pac-Man!" (and it did). And then I thought of the names: Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde.

And of course, I HAD to name an octopus that looked like a Pac-Man ghost Inky. I HAD to. So Inky he is.

(*not really ears. I don't know what their purpose is on the octopus)

I also recently received the Apple Strudel Pony figure I ordered. (I could have picked him up at Target this weekend, had I known....they had some of the Apple Family things in stock)

He's one of the rare stallions, even though "strudel" sounds like part of a feminine name to me:



He is wearing Alpine-ish clothing, but as I remember from his one speaking appearance, he disappointingly didn't have a Swiss or German (Ger-mane?) accent.

The hat is hard to keep on - it is a loose piece. There's a tiny rubber band like thing but I can't get it to loop over his "hair"

His outfit takes off:



OH NOES HE'S NAKEY.

The other funny thing is that if you take his outfit off, his "cutie mark" comes with it - it's only stamped on his outfit. (Somewhere, Apple Bloom is going, "NO FAIR!" and Sweetie Belle is "MAYBE RARITY CAN MAKE US DRESSES WITH CUTIE MARKS!" (and Scootaloo is going "I'M NOT GOING TO WEAR  A DRESS!")

Also, one last photo: this is the "tugboat" thing I was talking about that I made in either kindergarten or first grade (meaning: it is somewhere on the order of 40 years old). I'm glad I salvaged it but I admit it still smells a little "garagey." I don't know how to fix that other than to hope it dissipates eventually):