Literal teal deer

I mentioned a few days ago that I was working on a crochet project that amused me. I finally finished it.

It's.....Teal Deer!



Yes, a literal teal deer. Or rather, Teal Deer, as she insists on being called.

Teal Deer disapproves of people who talk too much. Of people who give long, sad stories about stuff when they could probably recount their woe in a few sentences.



Teal Deer is good at being disapproving.

Teal Deer especially dislikes it when people make long-winded, bizarre excuses for why they "couldn't" do what they were supposed to do. (Thus, she and I have something in common.)

Teal Deer is made using the "Fawn" pattern from Elisabeth Doherty's Amigurumi book. (It is the same pattern I used for Rupert, a couple years back).

I had been thinking about this for a while - how it would be funny to encarnate (en-yarn-ate?) the Internet slang "teal deer" (an expansion of tl; dr, which stands for "too long, didn't read" - sometimes used dismissively to refer to someone's post of something, but more commonly now, I see it as someone imposing the "teal deer" on themselves and then giving a short summary for those who don't have the time to read a long, drawn-out story.)

And of course, I had a deer pattern, and some teal-ish yarn...so all it took was some time. I actually started Teal Deer this summer but then got busy and distracted with other things and only got the barest tip of the nose done...so I finally finished her just now.

This is the kind of thing that I find very funny for some reason. I suppose it's related to my love of puns.

The yarn I used was one of Debbie Stoller's new yarns, I think it's Bamboo Ewe (a bamboo/wool blend). The eyes are done a bit differently than on the original pattern - just the lock-washer eyes without the fancy "shadows" on them. (And I found it hard to get a truly "disapproving" expression on her. I probably should have drawn it out on paper first, but it was getting late and I wanted to be finished and so I just kind of winged it. So I guess Teal Deer is more benign looking than I originally intended; there's almost a tiny smile there playing around her mouth. Or maybe it's just hard for someone with my personality to make a truly grumpy-looking amigurumi).

Also, Teal Deer has spots. They are made from some vintage mother of pearl buttons I got inexpensively in an antique shop. Most of them are odd buttons (not with a match) and I guess they are off of either infant's clothing (back when no one worried about buttons being a choking hazard) or undergarments; the buttons are all the "shank" type, but on these the shank is carved integral to the button, and they are kind of a pain to sew on. But I used them here because I wanted to use some, and this seemed as good a use as any:



So: Teal Deer. Teal Deer says "People talk too much." I suspect she's not a fan of political talk shows.

Crap...we've been having brief periodic brownouts. Everything will shut down for a moment, I'll have to go and reset the clocks, and so far (luckily) the air conditioner hasn't been running while it happens because if it is, it messes it all up and I have to turn the whole system off for a while and let it reset (sometimes just throwing the breaker off and on will do it, not always).

Luckily, I have the "sensitive" stuff (the tv and computer) on surge protectors and it seems like they don't get totally shut down or fried (though I do lose the on-screen menu for "what's on tv" for a while).

I don't know why this is - it's actually a lot cooler here this week so it's not like everyone has their air conditioning cranked way up or anything. I suppose it could be that it's been a little windy, and maybe the wind is worse somewhere else along the line.

****

I finished one little thing today:

This is a little amigurumi item; it's supposed to be an Erlenmeyer flask. (or, Earl Lenmeyer, as the pattern author styles him). It's a lot smaller than I expected; probably close to a 150 mL flask in size.



Earl Lenmeyer says: "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."

(Chemistry humor, ar ar.)

Back to the over-break projects.

I did do one little amigurumi (and it was littler than I anticipated after it was done). This was using a pattern called Roly Poly Cats:



I made the cat out of blue, to try to match Sushi Cat from that online game. I also tried to make the face a bit like Sushi Cat's, but I wound up having to add whiskers because a cat without whiskers looks too weird to me.

It's tiny and kind of squooshy (I understuffed it a little bit) and cute.

And I can do things like this:



OM NOM NOM.

I didn't have any tiny Re-Ment sushi (maybe I will have to rectify that...) for Sushi Cat to eat, but I found the most sushi-looking Re-Ment food I had. Because things like that amuse me.

I think a set of these, maybe weighted a bit (with a bag full of stuffing pellets in their middles) would make nice juggling balls - they might be a bit small but maybe by using a thicker yarn and a bigger hook you could get them larger. Or a set of these strung up as a mobile would be interesting. Or one with a bell deep in its middle as a toy for a small child (in that case, all features should be embroidered).

*A rather weak, summer-school related joke: "It's only Wednesday and I feel like a whole week has gone by already!" (Regular semester is 16 weeks; summer semester is 8, and we cover the same amount of material. You do the math.

*I'm still trying to figure out the best time to do summer-postings. I don't like going online in the evenings; it eats too much into the limited free time I have (But I'm doing that tonight), also, because of the copious anti-bad-stuff software on my computer, it takes it longer to GET online. (McAfee, in particular, seems to always want to update itself JUST as I am getting ready to do something involving the Web. And because my computer's a bit older and a bit slower, that updating slows things way down.)

*I decided I wanted to start a toy this evening - specifically, Maddox the Mischievous Monster - I had the yarn out, I had the right sized double-pointed needles. And NO PATTERN. Could not find it anywhere. So I figured I'd get the pdf copy I had stashed on my hard drive. Which, of course, meant that McAfee cackled and decided it was time for an update - and then trying to open Acrobat reader while it was going crashed the whole mess. I decided it wasn't Maddox's time to be made yet.

Pity, really, as I had a name picked out for him already: He will be "The Honourable Tootles Ash," which I said a while back would make a rather nice grandiloquent name for a toy. (I did eventually retrieve the pdf file and print it out, which means I'll probably find the original copy tomorrow).

So instead, I decided to start another toy - a crocheted black and white cat out of that "Kyuuto" amigurumi book.

I had forgotten how much a pain it is to crochet with boucle yarn, and how black yarn is even worse. But I will persist, because this toy also has a name already. It will be Oliver Donald Piano, or O. Don Piano for short. (Do I need to spoil the joke by explaining it?).

You know, it's probably a good thing I don't have children, considering the names I give to the toys I make.

*And speaking of ridiculously-named toys - but this one has an "historical" precedent, of sorts, here's another little Hansigurumi toy:

(It was hard to photograph so it didn't look like, um, something I don't want it to look like. And even with this photograph, I'm a little squicked.).

It's the earthworm!



And I named it Clementine the King's Daughter. That is an old family joke...I used to follow my mom around in the garden (and I was young enough at this time that I don't remember the actual event, just being told that it happened by my parents). When she'd turn up a particularly large earthworm, I'd exclaim "Oh, it's the King!" (or the Queen). One day, I declared that one of them was "Clementine, the King's Daughter."

I really don't know where that comes from - for years I wondered if it had been some kind of a bit on Sesame Street (not with worms, necessarily) or some book I had read, but a Google search only turned up one thing related to a French chateau that not only had I never been to, but I had never even heard of chateaux at this time. So I assume it was something out of my imagination.

I've gone back and forth about putting eyes on Clementine. (Real worms don't have eyes, but then again you'd have to name a real worm something like Pat or Chris because worms are actually hermaphrodites and Clementine the King's daughter would also be Clement the King's son, or perhaps the King's/Queen's daughter/son). I kind of like the idea of little embroidered eyes with long lashes (it might also cut down on the slight ickiness of the worm) but I just haven't gotten around to deciding yet.

I did make a couple of toys over break, both from the Hansi Singh book.

Today, it's Nessie:



Of all the Hansigurumi toys I've seen, I think this is my favorite. I've always liked the IDEA of Nessie (whether or not she may actually exist). Years ago, in a grade-school class, doing a segment on myths, we were asked to make a model of a mythological creature and I made a little stuffed toy of Nessie (I don't know what became of it; I don't have it any more).

The patterns for these toys are pretty complex - you go line-by-line and there is a LOT of short-row shaping to make the body curved. (There's also almost no seaming - you knit the underbelly by picking up stitches on one side, and then Kitchener stitching them to stitches you pick up on the other side. I'm not sure but I'd almost rather do seaming, though it might look less neat. I had to run out and buy a short size 5 needle because it was too tricky to pick up all the stitches on doublepoints). And you pick up stitches on the finished body to knit the flippers and then the little horn/ear things.



I used some Elann worsted-weight wool I had hanging around. I don't remember what I originally bought the green for (the brown, of which I only used a tiny bit, was for a scarf that may or may not be made some day). I used beads for the eyes rather than embroidering them; I think I prefer the more "inquisitive" look that the beads give.

This is the kind of toy I would have loved as a child - for one thing, as I said, I've always liked the IDEA of Nessie. Also, I liked the idea of small versions of giant things (I probably also would have liked the whale amigurumi I made). And this Nessie, scale-wise, would have been the right size to play with along with the many little plastic farm and jungle animals I had - of course Nessie would have been MUCH bigger, but the "real" Nessie would be bigger than, say, a "real" cow in the same proportion as this Nessie is bigger than one of the toy cows.

Well, I been done seen 'bout everything



When I seen an octopus fly!


It's the "Dumbo" octopus, knit from the Hansigurumi pattern. I used Caron "Country," which is a wool/microfiber blend. Though the yarn isn't the easiest to knit up for a toy (it has a cabled construction that makes it prone to split), it has a nice shine to it. The colors here are "spruce" (the darker blue green) and "Ocean Spray" (the lighter color).

You can kind of judge from the photo of me "flying" the octopus how big it is - it's not huge but it's not as small as I thought it was going to be when I started making the legs.

Here's a picture of Dumbo at rest:



And yes, the Dumbo octopus is a really real animal. Which makes it all the more wonderful. (Another amusing picture is here. I interpret it - incorrectly, I know - as the little octopus sticking out its tongue at the photographer).

They say that the average child laughs 400 times a day, and the average adult only 15*

This made me laugh this morning:


see more pwn and owned pictures

Yarr! (I'm not even sure that's a FAIL; I'd laugh pretty hard - with delight, not derision - if someone I knew had modified their car in that way)

(*And that 46% of statistics are made up on the spot)

***
Ah, Mythbusters, how I missed you when you were on hiatus. How glad I am that you are back. Two most excellent visuals last night: the million match heads flaring up in a giant shortlived ball of flame (and I REALLY DO NOT WANT to hear of some idiot trying to replicate that in his back yard), and the giant Lego ball.

Now I want a giant Lego ball. Or heck, I just want half a million Lego bricks.

And that "Oh NOOOOOOO!" you may have heard at about 8:46 pm CDT was me responding to the Lego-ball self-destructing. I really wanted to see that thing smash the car.

***
I made the mantle for the Dumbo octopus last night. (A sentence that out of the context of a blog of someone who likes to knit odd toys would make no sense.) It's very cleverly designed - you do something akin to turning a sock heel to make the little pouchy bit of the mantle and give it shape.

I really prefer making toys that are designed this way - where most of the essential shaping comes from how you KNIT it, not from making a bunch of fiddly pieces and then having to sew them together. (and only part of it is that I dislike seaming).

Part of the reason I like toy patterns that use things like shortrowing - or at least are knit in the round with appropriate increases and decreases for shaping - is that it seems more elegant to me, and it takes advantage of one of the good properties of knitting. Toys that are made by knitting up a bunch of flat shapes and then seaming them is mimicking what you do when you make a toy of fabric - and one of the downfalls of sewn toys is the seams, both in terms of appearance and (if it's a toy for a child or is made of exceptionally delicate fabric) strength.

But a toy that's designed to take advantage of one of the unique qualities of knitting - that you can get nifty 3-D shapes without seams - that's a good design.

I foresee making more Hansigurumi toys. (I bought the book she has out. She has an earthworm pattern in it. An EARTHWORM. I'm really tempted to order Cascade 220 in the recommended colors and make a whole army of earthworms because they are just that cute.)

***

Oh, and if you're wondering if you have swine flu? here's a handy site that can help you figure it out.

(I've already laughed twice this morning now. Only 398 more to go.)

I'm still not done posting on the different items made over my long break.

Here is the third, final, and I think, most spectacular project from the "Taupe Mist" Vanna's Choice:



It is a crocheted version of Edward Gorey's "The Doubtful Guest" (an odd, penguin-like creature that invades a large Victorian household and does things like deposit pocketwatches in the pond for "safekeeping," tear the pages out of books, and collapse in fits of melancholy (unfortunately just outside the drawing-room door)).

(This WAS a free pattern I found via Ravelry but it seems to have since disappeared from there. (But a bit of hunting in my archives turns it up: it's apparently still in existence here))

I used the Vanna's Choice because (a) I had it close at hand and (b) I thought the sort of marled color might capture the sort of woodcut-like quality of some of Gorey's drawings.

I will say this is one of the complexities of 2-D being rendered into 3-D: I think the "nose" (or "beak" or what have you) should by rights be longer and droopier, but that's kind of hard to recreate in crochet, I guess.

The shoes sounded wildly complex but I found that by just trusting and following the pattern, they came out right. (The scarf is my own design, a bit different from what the original pattern author did. I did the narrower stripes because I hate weaving in millions of ends, and I was able to just carry the unused color this way. As it turned out, I like the way the scarf looks better than the original. And it seems like it drapes better.)

Here's a better photo with the scarf:



I think I've mentioned before that I read parts of Amphigorey as a child (yes, I was a strange child). For some reason, I loved the character of the Doubtful Guest - I didn't really see his more sinister sides; he was more like an odd pet that showed up and did funny things. (Of course, I'd be annoyed if I had a real-life one; I'd have to lock up all my books).

I remember making a small toy form of this creature as a child, using an old dark-grey glove: I cut it up and used the fingers for the head and arms and made the body out of the palm section.

(Another person's remembrance of The Doubtful Guest, with a small photo of the cover of the stand-alone book extracting the story from Amphigorey)

I am not sure why the creature is funny and appealing; I suppose it had something to do with the illogicality of its actions and the fact that it got away with them. As a child, I frequently wished I could "get away with" more than I did, but having "proven" myself capable of logic on a number of occasions when it benefitted me to, my parents wouldn't let me get away with some of the illogical kid things I might have otherwise. I think maybe the slightly anarchic quality of the Guest appealed to me, the fact that he did what he darn well pleased and no one could really do much about it (either he did not understand human speech, did not speak the language of the householders, or, perhaps, like snakes are, was deaf)

Another odd but appealing thing was the fact that the creature wore a scarf (at least until he had adjusted to life indoors) and plimsolls (not unlike Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars, but I think "plimsoll" is a more fitting term here).

Everything about the creature was odd and didn't quite fit. And I think that's why I liked him. (I don't know whether it says anything psychologically about the fact that I usually felt like I "didn't quite fit" among my peer-group, at least until I got to high school)

I suspect also I imagined it as having a certain kinship with the Tove Jansson creatures - the Moomins and such - which I was madly fond of as a child.

(And it's funny that I usually refer to it as a "he;" everywhere in Gorey's story it's just "it" and as the commenter I linked to points out, it's apparently the only one of its species, so gender would not be an issue...)

The 'Guest is ironically enough quite cuddly and nice. It (he?) turned out larger than I expected, nearly a foot tall, and required the purchase of a second skein of the yarn (thank goodness one of the shops in my parents' town had it; I had bought it down here, used some for the manatee and some for the planarian, and when I started making this creature I thought I'd have enough - I very nearly unraveled the planarian just to have enough to finish this).

My (belated) Christmas present to myself came yesterday, and I promptly put it up:



It looks vintage, but it's actually not. It's a reproduction from Victorian Trading (made in India, I note with a bit of dismay, despite the stamp on the front of the object).

I like it because it looks like something that my grandmother would have had in her house (in fact, I think she had something very similar to this, but that sat on the floor rather than hung on the wall).

I also like it because it is a so-simple-it's-elegant solution to a problem - having a convenient place to hang various unmentionable items while they dry. (I do think I will keep some scraps of plain white cloth in the cabinet below where it hangs; I am not at all sure that the stain on those arms won't transfer to things).

It will also work to hang up damp-but-clean kitchen towels.

And when you're not using it, it folds up neatly out of the way:



It looks very right in my kitchen. As I've said before, I live in a vintage 1946/1947 house and I sort of like to have a few of the impedimentia that might have been around during the era when the house was first built. (OK, the original of the dryer is probably older than that, but I am sure people in the 40s had similar things to dry clothes, especially in the winter or in damp weather when you could not hang things outside).

****

My jaw is still somewhat sore, so I decided to make some chocolate pudding to have with dinner last night. This is a simple but not-quite-instant (because it can take 10 minutes or so to thicken up as you stir) recipe, originally from the (sadly out-of-print) Square Meals by Jane and Michael Stern:

4 T cocoa (I used Hershey's "Special Dark," but I suspect the pudding would be really spectacular with a high-grade gourmet cocoa like Droste or Valrhona)

4 T corn starch

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 t salt

You mix those things together in the top of a double boiler and put it over a pan of hot but not boiling water. Then you add

1/2 cup light cream*

and mix it all together.

Then, you scald (I did, though maybe it's not strictly necessary) 1 1/2 cups additional cream and SLOWLY add it to the mix while stirring. Then you stir constantly until it thickens (this is the time consuming part, add 1 T vanilla (or whatever flavor you like; I suppose you could spike it with rum if you are into that). Put in a big bowl or serving dishes, cover well (to avoid a skin) and chill.

Be sure to stir WELL. My pudding actually wound up a bit lumpy because I stirred kind of lazily, and I also think I might have had the water a bit too hot - I think I heard it boiling before I turned the heat down.

The recipe claims it makes 4 servings but what I wound up with looks more like 6 to me. Then again, the Sterns are not known for stinting on portion size.

Even with just the plain old Hershey's (though I think the Special Dark cocoa powder is better than the regular), it was fantastic. Much better than "box" pudding, and not THAT much more work to make.

(*I grabbed, by mistake, heavy cream, and didn't realize until I got home [stupid Friday wal-mart]. My mother confirmed what I thought: that mixing it half and half with milk would approximate light cream, but she also added, "I make a similar recipe and just use skim milk." Which would be more accessible (I don't keep cream on hand) and would be much lower fat. But I like to make a recipe as-written the first time and then change it up. But I suspect you could use any grade of milk or milk-like liquid in this; perhaps even soy milk, which would make it both vegan and lactose-free...but I suspect you'd have to be even more careful heating and stirring to keep the soy milk from curdling.)

***

And here is the second "Vanna's Choice Taupe Mist" critter. This is probably the most unusual amigurumi I have ever made.

Some years back, when Beanie Babies were in their first popularity, there was a list making the rounds of "failed Beanie Baby characters" or something. It was marginally funny; the one that I remember best (because it struck me as the funniest one) was Tapey the Worm.

Well, this isn't Tapey, but it's his cousin, Flats:



Yes, it's a crocheted planarian. The pattern is a freebee on Ravelry. You crochet two flat pieces and then sew them together. The only little change I made was to do the eye spots with embroidery floss rather than the yarn scraps recommended.

It's about 9" long and I think it would also make an amusing cat toy if you had a largish cat.

****

I'm not sure how to post about this without seeming a bit of a Pharisee (in the sense of it looking like I'm publicly advertising how "good" I am), but whatever.

I put the binding on the Bento Box quilt last night. And I decided it wanted to go out into the world and make its living (like they say in the fairy tales).

And, coincidentally (but perhaps not*), I received the regular e-mail newsletter from Quilt Asylum. And what do they mention but being a drop-off point for Project Linus? So I take that as a sign that the quilt needs to go with me this morning and head out to its new life, hopefully to comfort some child somewhere:



(*There are really quite a lot of things in my life that happen that could be interpreted as coincidences or could be interpreted as not-coincidences. I don't know if it's simply a fact that I'm very good at seeing "patterns" in things, or maybe if there isn't maybe something more to it.)

Here's the first of the toys:



It's Barbara Manatee! (Manatee! Manatee!*)


(*At least some people will get the allusion. And yes, because I am silly, I named her Barbara).

This is one of those UMAgurumi patterns from the Edafedd etsy shop. This toy is much smaller than the other ones I've made, but it is very very cute (or so I think).

Here's a front view. I made the face more detailed in the one shown in the pattern:



I tried to capture the odd-shaped mouth that manatees have.



And here's the typical Disembodied Hand Shot that I seem to do so much with toys, to show scale.

This was a fun and quick project. I used one of the "Vanna's Choice" acrylic yarns; the color is called "Taupe Heather," which is an excellent color for many animal toys. (As you will see in the next couple days)

In Japan, even the food is cute:



This is a little knitted onigiri (rice ball with nori seaweed - that's what the black strip where the "face" is is). It's from a free pattern here.

It's very fast to knit up - most of the knitting on this I did Sunday night while watching "The Bishop's Wife" (which is fast becoming one of my favorite Christmas movies*)

This is perhaps a slight imposter (odd, Firefox treats that as a misspelled word) as rice balls go...it's mainly knit of a soy yarn. I used Paton's SWS for the main body and a bit of wool-ease for the nori strip.

I had originally wanted to fill it with those plastic pellet things but I couldn't find the bag I thought I had, so I just went ahead and stuffed it. I think a set of three of these, maybe with a few pellets for weight, would make a fun juggling set.


(*Heck, I have a LOT of "favorite" Christmas-themed movies: "It's a Wonderful Life" (of course), "The Bishop's Wife," "Miracle on 34th Street" (but I will grumpily observe I prefer the non-colorized version of the original), "A Christmas Story," "Elf" (which is newer but is very cute and funny and has what I think is a surprisingly acynical message for a modern comedy), the various versions of "A Christmas Carol" (though of late I prefer the version with Patrick Stewart as Scrooge), and even "Scrooged" which is silly and a little cringe-y in places but it also has Bill Murray...)

And I also finished the funny little thing that I happened to think of yesterday afternoon. It is a very simple modification of the onigiri pattern, but it has some seasonal appeal.

Meet "Nat":



Nat is, in case it's not clear, a chestnut.

(Why name the chestnut Nat? This is why, in case your mind doesn't make the odd connections mine does:



(And that counts as my Christmas link for today! And this is one of my favorite of the "secular" Christmas songs.)

I suppose I could have just as justifiably (and perhaps some would argue with more justification) named the chestnut Mel, as he is the one who actually wrote the song:



However, for me at least, Nat King Cole "owns" The Christmas Song. (And, I have to admit, I like Cole's voice better than Torme's.)

I finished a silly little thing the other day.

I had done all the necessary crocheting - finished all the various bits - but hadn't found the time to put them together.

But now, I have:



It's the Little Emo pattern, from the person who makes Suncatcher Eyes. This pattern is specifically designed to highlight the eyes - it uses the "sleepy" eyes (which I guess look sort of emo - they have an "eyelid" pained on them.

I will admit I had a couple little issues with the pattern...it tells you to install the eyes before the "chin" is made, but doesn't tell you specifically WHERE to install them on the head, so they will be in the right relationship to the chin once you make it. So I kind of had to rejigger a little bit. (And then, do the same thing with the legs when it was time to make them). I also made the body a row longer, and the hands and arms each a row longer, because I didn't really like the stubby arm look.

I think I held off on putting it together partly because I was a little disappointed in it first when I finished the crocheting. The color of the pants is kind of wrong; I don't think a true Emo would wear what look like Carhartt's (the color is reminiscent of the Carhartt "hunting jeans") (Maybe he's a Minnesota/Upper Peninsula Emo, I don't know).

But now that he's finished, I really like him. I find him amusing, for several reasons.

First of all: he's supposed to be Emo, right?



Except for the eyes, totally blank expression. (This shot was taken more in the sun, in an attempt to show the eyes better. Little Emo does not like the sun, apparently - he fell down the first three times I set him up there and prepared to take the photo). But perhaps the blank expression allows for the viewer to project emotions onto the doll. (This has been suggested about the old-time Amish dolls. I know they were made faceless because to make a doll with a face was apparently considered a violation of the "no graven images" commandment, but I suppose there being no face might require more creativity on the part of the children playing with the doll).

I'm also amused by something you can do with the Little Emo. Almost immediately after finishing him, I found I picked him up, shook him around a little (so the hair flopped all over the place - and it's cleverly done hair, you use a crochet hook to anchor it in, so it's almost rooted, like Barbie-doll hair, so it won't come loose easily - meaning shaking the doll around so the hair flops is not a risky move). And then I said, in a high squeaky voice, "I'm sooooo Emoooooo!"

And then I laughed. And did it again.

I may be easily amused (bless my heart), but I tend to think being easily amused is preferable to not being able to be amused at all.



"I'm soooooooo Emooooooooo!" Heh.

As promised, photos of the "Cute Overload in Amigurumi Form #1".

This is Rupert the Deer:



Those of you who are fans of "Cute Overload" will probably remember the "real" Rupert the Deer. His mom was struck by a car while he was still in utero, and so he was born via C-section (because, like Bambi's mom, Rupert's mom didn't make it).

Sadly, a high percentage of animal rescues like this are not successful. Adding in that Rupert was born prematurely by C-section and that he didn't have real deer-mama milk, Rupert didn't make it.

So I decided to memorialize Rupert in all his cuteness. The fawn pattern is from "Amigurumi: Super Happy Crochet Cute" by Elisabeth Doherty.

I pretty much followed the pattern as written.



The eyes, in particular...I wanted to do eyes like in the original pattern because they were so cute. (However, the original called for pink and burgundy felt, to give sort of an "eyeliner" effect. And Rupert is, despite the eyelashes, a BOY deer. So the colors I chose were more "natural").

I did change a couple things. I didn't do the crocheted-bobble nose; it looked kind of ridiculous and I wanted something more subdued so I just embroidered on a little nose. And I used felt for the spots rather than sequins and beads, because sequins, meh. (I'm not a big fan of sewing on sequins).

I also didn't use the pvc stuffing pellets in the leg. The pattern author warns that the deer won't stand up properly without them, but I figured since the legs were crocheted so tightly they almost stood up on their own (empty), I'd take a chance with the polyfill. As you can see, Rupert stands up fine, and he's a lot softer and nicer (and lighter) without the beads.

Rupert is quite extremely cute. I think he is one of the most cute things I have made.



And because Cute Overload isn't Cute Overload without October being renamed 'Tocktober, here's the obligatory 'tocks shot.



Not that deer really have "tocks" (or, if you're Forrest Gump, "BUTT-ocks, sir"), and crocheted toy deer even less so.

As I was working on Rupert, I had bits and pieces of babeh deer scattered all around me. And I was reminded of two of the terrible, gross-out jokes kids used to tell:

Q. What do you call a deer with no eyes?

A. No-eye-deer. ("No idea")

Q. What do you call a deer with no legs and no eyes?

A. Still no-eye-deer.



Rupert says, "That's not funny."

Some months back I posted one of those half-awake, half-asleep (and therefore, usually something more than half stupid) thoughts I have:

Cute Overload in Amigurumi Form. Where different CO posts would be re-created as knitted or crocheted toys: a little Snailio Iglesias, crocheted "snorgling" cats, etc.

Well, over the weekend I was moved to re-create one of the creatures that's graced CO recently. (No, alas, it's not a pattern of my own design; it's an existing pattern made "in honor" of one of the CO critters....or actually "in memory" of, which will clue you in to which one it is, if you're a fairly rabid follower of CO like I am).

It's not done yet so there are no pictures yet. But it pleases me immensely, and it is one of those things that is so cute you almost can't look directly at it.

Once in a while I get so seized by a project that I put everything else aside to work on it. This project is that way (except, since it's crocheted, I have to take breaks to let my hands rest. Crochet is harder on the hands, especially the tight-enough-to-hold-its-shape crochet used in amigurumi).

Maybe I *will* make a little Snailio Iglesias someday. (There are enough different snail patterns out there, but I think in terms of correct size (the Snailios on CO are tiny), Anna's from Mochimochiland would work the best.)


(Edited to add: even if I DO do more "Cute Overload in Amigurumi Form!" I will NOT be doing a "cats n racks" (or "any other animal n racks") feature. Sorry.)


In other news, it is 18 degrees C in my office. (For non-metric types? That's less than 65 F.) I've decided that there's something worse than my office being 84 degrees.

Funny:

Beethoven amigurumi.

(Except it's hard to recognize him as Beethoven, given the typical blankish amigurumi expression.)

Makes me wonder how my favorite composers would turn out. Bach probably wouldn't be too hard to make identifiable but doing the curly powdered wig would be kind of a pain. Or Dvorak - I could give him the high forehead and big beard look. But Vaughn Williams would be well-nigh unidentifiable as an amigurumi - just some guy in a suit.