Advancing my crochet

Although doilies look really tricky, I don't actually think they are - you just get lots of bang for your buck by going around and around doing different stitches. To me getting increases and decreases in the right places and remembering how many stitches you've done is far trickier so I was quite nervous when I started out on Rada the Rat by Lydia Tresselt on Ravelry.

I needn't have worried though, it's a great pattern and I'm so pleased with how it's going. I only have a photo of the legs so far, although I've done the (super cute) head and ears, hands and tail as well. I'm just really chuffed to have produced actual feet! I did the decreases and then suddenly there were feet and they looked even better stuffed. And then I managed to join the legs together and begin the body and it looks good! Well sort of, if you don't examine between the legs too closely - but then you woudn't would you because you're not a perv.



I've had to stop at this point though, as I ran out of wool! I need to get to the shop again and am crossing my fingers and toes that they still carry it and that the colourway isn't too different to what I have. Mat suggested I could just start a new colour and make it look like he's got a top on and I guess that would be ok too, although I'd like to go all the way in the same colour.

Crocheted spring bunny

My crochet obsession continues - though at the moment I'm working on next month's homework for the Monday Modern quilt group. One of my ambitions when I started crochet was to be able to make amigurumi. Everyone assured me that they were actually quite easy, so I got a book out from the library called Amigurumi for Dummies and tried to make a hamster. I tried starting about 8 times and none of them worked. Either the stitches got so tight as I went around that I literally couldn't get the hook into them, or the yarn fuzzed up so much I couldn't see what I was doing. Talk about demoralising - I couldn't even master a pattern from a book for dummies! Then I saw the start of Helen's little Spring Bunny and was so impressed with how she was going on her first attempt I thought it might be a good pattern to start with. Plus I've had it Pinned for quite awhile now, and it's always good to make things from Pinterest occasionally just to legitimise all the time I spend on there (though not so much these days I have to say). And I can report that yes it's a great beginner pattern and I have succeeded and I feel inordinately proud of myself! I haven't put the felt on the feet yet, but I'm half-inclined not to, I'll see what Hazel thinks.



I think the success is down to the pattern and the wool/hook combination. Helen was using a slightly felted 8ply by Harmony, and my bunny is done in a similar, though slightly thicker 8ply called Aspire by Naturally. It's 70% wool and 30% alpaca and gorgeously soft. I used a 3.5 hook. The first few rounds of the head were a bit dodgy as I was trying to figure out how to use a row marker, but once I got that down it went pretty well. The only problem I had was the fact that if I get even slightly distracted I can't remember if I'm on the SC or the SC2tog and have to pull out a few stitches to figure it out (or a whole row!). I also mastered the invisible decrease which isn't nearly as hard as it looks in the diagrams. Always nice when that happens :) Now I can try a few larger items. Mat and Hazel have already put in orders but I'll see what takes my fancy I think!