Mr. Owlandish

Here's my new assistant at work, Mr. Owlandish. He's more clever than about 95% of the people I work with. He was very easy to make although I did a horrible job attaching his feet. Which is to be expected since I finished him last night at 11:30. The pattern also had you make a crocheted beak which I obviously didn't. What can I say? I love to play with scissors and glue. The pattern was in Leisure Arts "More Cute Little Animals To Crochet." I can't remember how much it was, $10.95 or something? But it's well worth buying since there are oodles of cute patterns in it.

I've given up on the Dalek which was my WIP on Wednesday. It just wasn't working out very well. I'm thinking a bigger hook size might have helped since the fabric I was getting was reminiscent of steel. So into the garbage it went. I suppose I could have frogged it and reused the yarn for something else but the yarn was rather splitty and I hated it. Buh bye yarn.

In other news I returned the Mercedes-Benz to the dealership because my overly expensive ass pillow was not helping with my back / leg pain. I imagine I'm the only person in Mercedes-Benz history to return one of their cars because it made their butt numb. So I bought a 2006 Scion xA and I love this car with the heat of a 1,000 burning suns. More on that later. Have a wonderful weekend everyone! And if you'd like to see more Finished Objects check out Tami's FO Friday blog.

Oh and one other thing before I go. Blogger hates me and refuses to tell me when someone has posted a comment on my blog. So if I don't reply to your comment, it's not because I don't REALLY, REALLY appreciate it. Perhaps it's time to move to Wordpress. After 5 1/2 years it may be time for a change.

Wednesday WIP (No Chains)

I realize that building a robot is a complicated thing but I swear, this one is never going to end.

This is supposed to be Dalek (a dalek? Mr. Dalek?) from Dr. Who. I've never seen Dr. Who. I've always wanted to though. But after spending my teenage years at far too many LOUD rock concerts the ears aren't quite what they once were. So if a show doesn't have closed captioning I tend to give it a pass. If they have English accents to boot, well it's not even worth trying.

Although you can't tell from this cell phone picture Mr. Dalek is quite large. He also employs a multitude of different stitches instead of the traditional single crochet only of amigurumi. He has arms as well that aren't showing up. It kind of looks like a baby hat, doesn't it?

My list of people wanting me to make them toys is growing. I was thinking about that this morning and I wonder why people feel comfortable just asking for something simply because I have the skill to do it. I have a friend who's a professional baker. Yet I've never called her up and said, "Hey Jen, got a craving for peanut butter cookies over here, can you whip me up a batch?" Or, "I'd like a chocolate cake, are you busy this weekend?" I probably have a few friends who know how to put up wallpaper. And yet my walls remain bare. It's like as soon as you learn to crochet or knit, you've got a bulls eye on your back. What's up with that?

For more works in progress on this Wednesday, check out Tami's blog WIP Wednesdays. Trust me, there are far more interesting things over there than Mr Dalek The Baby Hat.

This Is It

So this is the new ride. A 2000 Mercedes-Benz E320. No, I didn't win the lottery or get a raise at work. In the almighty Silicon Valley, a Mercedes is no big deal. So they're quite reasonably priced. This little putt putt was $7,900.00, one owner, 75,000 miles.

And frankly it makes my head hurt and my butt hurt. It makes my head hurt because the owner's manual is 341 pages long. Power headrests? Are you kidding me? There are so many buttons and gadgets it's ridiculous. I've managed to program the temperature control so that it's always a balmy 72 degrees as I motor down the freeway but I can't figure out how to set the trip meter so I can see what kind of gas mileage I'm getting.

It makes my butt hurt because there's like no lumbar support. And with my laundry list of back issues that's a problem. Basically my butt and my foot go numb when I'm driving. It hurts. So today I went out and bought a pillow for my ass that cost a ridiculous amount of money considering it's a pillow for my ass. We'll see how it goes. Because really, it would be a shame to return it now that I've figured out how to open the gas door.

M.I.A.

Fork, I fell off the blogging bus again. This whole car accident business / buying a new car has left me all discombobulated. I am fine with the concept of change at work but not so good with it when it comes to the personal life. Anyway, a new (used) car has been purchased, my case has been settled, checks have been received and life is slowly returning to as normal as it ever was. But of course the toy making hasn't stopped.

I usually like whimsical as opposed to realistic amigurumi but I have to say, I love my squid. He was super fun (and fast) to make and I think he looks pretty realistic. I'm going to have to make more of these. Maybe a squid army.

Another Ugly Bunny. This is Ugly Cyclops Bunny and belongs to the boyfriend's son who sleeps with it. Another quick and easy toy.

Last but not least, a drama llama for a co-worker. I won't go into how hard this was to make but jeebus it was hard to make. I definitely WON'T be making this again. The pattern, by PlanetJune, was perfectly written with lots of photos to help you out along the way. That wasn't the problem. It's just that the whole thing seemed to go on forever and then you have to attach the legs so that they touch at the top and oh Great Googly Moogly that was a PAIN. Doing his "hair" was no walk in the park either. But hey, I learned some new stuff and the co-worker likes it.

Last but not least, another charitable opportunity for my 3 readers. Unless you've been living under a rock, I'm sure you've heard that Joplin, Missouri has been pretty much wiped off the face of the Earth. The call has gone out to make toys for the children of this devastated area. If you're at all interested here's the website, Uglee Dolls 4 Kids. There are both crochet and knit patterns so if you feel inclined ... well you know the drill.