Moji-Moji Design

Original Amigurumi Crochet Patterns


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Showers, Flowers and Crocheting for Hours

Here we are, back from our weekend away. Nothing really went to plan this time so we improvised ourselves some fun instead! We were heading to a festival down on the Somerset Coast. It’s only an hour and a half journey so we set off mid morning, in high spirits – despite the drizzle.

I have a basket full of sunshine in the form of vibrant crochet squares so I’m completely immune to doom and gloom anyway!DSCN4645 I mean, rain or shine, who could fail to be happy with this mountain of Granny Square glory to get your hook stuck into? DSCN4651Time to make a start on joining them all together to make my poncho. I’m thinking at this point that I might get half of the main body finished by the time we reach our destination, but oh no! That wasn’t quite how it happened and, to cut a long story short, the hour and a half journey slowly morphed and expanded into a five and a half hour journey, with traffic at a standstill or, at best, reaching the giddying excesses of more than two miles an hour for much of the way.

Things progress very nicely with the poncho at least. Good job I brought it with me or I may have gone just a little bit crazy having nothing to do but contemplate the view of the back of this grubby lorry for over three hours!DSCN4654

By the time we actually get to Watchet the sun has come out and, after spending an hour making camp, it was just too tempting to stay put and admire the pretty views rather than trekking across fields to enjoy the last few measly hours that constituted the remnants of Saturday’s festival.DSCN4657 So stay put we did, and had a splendidly quiet evening instead. After all that painfully slow driving poor hubby’s back and knees were playing up anyway. We have wine and we have those fine dining camping essentials – Pot Noodles! DSCN4656I have my crochet too, so I think that’s the dream checklist with a big fat tick in every box. That’s us sorted then! DSCN4660It feels good now we’ve made our minds up to just chill out. The sunshine seems to agree with our decision and pours down it’s approval on us. Thanks to the many extra hours spent in the car my poncho is now nearly all joined together and a few extra squares have been created too. As the sun begins to head towards the horizon I’ve also made a good start on the hood.DSCN4662We can hear the distant beats of the festival going on several fields away but I’m just glad to be here right now. We slurp our wine and watch the sun set.

There are some fabulous cloud formations and the lapping of the waves to keep us entertained, followed by the promise of a contemplative night of starry wonderment when it gets too dark to crochet. The simple pleasures are often the best! There’s a whole day by the sea to look forward to tomorrow as well. Yep, I’ll settle for that!

Of course weekends away are all about leisurely mornings too. So the next day hubby makes us a camper’s breakfast while I add a few more squares to make the hood part of my ever expanding poncho a little bit cosier.DSCN4673Then it’s off for a day out. We start at Dunster Castle where I’m amazed at the scale of these rather Jurassic looking leaves.DSCN4690On another scale entirely we find a rather dainty ornamental flower garden where I try out my macro photograpy…

…and take note of some beautiful colour combinations. Maybe I’ll draw on these for my next granny square project (I’m not showing any signs or symptoms of getting bored of them yet!)DSCN4701Time for a spot of lunch already, so it’s off to Minehead to find a good pub with sea views. We have fish and chips somewhere towards the end of this promontory so we definitely fulfilled the sea view part of our criteria there.DSCN4710With our appetites satisfied it’s time to settle down on the beach for a signature yarn bomb for me, and a postprandial snooze for hubby!DSCN4711 It starts to rain just as I finish the last few chains so we head back to the tent, leaving my crocheted calling card behind.DSCN4705In the morning it’s still raining, so the decision is quickly made to head straight back home. There’s no point tramping down to Watchet Beach to search for fossils in the pouring rain so that pleasure is saved for another time. With the recent memory of our epic journey down here we brace ourselves for a good long haul back down the motorway in the Bank Holiday mayhem. But, unpredictable as always, there is hardly any traffic on the roads at all and we make it back easily in the hour and a half that we anticipated for the outward journey. We are home and snug hours before I thought we would be and can now revel in the luxury of having all day to unpack the camping gear as well as a little extra home time to indulge ourselves in before the working week starts again in earnest tomorrow. I think it all panned out very nicely in the end. It’s good to just go with the flow sometimes, don’t you think?


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The Adventures of a Pampered Pooch

Hi guys! It’s the weekend again and I’ve been working flat out to fine tune my new pattern, Pandora the Poodle. She’s the poshest pooch you could ever hope to meet and here she is with two of her high-faluting canine pals, Porscha and Paloma.

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If you can keep Pandora in the style to which she is accustomed then she’d just LOVE to come and live with you (and so would I for that matter!). She’ll sit for ages tucked up in your Prada tote as you stop by at Tiffany’s – you did promise her a diamond collar, didn’t you?

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Shopping in Bond street is her favorite pastime, now will it be the pink outfit or the blue today? Oh the decisions a pampered poodle has to make!820pooch2

A little dash around Harrods is always sure to make her tail wag and if you take her for lunch at the Dorchester she absolutely pinky promises to be on her best behaviour. Cucumber sandwiches, fancy cupcakes and a pot of tea? Yum! She’s licking her lips already.

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Now there’s just enough time left for a visit to Vidal Sassoon on South Molton Street to get those poodle puffs into perfect tip top shape.

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You look lovely Pandora. And what a lot of shopping you have!

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If only my weekend was going to be half as fancy!! In fact mine’s going to be pretty good but I don’t think it’s going to be Pandora’s kind of thing. We’re roughing it again at another festival. Mud, cider and less than immaculate port-a-loos await us! Pandora was invited but she just shuddered in horror. She’s already booked herself in for a few days at the local five star kennels!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend, whether it’s a posh one, a roughing it one or something in between 🙂


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It’s Getting Chillier!

I know it’s sad to say it, but even though it’s only August, I can feel the weather starting to get colder. Though anything can still happen this chillier weather is making me think of the autumn. It will soon be back to school/college/uni for my boys and then Harvest Festivals and Halloween. In light of that I have started to think of some new patterns for this years holiday season and thought a good way to see what I’m missing from my Autumn/Fall collection would be to showcase the ones I already have.

So here’s a little round up of my current creations.

Frankie and Draco just love Halloween. It’s the only time of the year where they feel like they really fit in and they don’t even have to worry about a fancy dress outfit!DSCN0515

Morgana  and her faithful familiar Soots will be quite happy to bring along a specially concocted witches brew to spice up your Halloween party. But don’t forget to invite Merlin and Hoots as well. He doesn’t like to be left out and a grumpy wizard is not to be trifled with!

Then of course there is the sweet little Pumpkin Patch People. They’re very busy at the moment nurturing all the pumpkins in their garden ready for carving and decorating. They love pumpkins so much that they’ve even grown to resemble their favorite vegetable.pump2They make a wicked pumpkin soup and they even tell you how if you want to check it out here.DSCN1417So, even though there’s still a good chance of the Summer re-emerging yet, if it doesn’t I will console myself with looking forward to all the cosy loveliness and autumn/winter holiday season celebrations to come. I’m going to start by beginning some new Halloween inspired patterns to add to the collection. I’m thinking that the spiders are a good start.DSCN4330 They’re going to be having a new photo shoot when I can get my hands on a big pumpkin.

But what next? Is there anything in particular that you would like to be crocheting this Fall? Let me know and I’ll see what I can do 🙂 In the meantime, and just because I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to the memory of our quite uncharacteristic summer of sunshine and blistering heat, I’ve asked Merlin to make me a spell to  hold the rainy weather off a bit longer.WizzLooking out of my studio window today it seems like it could do either at the moment or maybe a bit of both. I have one more Summer festival by the sea to go to in a few weekends time. I’d love for it not to rain on our parade then! … I’m sure Merlin’s got it covered!


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Moji-Moji Design giveaway!

Hello and Happy Weekend to you all!

I’ve teamed up with Michelle from Suncatcher Craft Eyes this week to bring you a chance to win one of my patterns and a $10 coupon for some of Michelle’s beautiful craft eyes. They would look fabulous teamed up with my free Rainbow Owls pattern! Here’s Michelle’s original post with details of how to enter. Good luck!