Well what a gloriously sunny weekend! I spent nearly all of my time in the garden either crocheting in the courtyard or pottering among the pots and borders again. The Pansies and Pinks are truly blooming. Even the snails can’t keep up with chowing them down and there are now quite a few petals with no nibble marks on them at all!

The pressing crochet project of the moment is Papa Penguin and Baby Pierre as they’re soon to be featured in a new amigurumipatterns.net book with the theme of parent and baby animals. I entered them into a competition back in January and they did me proud by coming fourth. (You can read all about them and see the other entries in this post).

I can confidently tell you that this new book is going to be huge on the cute factor as I’ve now seen a sneak preview of all the designs to be included. Get ready to do lots of ooohing and ahhhing when you see all the other sweet animal families!

Having spent a large chunk of last week at the computer writing up the pattern for my father and son contribution a change of scenery was just the thing to re-invigorate me to the task ahead, which was to begin the official pattern testing phase. Now there’s no better place for this kind of work than in the garden. Mainly because I’m away from my desk and all the intermittent distractions that being in close proximity to my computer brings. Time to get my head down and plod through the lines, one by one, checking for any stitch count anomalies, bits of bad grammar and general cock ups!

Hmm, Tigger makes a better door than a window. What is it that cats love sooo much about a piece of paper to sit on?

It’s probably just the fact you’re looking at it and not at them! But Tigger is soon on the prowl again, searching for a nice place to sleep.

Not on that yarn though Tiggs, I’m about to use that! I quickly confiscate it only to be made to feel guilty with this sad, poor-little-me face…

I did’t think it would be long before he decided to investigate the other basket. Of course it’s a widely known scientific fact that wicker and yarn are both actually 100% magnetic to cats. There is something in their DNA which makes them stick to both like glue… and here’s the proof…

Good plan to have my work basket handy then so he gets a double dose of magnetism leaving me free to crack on with the pattern. All necessaries at the ready, it’s time to get hooking. This is where the red biro comes out and I begin to feel like a teacher marking my own work. I find a couple of minor errors straight away. Many more like that and I’ll have to put myself into detention!

A few hours and much pattern testing later and Papa’s body is completed, along with a few other bits and pieces such as feet and flippers. The day is getting hotter and Tigger has gone to flop in the shade.

Now it’s time to clear the table ready for a well earned lunch break to fuel the brain and freshen the mind. I have a delectable selection of yummy sushi to enjoy.

Now it would be rude to exclude the penguins from such a fishy feast wouldn’t it? Papa has first pick while baby Pierre jumps up and down with excitement at the sight of the fish shaped soy sauce bottle.

How good would that be as a perfectly sized water pistol for this playful little chick! After a bit of pestering Papa and I decide he can have it for a toy only if he eats up all his lunch.

Pierre picks his favorite seaweed wrapped Naruto Roll and tucks in. It’s almost as big as he is, but baby penguins need to put on lots of weight in their first few months!

All gone, and so is mine and Papa Penguin’s too.

Time to get back to the crochet. Papa Penguin #2 is well on his way to being finished. Next I’ll be testing the pattern for Pierre, inevitably resulting in another fluffy grey bundle of trouble. Just as well though, as Pierre is soon going to want a pal to shoot his new water squirter at! Maybe I should have sushi again tomorrow so they can have one each 🙂

Sunday is sunny again and more pattern testing is on the agenda, but much more gardening today too as I made rather good progress with the crochet yesterday. My pansies and pinks might be doing splendidly but that means so are the weeds. Lots of rain and mild temperatures has seen another explosion of those uninvited guests. Every garden must have a bit of wilderness in it though, so here’s mine!

I think the weeds have assumed the welcome sign is for them as they’ve evidently made themselves very at home.

While tidying up the wilder parts of my garden I found this collection of snail shells. Admiring those intricate patterns led me to an idea… It would be a shame not to make a feature of them somehow.

So I cleaned them up and gave them a quick coat of clear nail varnish… quite a transformation!

…then one thing led to another and the spiral shells got me thinking about the spirals I use in my beloved amigurumi crochet method. Why not marry the two together in a quick little off the cuff project? So out came the crochet hook… and 20 minutes later, here we have a re-incarnated snail. Much less likely to wreak any horticultural damage than the normal kind too!

Now for a final drumroll….. I eventually completed my Mexican blanket last week after crocheting through several early evenings, sitting on my bed watching the sun go down. I feel like I should be celebrating by setting off firecrackers and salsa-ing off to a fiesta with it now! But that sort of unruly behavior will just have to wait until I’m a bit less busy with work. I have a few festivals in mind for which its pretty party pallette will be just perfect for wrapping up in as I watch the sun set over green fields and villages of tents, rather than watching it set over my usual cityscape.

Tigger and Pogo kept me company as the last round progressed. Pogo obviously approves of my work as it has scored highly in his recent squishiness inspection, which means he must lie on it for protracted amounts of time, while I patiently crochet around him.

But when it is done, sometimes a thing is so beautiful that lying on it is simply not as good as gazing at it lovingly!

I mentioned last time that this blanket has turned out much larger than I had planned for it to, so photographing it in its entirety is proving a bit of a problem in my house as the rooms are quite small. The garden’s no better as there’s not enough floor space there either.

My brother and sister-in-law are popping over to visit for a few days this week so if the weather holds I’m going to take the blanket on a picnic so I can spread it out to its full glory and take some photos for my next post. I thought it would be fun to put together a retrospective photo montage to celebrate its completion after five colourful months, from initial inspiration to darning in the very last yarn end. I hope you’ll stop by again to re-live that journey with me soon!