Moji-Moji Design

Original Amigurumi Crochet Patterns


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Creepy Crawlies, Butterflies and Flowers

It’s been a week of creepy crawlies! With my Katy the Caterpiller pattern so very nearly completed I’ve also been sent a pattern to test for the new ‘Parent and Baby’ amigurumipatterns.net book. I volunteered to proofread a random pattern and quite by chance have ended up with another caterpillar to crochet – this time complete with his butterfly mommy. This beautiful design by Bas den Braver is going to be a fun little project to keep me busy over the next few days.

Zabbez Bree and Calin

Awww – cute!!

Check out all of Bas’s other patterns on his Zabbez website. They’ll be sure to put a smile on your face! They certainly put one on mine with their floral themes and hot zingy colours. Don’t these little characters just make you want to get out in the garden and make it bloom?!

zabbez-flowers

I’d love to have a go at growing more and varied types of flowers in my tubs and pots (pansies and geraniums have been my best successes so far) but I’ve got a problem with slugs and snails – I can’t bring myself to ‘dispatch’ them in any way – so most of my green fingered efforts end up looking like this… An unholy holy mess for sure!

SnailLunch

Chilli plants are apparently delicious for lunch (if you’re a snail that is, I prefer a bit of iceberg lettuce myself). At least I know exactly who the culprits are this time. Sheldon and Shelby look rather pleased with themselves for finding such a tasty morsel but at least they had the manners to blush when I caught them red handed – or rather, green footed. But as cute as this pair is there’s a whole army of the more brown and slimy kind coming out every night to wreak havoc. Luckily I had the foresight to keep a few chilli plants inside on the kitchen windowsill, so if my outdoor ones don’t survive they’ll be my back up plan. If you have similar gardening disasters to mine you might take comfort in crocheting some of these flower people instead, secure in the knowledge that Bas’s tribute to the garden folks are totally snail proof!

ZabbezFlowers

It’s not just the chilli plants that have suffered in my garden. I planted 20 marigolds and a sunflower seedling out in the border just over two weeks ago. Sad to say they’ve all vanished before they even got a proper root hold! Ah well, I never learn. I’m actually quite happy to resort to shop bought flowers to cheer the place up anyway. Hubby bought me these last weekend because they matched my Katy the Caterpillar project that I was working on at the time. How thoughtful 🙂 And what excellent rationale for choosing the colour scheme of my little gift. He knows the kind of details that make me happy!

Sunflower

Not a bad match at all!

caterpillar

And though the petals are starting to drop there’s still a lot of life left in my lovely bunch of summer sun.Sunflower2

Back to testing out the Butterfly Bree and Caterpillar Calin pattern – I thought I would change the colours slightly as I work through it, mainly because I bought some beautiful sparkly yarn recently with some Christmas makes in mind and I’m itching to try it out. I’m making my version of Bree look more like one of these Blue Morpho specimens. I love the depth of colour in these amazing creatures – I could just stare at that dreamy blue all day.

Morphos

But I don’t have time for too much staring at it, so even better than that I’ll crochet with it instead.

A quick rummage around the stash baskets and all materials are gathered together. Yarns at the ready…

Morpho-Yarn

…pattern printed, essential kit located… and we’re off!

Making-Bree

Papa Penguin and Baby Pierre are fascinated to meet two of their fellow stars from the new book. Pierre has already made plans to take Calin to the park to play on the swings and Papa is going to introduce Bree to the other parents at Pierre’s pre-school.

PapaBree

Hopefully I’ll have finished making them in time for my next post so you can see how they turned out. Papa and Pierre can’t wait – parent and toddler group is going to be so much more fun with new friends to take along!


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Birthday Treats

What joy! More sunshine. It’s been a lovely mix of cosy evenings in, and lovely fresh sunshine outdoors during the day for my birthday week. (Well, a day’s just not enough is it!) I’m loving the warm temperatures too.

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It’s been a pleasure to take some time to get on with edging my poncho, tidying up the garden and picking some produce. The grapes are plentiful and big this year, what with all the sunshine and the rain, so should make a good batch of red wine if I can get around to it in time, but we’ll make do with grape juice if not, or we’ll just eat them as they are. That’s my first ever homegrown apple sitting there too, all plump and juicy. I had a grand total of five of these beauties, with the hope of even more next year. Surprising that anything has fruited so magnificently in my overgrown, untidy plot, but nature’s a persistent force and doesn’t like to take no for an answer – especially the weeds!DSCN4845All those weeds have to be good for the creepy crawlies though, so I’m not feeling too guilty. However I will have to have a bit of a dandelion cull or my paving is going to disappear completely. Lucky for me, one of my birthday presents was a voucher for the garden center so off I trotted and filled a trolley or two with some autumn/winter colour for the borders and containers that I’ve been clearing out. Now if this sight isn’t inspiring enough to make me put down the crochet for long enough to get the garden under some semblance of control, then I don’t know what is!DSCN4868Lots of fab offers at the garden center have resulted in my being spoilt for choice as to where to put all of this horticultural bounty. Being a nosy type, as all cats are, Tigger comes along to find out what’s going on…DSCN4871Not sure if he approves or not of my planting schemes but he always enjoys being outdoors with the humans. Kept company by the presence of various cats I manage to get all of my new plants bedded in and potted up.DSCN5081Here’s a little gallery of all my hard work. It’s got to settle in and fill out a bit yet but I think it’s going to look lovely over the next few weeks, that is, if, and I’m sure this is a massive IF, the snails and slugs can leave the plants alone long enough for them to really get going. Of course I’m not blaming Shelley here, or her babies, Sheldon and Shelby. I had a word with them and, apart from being present at several of the crime scenes, and admitting to a bite out of the odd Pansy petal or two, they’re all for blaming the slugs for most of the holes and nibble marks that are appearing already. I suppose they know I’m a soft touch and won’t be putting any slug pellets down so they’re all getting a bit cocky (and a bit fat) around here!

As well as the lovely plants, birthday treats also came in the form of some fabulous yarn and stationary, to help my amigurumi designing along. Now the garden has had a good dose of tender loving care, I’m eager to get doodling some new designs, and fiddling about with my new yarn. And just look at my M o j o drawer knobs! Can’t wait to put those somewhere in my craft room.
DSCN5046
Though my cat Mojo is pretty self important as it is and I’m sure this will only confirm his belief that he resides as supreme ruler at the center of the universe!

x (Where he rightly belongs of course) xMojoKnobsAll hail Lord Mojo!


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An Autumn walk

We’re well on our way into September now and all the boys are back to their various educational establishments, including the eldest, whose left home again after a three month visit to continue his studies at Cardiff Uni. The house is quiet for the first time in a long time. Just me and the four cats today. It feels a bit weird but I think I’ll get used to it.

I’ve certainly got plenty of things to keep me busy over the next month or so. But I’m starting off slowly this week and so today I thought I’d take a leisurely walk around the river to keep my spirits up and remind myself of the pleasure in occasional solitude. But here’s a little company already! How sweet to see Pumpkin Patch Pete and Pumpkin Patch Polly out for a stroll together, holding hands and enjoying all their favorite Autumn coloursPumpkin-walkThe weather is beautiful and sunny… It’s certainly not raining on my parade!DSCN4887There was a thick spread of mist earlier on but it’s clearing up nicely now.

Shelley the Snail has been enjoying a few excursions while everything is still slightly damp and squelchy on the grassy verges…ShelleyRiver…and the River Severn is serene and swan filled in the early morning, before the canoe and narrow boat owners and the pleasure boat pleasure seekers are up and about. DSCN4890Oh dear, I think the swans think that I’ve brought some edible treats for them to nibble on, but I’m sadly empty handed apart from my camera and my house key – neither of which is of any use to a peckish swan! I’m sure there’s plenty of fish and river weeds in there to keep them going though. They all look pretty well fed to me.

So does Spencer the Spider for that matter. It appears that he’s moved out of my shed and has been busy renovating his new holiday home, situated in a highly desirable corner of the railings and boasting magnificent riverside views. Now there’s a piece of prime real estate if ever I saw it, but Spencer, you know you’re welcome to move back into my shed as soon as the winter weather gets too much for you… 820SpencerDiglis… and what a lovely web you’ve spun! It’s the perfect spot for catching a flying bug feast for your breakfast. Now I’m off over the bridge to the other side of the river and through the fields in search of a feast of my own.

It’s not long until I’ve tracked down a big bunch of blackberries. A few handfuls of those will go down a treat and give me a mini sugar rush to get me all the way back home again!DSCN4901Now my batteries are recharged after a well earned sit down on a well placed bench and a good munch supplied by the brambles. It’s time to move along, and, oh, hello! it’s the Pumpkin Patch People again. They get around faster than you would think with those tiny little legs of theirs!PumpkimsWe have a polite chat about the weather and our plans for Halloween. Then I can’t help noticing that the pickings are looking very luscious and abundant this year so I’ve made a note to myself to come back again very soon to gather some of these rose hips, and haws to make some Hedgerow Jelly with (perfect to add to the elderberries from my garden).

These sloes will be just the job for making a big batch of sloe gin, in plenty of time for Christmas, and the remaining blackberries, well, they never seem to make it home, they’re just too delicious as they are and usually get eaten on the way, but if I do find a big glut of them they’re most likely to find their way into an apple and blackberry pie.

With nature’s bounty being so generous this year I didn’t think it would be long until I bumped into Cyril the Squirrel, having a little forage around for his larder. That’s a mighty fine collection you’ve got there my lad!CyrilBenchThose shiny, fresh new conkers are a prize worth foraging for and some tasty pine nuts too. It’s Cyril’s lucky day! I’m tempted to stop and have a conker fight but I don’t have any spare shoe laces with me. Maybe next time! I’ve got another mile to go before I get back home so I wave goodbye and head off back across the river again.

So much for occasional solitude, but it’s been rather nice to bump into so many of my woolly friends instead 😉

I have to admit it’s been no great surprise to see them all down here enjoying themselves in their own particular ways, after all who would want to stay indoors on such a gorgeous day as this?


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Shelley the Snail and her Family

I’ve been busy with my crochet hook and yarn again this week and find that it’s now time to introduce you all to my new friends, the Snail Family! I have a soft spot for snails, which is why my garden always fails spectacularly. With a ratio of around 50 snails to every marigold or pansy (that’s what it seems like anyway), I think it’s a battle that I’ve resigned myself to losing. They’re just too sweet to wage a campaign against, so in the age old tradition of  ‘if you can’t beat them, join crochet them’  I made this pattern as a celebration of these terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. (Don’t they sound grand when you put it like that!).

Please put your hands together and give a warm welcome to Shelley the Snail and her babies, Sheldon and Shelby!

Snail-TrioA rainy day is a jolly good day as far as Shelley the Snail is concerned. When everywhere is nice and damp she tentatively emerges from her shell, rounds up Sheldon and Shelby, and off they all go for a lovely slow motion wallow in the shallow puddles. They’re often found racing each other to the end of the garden. Shelley could win easily but she lets the babies have a head start while she munches on a tasty radish or two from the vegetable plot.

I don’t mind losing out on a few radish. I can always get a fresh bunch from the supermarket any time I want if the snails are really intent in staging a garden takeover. It’s been such a wet year too, I think they have the numbers to do just that right now!

If your a bit of a snailophile like me, then you can get the pattern from my Etsy/Ravelry/Craftsy shops. And if you’re busy gardening this weekend, have a little compassion and remember, snails are people too! (?) And if you really feel that it’s either your prized herbaceous border or them, you can always throw them over the fence into next doors garden. I’m sure your neighbors won’t mind 🙂