hippo hooray

just so you don't think i'm a ruthless, heartless bitch with no tolerance or compassion for any my fellow men, please know that i've just had four quite relaxing days off work and am now more or less back to my own amiable self. thank you for your patience, and apologies for all the fuck you's.

also, have a look at the following.

flodhästen by mia bengtsson

from virka glada amigurumi

ravelry link

smc egypto cotton (50g / 2.5mm)

he was a gift to my brown-eyed, four-toothed angel of a niece on her first birthday. and probably the most heartwarming, awww-inducing little thing i've ever managed to make. not entirely childproof, but festively plump nonetheless.

and he even has freakin' toes. the wrong amount though, as my dad, ever tactful, was quick to point out.

so happy birthday again, sweetheart. may this anatomically incorrect hippo be your guide through your second year of existence. just try and not eat the eyes, or mom will beat the living crap out of me.

this little shelly went to germany

shelly's famous, man! after the previous post a friend of mine in germany expressed some interest in getting a raunchy little turtle of her own. and being the generous and overallily* nice person that i am, i made her a very special edition of shelly in sumptuous pink colors. poor thing was stuffed in a tiny box for four days, travelling up and mostly down europe, but apparently recovered quickly and is already busting some steven seagal type of dance moves.

props to antje for the photo!

also he's taken up learning german. should i be worried?

in other news: i was making a pair of paraphernalia socks, because the cable pattern seemed nice and also i wanted to use my mokkasukka for something more than just a basic pair of socks. anyway, this is how far i got...

...before i realized there's no way in hell they're gonna fit my giant quadrilateral feet (which pair up nicely with my giant trapezoid head). apparently my gauge was off by roughly a gazillion stitches. how about making a swatch or something first? no, that would remove the whole element of surprise. which is what makes knitting interesting. you get what bob allows you to get. and frogging is good fun, too.

and no, i don't want to donate them to someone with lesser feet. because if i can't have these socks, nobody else can either. ha. ha.

*overallily [adv]. mainly; in most cases; altogether.

shelly the turtle

meet shelly.

he's a turtle. and in contrast to his gentle appearance, his favorite movie is machete. he also gets all them lady turtles, because he's that smooth.

sheldon by ruth homrighaus

flavia baby & drops baby merino (25g each / 2.5mm)

ravelry link

looks cute, don't he

you see, nobody ever suspects the turtle

but when he gets randy he slips out of his shell
and does the naked lambada

excessively displeased avifauna

..or, as the colloquial translation goes, angry f-ing birds.

ok. so it turns out geeks love toys.

recognizing opportunity where i saw one, i tapped into the infinite demand of crocheted novelty items by making a red bird for my brother, who’s an engineer and plays with his iphone almost as much as he plays with himself. then he showed the thing (bird, that is) to all his engineer friends. and soon my email was completely swarmed with mails from 30-something engineers asking to make them one too. all i need to do now is get a bunch of robots to amplify the production rate around 2000 % and pretty soon i can retire to an island somewhere and inject myself with liquid money.

improvised pattern

ravelry link

made with all kinds of scrap yarn and a whole lot of felt, paper and glue

i never thought my crocheting would be considered cool. take that, age-old preconceptions about handicraft being lame and embarrassing! i’m the ruler of this block now.

i’m pretty stoked too how they turned out. my birds kick ass. the piggy especially. it stares right into your soul.

close-up pics of each bird after the jump.