(click here for a larger version on flickr)

112cm x 160cm (44″ x 63″) and 1.5kg (3.3lb) of yarn, in colours inspired by our little hobgoblin, with her soft brown hair, sweet pink cheeks and blue-grey eyes.

I tried it over my feet: delightful. The main cream yarn I used was Berocco Vintage which is a beautifully soft wool blend. I crocheted at a tight gauge so it’s thick and plush and heavy, even more so than the other blankets I’ve made, and very warm despite the lacy bits of the design.

And the Hobbergobber herself, who I thought of with every stitch of this project.

Details of all the yarn, the pattern, the way I joined the rows and the border I worked are over on my Ravelry project page.

On the 11th I was working on the border of my Hobbergobber Blanket, which is now FINISHED. I washed and pinned it out on Sunday and it’s still damp (curse you, weather!) but I will treat it to a nice photo shoot and post when it finally dries. I’m really happy with the result.

#12: A Crafty Gift

This knitted dalek was a Christmas present from our super friend Megan Wegan. He is soft and smooshy and very fun to pose!

#13: Inspiration Indoors

I found this prompt tough. Most of the colours and textures that inspire me are from nature, even though I would classify myself firmly as an Indoors Person. The things I like about indoors that I try to incorporate into textiles are mostly intangible – comfort, cosiness, warmth, love. So I captured those as best I could: Willow, wearing a sweater I knit and cuddling next to me under a blanket I crocheted. Plus a little bit of Otto’s butt ;)

#14: Where You Craft

You’ve already seen me crafting on the couch in photo #1, so here is my other main spot: the matching squishy chair in the “library”. (A grand name for a tiny spare bedroom with a couple of bookcases and this chair.) This lounge set was – unsurprisingly – born in the 80s, and it’s certainly not the most attractive seating option out there, but it’s so comfortable and so good at resisting cat damage that we forgive it all aesthetic sins.

On the left is my yarn, which occupies three of those four cubes. I assure you that it is, comparatively speaking, a very small stash – especially considering at least two thirds of it is allocated to future projects waiting in my Ravelry queue. I like to have a selection of yarn around, but also keep myself in check, and I think I’m striking a reasonable balance!

Also, Otto again. There’s always cats around here :D

#15: A New Skill

Stretching the prompt slightly to a new technique, here is the Braid-Effect Join I unvented to assemble the aforementioned Hobbergobber Blanket.

I love the term ‘unvented’ – coined by Elizabeth Zimmermann, it means that you made something up without reference, but feel you couldn’t possibly have been the first person ever to do it. A nice word to say that you had a good idea, but also acknowledge the vast pool of clever crafters before you.

The blog where they lived has long since disappeared, and these days I post anything I like immediately on Twitter, but I had the entries saved and thought it would be fun to copy all of those links to a new post here for archival and reference purposes.

You will notice some anachronisms (“I wish I could knit”, I said – YOU COULD! YOU JUST NEEDED TO TRY!) and some of the links are probably broken by now since they date from 2009-2010, but hopefully you will find something here you enjoy :)

01) Advice on Learning to Create Ambigrams, those nifty typographical designs that read the same word upside-down and right-side-up. (via Nubby Twiglet)

02) Paper illustrations by Yulia Brodskaya, who knew quilling could be so awesome?!

03) Fantastic macro photos of moss, lichen and fungi from Bonnie Matthews on flickr.

04) A 30m tall crossword on a building!

05) Speaking of puzzles, I just discovered KenKen. It’s like Sudoku but with more maths! Yay! Maths! The New York Times offers six free puzzles online every day.

06) NotCot is keeping track of the 50 amazing hand-crafted boxes being sent to bloggers to promote the upcoming film of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.

07) I own a book called “Knitting with Dog Hair: Better a Sweater From a Dog You Know and Love than a Sheep You’ll Never Meet”. Yes, really! The $2 I paid to save it from the remainder bin was well worth the enduring entertainment value. It turns out you can also spin cat fur, and the video includes some amusing shaved cats. (via MAKE)

08) It pleases me that there are people dedicated enough to make precise replicas of Doctor Who scarves.

09) This video from Kirin Norebook makes me really sad about the demise of Gocco! I know, you could do the same thing with normal screenprinting gear, but it would be so much messier and more time-consuming.

10) Luca Turin, a scientist and perfume aficionado, talks about his controversial theory of smell. (That’s right, it’s 2009 and we’re still not quite sure how noses work!) Be prepared for some science, though it’s a less complex discussion than in the books by and about him, which I would also recommend. (via Now Smell This)

01) Missing the puppy cam? Here is something even better: kitten cam! People in the chat seem to know their names, which amuses me greatly.

02) A PDF pattern for sewing and embroidering “koinobori”, traditional Japanese flags in the shape of carp! Beautiful work from Aimee Ray.

03) I’ve been craving Pad Thai so often lately I thought I should learn to make it. I didn’t think mine would be as delicious as the version from my favourite restaurant, but thanks to Chez Pim’s comprehensive recipe it’s really, really close. Mmmmmmm!

04) A sweater with owls knitted into the cable pattern. Genius! I wish I could knit! (via CRAFT)

05) It’s rare that I don’t immediately click ‘skip’ on a website intro, but Zuny‘s is charming. Their products are also pleasing; chunky stylised animal-shaped paperweights and bookends made in leather.

06) ‘Sup.

07) A video playlist of little itty bitty pygmy animals. The baby pygmy goat in an office is my favourite! Pronk pronk pronk! I don’t really want a goat forever but I would love to look after one for an afternoon. (via BoingBoing)

08) I’m keeping an eye on San-X’s new characters for 2009 to see what will be available while we’re in Tokyo! Of the current selection I do rather like the animals pretending to be cactuses.

09) Tilt-shift-fakery is super popular at the moment, but how about some real miniatures? Behind the scenes of photographer Lori Nix’s phenomenal dioramas with Cool Hunting.

10) Neil Gaiman carries what appears to be a wolf (I know, I know, it’s just his dog Cabal, but he’s enormous!) down some stairs. This photo is highly entertaining to me.

01) I want one of these beds! Look at all those drawers! The article on Apartment Therapy says it isn’t pretty, but I actually really like the rustic look.

02) Normally I don’t think babies are very cute – not in the same way as a lop-eared bunny or an otter, anyway – but this little guy and his wiggly legs are hilarious and adorable! (via Buzzfeed)

03) What happens if you give two guinea pigs the ends of the same leaf? Nom nom nom nom kiss! Nom nom nom nom kiss! Excellent capture of nibbly lips, though I think the video is better without the sound, as they put in some obnoxious effects. (via Cute Overload)

04) The World’s Smallest Postal Service (WSPS) will send a tiny, tiny letter for you. The miniature wax seal is unbearably cute.

05) The Black Cab Sessions – musicians performing in the back of a black London cab, one song, one take. I found this project through Amanda Palmer, and now I’m watching through lots of the sessions. Of course Jens Lekman sings Black Cab :)

06) I find the abundance of cozies in the modern craft scene hilarious, and am very much in favour of non-destructive public art, so I love this hippopotamus statue cozy. (sent to me by JSR)

07) Monsters combines video with funny creature animation. This is the sort of thing I imagine happening all the time. (via Drawn!)

08) A CGI movie of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater from Etérea Studios. Some time ago I watched a series of documentaries about architecture, which I know little about, and now things like this are fascinating to me.

09) Danny Gregory’s new book An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers has been my bedside companion this week. Highly recommended.

10) Stickers and Donuts interviews the creative director for a sticker company! This was very exciting for me to read – I love stickers so much I recently decided to disband my paper stationery collection and focus on them exclusively, dorky album and all!

01) It’s true I had Stickers and Donuts in my last link post, but this is definitely worth a second inclusion: a printable Writing Implement Test Sheet! Includes space for printing and cursive tests; a drawing test; squiggle and line tests; a smiley face test – everything you need to put a new pen, pencil or marker through its paces.

02) This is surely the world’s happiest car, and it’s called the Peapod! I usually could not care less about cars, but I’m loving the green version.

03) The stop-motion videos TADworks have been making recently with their tiny Po figurines are so sweet. I saw the third one in the series and immediately rushed to Etsy to buy the green Po who steals the show :)

04) I love a house with a grass roof! My dream is to have one with a goat to nibble it down. (via Materialicious)

05) The Seed, a wonderful stop-motion papercraft video directed by Johnny Kelly. (via Buzzfeed)

06) Two new blogs I’ve started reading:

• Grain Edit “… focused on classic design work from the 1950s-1970s and contemporary designers that draw inspiration from that time period”

• Inspiration Resource “A place for graphic designers to gather images and be inspired”

07) Klaus Haapaniemi’s Satumetsa dinnerware is quirky and folkloric. I don’t think I’ve ever had a china pattern catch my eye like this before! (via Apartment Therapy)

08) A lovely plush Fat Fugu fish from Zooguu on Etsy – you know I love anything round. He looks super cuddly. (via Indie Fixx, who linked to another adorable Zooguu plush)

09) Gala Darling’s Sad Trombone List (100 Things To Do When You’re Upset) is going into my bookmarks for the next time I have a bad day. Not everything there would work for me, but there’s so many ideas I’m sure everyone would find something cheering!

10) If you like the two-guys-ramble-on style of podcast, and don’t mind a few rude bits, I would highly recommend The Perfect Ten with Phill and Phil. (One of the guys is Phill Jupitus, who you might know from British panel shows QI & Never Mind The Buzzcocks.) I listen to a lot of podcasts while I work, and I was so pleased to find another good one. (via ohdarling)

01) The Bunny Song will infect your ears, in a good way!

02) A cartoon field guide to the International Housewares Show 2009. Hee! Great artwork from Lunchbreath and Fueledbycoffee. Trade shows do tend to be a bit ludicrous, though I do need a new spatula, the handle keeps falling off mine…

03) Nut and Bee Friend Jonathan recently reminded me about the adorable flash games site Orisinal. All the games have lovely artwork and cute premises, such as catching bees in bubbles or making koalas slide into snails. Thanks Jonathan!

04) Typographica’s roundup of their favourite typefaces of 2008 makes me want to look at words all day. (via Tiny Showcase News)

05) Nifty vegetable planters made of guttering from the Juneau Empire. I’d love to run something like this around the edge of a deck!

06) Gennine from Gennine’s Art Blog made a video to demonstrate her stamp-carving process.

07) Lovely Package showcases the packaging of the flavoured chocolate squares from Meiji 100% Chocolate Cafe. We visited in Tokyo and tried several of them. The Royal Milk Tea and Lemon Salt flavours were particularly tasty but Cheese, not so much…

08) A super cute video of Courtney Woolsey singing Lollipop by The Chordettes – all four parts! (via Boing Boing)

09) I love Wilson Swain’s artwork, and can’t wait to see his new pop-up book The Castaway Pirates! The publisher’s page includes a printable PDF of a “Captain Runny Nose” dress-up paper doll… I love sheets of paper dolls so I’m going to frame it.

10) A “no-recipe recipe” from Vegan Yum Yum for Crash Hot Potatoes. This is now one of my favourite ways to prepare potatoes – lots of rosemary and a little salt, they’re so tasty!

01) Rene Engstrom from Anders Loves Maria is running a sketch-a-thon donation drive to help her work full-time on her webcomic. For donations of $25 or more you will receive custom artwork! Rene drew a super fun piece for me during her first sketch-a-thon, and I can’t wait to receive my new one.

02) Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater as a Lego kit. I will be buying one as soon as it goes on sale. I hope the Architecture line is extended – imagine the Centre Pompidou in Lego! (via Prairie Mod)

03) The Beatles Rock Band trailer is gorgeous. Nothing to do with the game, just a great piece of animation! (The first link I had for this video stopped working, so I apologise if this one is also taken down.)

04) Loving Scott Campbell’s pieces from the Gallery 1988 show Quiet Storm. I hope he releases prints of some of these, particularly Tea Spilling and Building with the Bowies!

05) A round-up of lovely soaps by Design is Mine. Fancy soap is one of my favourite things; it doesn’t cost too much but cheers me up with every hand-washing.

06) Classic albums reinterpreted as 60s-era book covers. Super fun! (via Drawn)

07) Grass-free landscaping ideas collected by Apartment Therapy. I want to keep some lawn at our new house, but ideally it will be small enough that a push mower is a realistic option, and I am very keen on low-maintenance plantings, so we’ll be using some of these techniques.

08) A magnetic Katamari amigurumi from Amy’s Babies! It will pick up your paper clips and cutlery and screws, that is genius! The pattern is provided too, perhaps I should make one. I could roll it over the floor when I drop a needle :)

09) Another fun tutorial, instructions for an 8-foot giant squid pillow from PWStyle. I’m considering making one of these too… they look so great lounging on couches in the squid gallery!

10) The Twilight phenomenon explained in comic form by Lucy Knisley. (Caution: spoilers!) I have not read the books, but I made a friend explain the plots to me which is not really much better :D

01) A super fun zoological typeface, I just love the hippo-E and meerkat-L and penguin-O! (via Code For Something)

02) I have the original Treeson vinyl figure designed by Bubi Au Yeung, which is super sweet, and I like the look of this new blind box set of Treeson and friends characters too. Hopefully I can find someone selling open boxes so I can pick the ones I like most, Ren and Newspaper Boy and PinB.

03) Speaking of vinyl toys, the Totem Doppelgangers by Anton Ginzburg are also tickling my fancy… but which colour? I think I like white best!

04) There are some craft mediums I just cannot manage, and therefore vastly admire. Polymer clay is one of those, and this miniature salmon preparation board blows me away. I didn’t realise for a minute that the stick on top is a match. Eeep!

05) Goat tower! Goat tower!

06) Zokei University in Japan has the best website ever. Down with staid corporate boredom! (via American Elf)

07) Socks on chair legs. I am going to implement this idea in our house – it will help protect the wooden floors and be super cute!

08) I don’t link to Cute Overload very often, because I assume anyone who looks at my website will already read it, but just in case I must direct your attention to this puppy in a coffee cup. I may have squeaked when I first saw it.

09) And some more adorability, a four minute video of baby pandas playing. They basically just wobble!

10) I’m used to admiring the artwork of Gabe from Penny Arcade, but this sample page of a fantasy-setting boy-scout comic called The Lookouts goes above and beyond. So, so good.

01) We’re loving Rock Band Beatles at the moment, and part of what makes it so great is the artwork. (I’d like some of our friends to come over and play so I can watch without trying to drum at the same time!) Boing Boing has put together a great roundup of concept art and animations from the game.

02) I don’t know if it’s always obvious from this website, but I am a huge nerd, and therefore appreciate this Star Wars chess set made of Lego.

03) Fancy pants terrariums by Matteo Cibic.

04) Keyboard Cat papercraft from Tubbypaws – he plays when you turn the handle! I fear my glue-skills may not be up to snuff, but I bet JSR would be amused if I made it :)

05) Four-year-old Finnish rappers in the sweetest animated video clip. The walrus conductor made me squeak with joy.

06) It’s funny to read a cat’s blog. I love Maru!

07) A huge list of ideas for customising and recycling old t-shirts from Hide Your Arms. Personally I’m tempted to use some of these ideas for new t-shirts, since I don’t actually wear them but still lust after the odd design…

08) A super sweet stop motion video from Google Japan explaining how Street View works.

09) Ohhhh, huge rubber duckie!

10) These baby black-and-white ruffled lemurs look so much like our kitten Monty, with his grey face and huge eyes and tiny mouth.

01) Tada*s Revolution features a host of beautifully styled amigurumi photos.

02) I love the dedication evident in the 221B Baker Street drawing of Sherlock Holmes’ flat!

03) The links in this roundup of blogs by Pixar artists and animators are going to fill a lot of my holiday time.

04) I really enjoyed the pilot episode of Jesse Thorn and Adam Lisagor’s web series Put This On, even though it’s about menswear which is not precisely my arena – I’m looking forward to their first season.

05) If you’re looking for a holiday project, how about this make-it-yourself paper window display from the children’s book A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas illustrated by Wilson Swain?

06) Kris’s Color Stripes extracts fabulous colour palettes from photographs. So inspiring!

07) I may have, somewhat foolishly, started reading Lego blogs. (It is foolish because I want to buy so much Lego!) My favourite so far is The Brothers Brick.

08) Speaking of Lego, this Lego-peg-size quad-hole-punch by Muji is such a simple but clever idea.

09) Hilarious TV-dinner themed cupcakes from My Paper Crane.

10) Fold up money so the face is wearing a hat!

01) I love the idea of a meal planner and grocery list in one. I try to have some idea of what I will cook each week, but it usually involves lots of printouts and bits of notepaper and isn’t very organised! This DIY tutorial includes downloadable/printable PDFs.

02) Lovely art process videos from Geninne D. Zlatkis. To see the whole piece watch Watercolours 1, 2 and 3; then White Ink 1, 2 and 3.

03) Three remixes/covers of the Mr. Plow song from The Simpsons by Moby. Hee!

04) Baby porcupines are pretty high up my all-time-cutest list after seeing these photos.

05) More Lego! (I’ll stop soon.) This time it’s an awesome Howl’s Moving Castle.

06) I made a little squeak of glee when JSR sent me the link to this upcoming Professor Layton action figure. I adore the DS games, and he looks just perfect. Plus, it is hilarious to me that his “action” is to sit down and have a cup of tea!

07) Scott Teplin’s Alphabet City is a set of 26 meticulously drawn fantasy houses in the shape of the letters of the alphabet. The more you look, the more there is to see.

08) Luxirare’s food/art yoghurt parfaits featuring spheres of juice are mindblowing.

09) My new favourite word game for the iPhone is Moxie. It is very soothing; I play a couple of rounds before bed each night.

10) Slow motion Maru. Wait until he shakes after his bath about halfway through. It is the BEST.

01) Instructions for making Chocolate Space Invaders using a silicon ice cube tray, which we just happen to already own! I particularly like the part where you clean your chocolate-y squeeze bottle by adding hot milk to make hot chocolate :D (via Craft)

02) The U900 Japanese amigurumi ukelele band (!) videos have been all over the blogosphere, but I just want to make sure none of you miss out… watch Diamond Head, Walk Don’t Run, and check the related videos for even more!

03) I was very grumpy a few days ago and these baby anteater photos cheered me right up.

04) Gorgeous cupcakes from bellacupcakes on flickr, love the rich colours! (via Epicute)

05) And more amazing Brain Slug cupcakes from thesmallcatclub on flickr. Do you think anyone has ever used the phrase “cherry buttercream brains” before?

06) Color Me Katie’s beautiful sidewalk chalk footprints are immensely cheering.

07) The San-X website offers a huge selection of colouring in pages, desktop wallpaper, icon sets and printables. It is in Japanese but not difficult to work out!

08) I’m starting to pay attention to nifty stuff for children, like the play kitchens made from old entertainment centres by Giggleberry Creations and Sutton Grace. I won’t need to do this particular project myself as I think (hope!) my parents still have the awesome play kitchen my Dad made for me when I was tiny, but there’s definitely the possibility of other play furniture in a similar vein… (via Buzzfeed)

09) Embroidered Tim Gunn by Totally Severe, need I say more? (via Mr X Stitch)

10) One more food link: Giga Pudding! It’s a HUGE creme caramel, with a great promotional video. It’s my birthday on Thursday, if only I could have a Giga Pudding Party!

01) I love Playmobil because it has some truly wacky components, so I loved this list from Topless Robot of the 17 Least Appropriate Playmobil Sets for Children.

02) Oh my goodness, Kris Atomic has an amazing cat!

03) And she has also assembled this collection of photos of amazing sights around the world. I want to go to there, indeed…

04) JSR and I were both taken by this steamer trunk armoire – it’s a little office in a giant suitcase! I’m sure it’s more fun to look at than to use, but even so…

05) This surreal animated video of teddy bears and cars is… oddly hypnotising.

06) It wouldn’t be a D&A post without a link to Zooborns! This vicuña has a charming neck…

07) I gasped when I saw these felt mushroom terrariums by Heidi from My Paper Crane. Truly magical, I bet they’ll sell in an instant… the dolls are awesome too!

08) More sculptural goodness from webcomic Articulate Matter.

09) And again, loving these faux mounted butterflies from Geninne’s Art Blog.

10) The cloud-shaped marshmallows make this the cutest cocoa around.

01) This library card catalog file is both beautiful in its own right, and beautifully repurposed – to sort and store all of those household bits and pieces!

02) These process photos from Tugboat Printshop make me desperate to learn more about woodcutting…

03) Death Star Watermelon!

04) I’m constantly amused by looking for people I know on the Auckland Street Style blog. It’s only happened a couple of times, but I recognise every location!

05) Wallpapers from Stupid Love – I have the bats on my desktop right now.

06) My obsession with moss continues, so a moss table by Ayodhya would please me greatly.

07) I like the faux greenery of this grassy Boon countertop drying rack for baby accessories too!

08) It’s hard to believe I haven’t linked to illustrator and designer Kevin Cornell’s website Bearskinrug before, and there’s so many archives to peruse.

09) OMG PEA CAR

10) Posie Gets Cosy visited a magical hazelnut orchard, unbelievable pretty!

01) 76 Threadless T-Shirts from Sketch to Print, for those who love artistic process!

02) My husband sent me this link to an intricate Hobbit Hole diorama knowing I’d just love it – and I do!

03) There’s a mind-boggling amount of work in this stop-motion embroidered animation. (P.S. And from the back!)

04) Tiny terrarium in a light bulb tutorial, sweeeeet!

05) When I was a kid I would have been thrilled to have mini mailboxes in our house. I wonder if Willow will like them in a few years time?

06) It’s like a date stamp, but it makes emoticon faces!

07) Gurney Journey has lots of posts on technical art stuff, including a great gamut masking tool.

08) My dream kitchen table, a big slab of tree.

09) This free felt goldfish pattern includes lots of good toy-making techniques, and the result is so cute and plump!

10) Beautiful jewellery by Victoria Mason. My friend Megan Wegan turned me on to this site, and I love love love the Nice Biscuit ring!

01) I’m collecting ideas for using up teeny weeny amounts of leftover yarn, and these stripey crochet jar covers are very appealing. I might make one to hold my drawing pens!

02) Bookshelf Porn. We have a LOT of books in our house and some of these shelving arrangements make me drool…

03) A 3D panorama of the IT Crowd basement set. Awesome set dressing – how many of the props do you recognise?

04) Switch the legs and bodies of these handmade wooden slot animals around and make a menagerie!

05) Wonderful photo set of three months in Kyoto.

06) I’ve never thought about making English Muffins from scratch before, but Sunday Hotpants has me tempted.

07) Unwrapping a Surprise Ball by Gina Namkun. I’m inspired to wrap some presents like this for Willow one day!

08) The best birdhouses! (Though I suspect they are probably art and not for real birds.)

09) I should have linked to this at Easter, but it’s still funny: Peeps Sushi!

10) Occasionally I come across a crafty idea I’ve never seen before and it blows my mind, like this amazingly elegant french knot embroidery.

01) Maru is no longer the only Japanese cat whose blog I read, as I just found Kago! He has a fantastic relaxed-face expression, and this picture is especially great.

02) 50 geeky My Little Pony mods.

03) My current favourite little web game is Sushi Cat. The puzzles involve dropping a cat through sushi to make him sufficiently fat!

04) Lego landscape drooooooool. Love the lower left section.

05) These Taro Gomi colouring/activity books look like a lot of fun. At first I thought I’d buy one for Willow in a few years, but maybe I should test them out with one for myself first…

06) Best unicorn plush I’ve ever seen. Loving those wisps!

07) Oddly hypnotising MRI scans of fruit and vegetables.

08) A snazzy paper sculpture celebrating the early years of Disneyland.

09) How strange and awesome is this psychedelic Friskies cat food advertisement?

10) Storm in a Tea Cup automata. (via Code For Something)

01) Mila’s Day Dreams are imaginative and charming. I especially like the Bookworm, Bunny Wabbit and A Space Odyssey.

02) Do you ever need to look at a really fluffy cat? The Super Pouffy flickr group will provide.

03) Torchwood nesting dolls! Look at Wee Ianto! Eee!

04) This hand-painted trellis wall is very effective, and super thrifty. (I usually loathe stencilling in home decor, but this works.)

05) Paintings of a a future post-apocalyptic Tokyo. (N.B. Some sidebar content on this site may be mildly NSFW.)

06) Cat-shaped lipsticks from Paul & Joe. Too cute!

07) Phenomenal stylized papercraft versions of Queen and The Beatles by People Too. (via Dude Craft)

08) These aquascapes are beautiful and slightly eerie.

09) Craft ideas from A Little Hut using the patterns and windows from old security envelopes – clever!

10) If you’re looking to improve your amigurumi skills Planet June has a series of excellent tutorials on the best ways to start, finish, decrease, join and embellish. If every budding amigurumist read these there would be much less frustration, and much tidier results!

01) Dog Sculpture 2010 by Akane Takayama, a socially inclusive art installation event involving cardboard dogs. Wonderful. (via Dude Craft)

02) The horrors of long-distance flight, hilariously illustrated by Christoph Niemann.

03) Your regular dose of Zooborns, this time it’s a curious baby gorilla. Love that last photo!

04) Charming stop-motion plush lake/sea creature.

05) Patterns for Colouring – for when you just want to colour something in! (via Thunder Chunky)

06) Beautiful giant bubbles.

07) How steady must Dalton Ghetti’s hands be to make these sculptures out of pencil graphite?!

08) Giant (and I do mean giant) kitty couch.

09) My thoughts about bread crusts indeed.

10) Who would have thought that navy and salmon could be so pretty together?

01) If I owned this cookie message-stamper I would constantly make cookies with faux spy messages. THE SIGNIFICANT OWL HAS ARRIVED!

02) Fun mid-century modern styled cut-out play sets by Max Dalton, Sunday Barbecue and Cocktail Party. (via Bloesem)

03) Takochuuuuu! I finally got myself some of these fun little guys, and a few extra ones to customize…

04) Beautiful chests of drawers by Wis Design.

05) I think our cats need to visit the Boxxy Fold Rehabilitation Centre. Monty is definitely a category two “oddly lanky” boxaholic.

06) They Draw and Cook, recipe renderings by artists and illustrators. Lots of pretty work here!

07) Swonderful (a Nut and Bee stockist!) has a fun new wall mural outside their store.

08) A special big button to press for exclamation marks!!!! Genius!!!!

09) I liked this illustrated spread so much I made it my desktop.

10) The Ultimate Collection of Baby Anteater Pictures? I’m there!

01) “Portly pigs hold up books with porcine charm.” Indeed! (via Oh Joy)

02) You’ve probably seen the Ikea cat advertisement by now, but just in case…

03) I just discovered Jenny Hart’s Embroidery as Art blog, so much good stuff to explore. Got to get back into embroidery one day!

04) Beautifully understated needlefelted animals by Victor Dubrovsky. I particularly like the small white sheep.

05) My Little Pony anatomical sculpture, a teeny bit morbid but I love it!

06) I barely wear jewellery, a wedding ring and sleeper earrings are all I can manage, but if I did one of these amazing pieces made of hand-dyed, smocked silk would be in my collection.

07) Scratching Many Capybaras. The title says it all!

08) So tickled with these rendered toys by Yum Yum London, I hope they make it into 3D one day!

09) I love (non-destructive!) fun public art like these little laminated characters left in gardens by herzensart.

10) I’ve been trying very hard not to purchase this wasabi plushie but if it shows up in the next photos you see of my toy cabinet you’ll know I weakened. Look at the cheeeeeeks!

01) The curled tail in the fifth picture of Marvin the baby red-faced spider monkey just slays me.

02) The sweetest bike tyres!

03) Oh, geez. Normally I’m not into human babies – with the exception of my own – but these little bundles from The Small Object are too, too sweet. I’m going to get one as soon as they’re on sale.

04) Couch Cushion Architecture; A Critical Analysis. (via @ri)

05) Great article on website logo colour choices – so much blue! (also via @ri)

06) Once again, Sheldon sums up one of my frequent issues, the sleepy side arm conundrum.

07) I had a lot of fun with this simple little music maker. Click the squares to add notes, click again to remove them!

08) Who knew a documentary about the manufacture of printing ink would be so fascinating? And that the ink textures would be so beautiful? (via Gurney Journey)

09) Mmmm, beautiful scientific illustrations by Richard Wilkinson. I love this genre!

10) And some lovely maps by Khuan+Ktron. I love this genre too!

01) Fruity Oaty Serenity Embroidery, squee! (via Mr X Stitch)

02) Shuichi Nakano’s paintings feature giant wildlife towering over cityscapes, and tickle the part of me that loves distortions of scale. (via @ehjc)

03) Mochimochi Land’s knitted installation at Gallery Hanahou is mindboggling, so much detail! I love it!

04) A lovely twist on pumpkin carving, try a forest scene pumpkin diorama! (via So Fawned)

05) And another kind of diorama, a flat-pack lasercut dollhouse by Katherine Belsey.

06) Jim’s Pancakes is pretty amazing – the 3D dinosaur skeleton in particular! (via @johubris and @windbourne)

07) I love things that are also other things, like this Peppermint Mammoth.

08) Secretly storing valuables in plain sight. (via Unclutterer)

09) Think of the possibilities for these edible googly eyes!

10) Aimee from Little Dear Tracks shares a progress photo of her hand-painted NŌMs. I have one of these guys and he is wonderful :)

This is a ball of Berocco Blackstone Tweed in Rhubarb, which I am currently obsessed with. It’s a perfect tweedy violet-toned red, and as soon as I swatch it and figure out what it wants to be, I will be making a sweater from it. <3

#7: Materials

Most of the raw materials I use are just yarns, but at the moment I’ve borrowed my friend Rachel’s drop spindle, and she gave me a bit of merino-silk blend fibre to play with. I don’t think spindling/spinning is going to be my thing, but it’s really interesting to take one more step back in the process from sheep-to-sweater. I’ve been listening to a lot of knitting podcasts lately, most of which also include spinning content, and I feel like trying it myself is giving me a greater understanding of how yarn works, even if I’m not very good at it!

#8: Challenging

Some of my initial diagrams and calculations for a striped cardigan I’m designing. I’ve never tried my hand at designing a garment before and it requires lots of thought, as well as quite a bit of geometry. Luckily, I like maths, and the beauty is I can always unravel it if it doesn’t work out, so there’s really nothing to be nervous about.

#9: Your Hands

Are they a loosely collated collection of sausages? Yes. Do I care? No. My hands do all the work I ask of them, with little complaint, and long may it continue.

#10: Your Craft Bag

The bag I usually carry medium-size projects in is a Wednesday the Cat Tote Bag, by Kate Beaton, from TopatoCo. Fluffy coat, stupid eyes, teeny tongue, I love it.

I saved the auction photo and looked at it many times, but the mysterious noodlemonkeys never seemed to show up again. Then, two years ago, I was idly browsing a kawaii collector’s website, and found she had a sheet of stickers for sale. It was about $10, rather expensive for stickers, but I’d been looking for so long I purchased it immediately. I kept expecting her to email me and say ‘sorry, not in stock!’, or for the parcel to go missing in the mail, or some other disaster to keep me from my noodlemonkeys. But they arrived, and they were perfect.

Then I had to find out about them. A few people commented on flickr to let me know the character was called Sarusoba, saru meaning monkey and soba being the type of noodle, but I was none the wiser as to the back story. Who were these crazy edible monkeys?! What did they mean?!

I emailed a scan of the stickers to the Quirky San-X Translation Project, though the site was no longer updating. I thought maybe, maybe, they’d start up again and translate my stickers for me.

AND THEY DID!

I KNOW WHAT ALL THE WORDS SAY!

Thank you so much, Lissa! It is every bit as good as I had imagined :)

I also recently solved my other long-running Japanese character mystery, that of a small green angry crouching man I saw in the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo, but that’s a post for another day…

They turned out a little too big, they’re quite different colours (WTF?) and they’ve already got cat hair stuck in them from our “rustic” floors because I haven’t crocheted my sock-protection slippers yet, but I’m happy. SO COMFORTABLE, GUYS. SO COMFORTABLE.

The pattern is the Sweet Coriolis Sock by Cat Bordhi, which has a spiraling band that starts on the inside of each foot and travels up over the instep, around the outside of the ankle then up the leg. It uses her Sweet Tomato Heel construction with three narrow short-row wedges, and has some diagonal rib at the top that follows the lines of the band.

The yarn is Knitsch Sock in Deep Thought, and I used a 2.25mm (US 1) fixed Knit Pro circular needle with wooden tips.

More thoughts on all those things are over on my Ravelry project page!

#1: You in Action

This is how I usually craft – curled up on the couch, disheveled in both outfit and coiffure. You can just see a peep of the pyjamas pants which are my constant cold-weather companions. I often have a fuzzy friend too, though not in this photo, as I disturbed them by leaping up and down to push the camera buttons.

I’m knitting a sock here, using Knitsch Sock yarn in Deep Thought, and the Sweet Coriolis pattern by Cat Bordhi. I’m calling them my Galaxy Socks because of the swirling shapes and deep blue colour with milky bands. I can’t say socks are my absolute favourite things to knit, but the finished result is so comfortable and warm it’s worth the effort.

#2: Craft Tools

Since I recently showed you most of my own craft tools, and May 2nd was a G Unit meeting, I took the opportunity to photograph one of Stitchpunk‘s spinning wheels.

Later in the evening she showed me how to use it, and I spun a teeny bit of yarn – NOT what you see here, which is her beautiful work – mine looked like a Smurf cat barfed up a curly hairball. Spinning is hard! I was worried I’d touch the wheel and instantly want to buy my own, spawn a roving stash, and have yet another craft to keep in check, but while it was fun I think I’m happy to keep buying my yarn as yarn.

#3: An Old FO (Finished Object)

The first textile craft I learned was embroidery, starting with cross stitch as a kid and moving into free form work in my teens. This is a detail from Autumn Garden, one of a series of four gardens I stitched based on designs in books by Diana Lampe. It’s really tiny, detailed work and I think it was completed in 2001. Peep the Japanese windflowers, which I am obsessed with, and have since shown up in my Nut and Bee work as well as my actual garden!

I put a couple of additional shots of the other embroideries up on Flickr too.

#4: Inspiration Outdoors

This was a tough one, as our garden is going into winter decline and I wasn’t able to go out on May 4th to take any shots further afield. I would have liked to capture some of the beautiful hazy shades of the wild west coast beaches, but settled for some mottled lichen on our plum tree, which has its own charm with calming desaturated green on dappled grey.

#5: Notions

I don’t have a large stash of buttons or trims or other notions, as I try to buy those things only when I need them, so I reached for my boxes of embroidery thread. They are largely dormant these days, but I often look through them and like to shuffle the little bobbins of colour around when I’m planning palettes.

As usual, particularly recommended titles are in bold:

38) You’ll be sorry when I’m dead / Marieke Hardy.
39) Is everyone hanging out without me? (and other concerns) / Mindy Kaling.
40) Bossypants / Tina Fey.
41) Steve Jobs / Walter Isaacson.
42) Orchids on your budget, or, live smartly on what have you / Marjorie Hillis.
43) Style yourself : inspirational advice from the world’s hottest fashion bloggers.
44) Oddfellow’s orphanage / Emily Winfield Martin.
45) For the win / Cory Doctorow.
46) Amazing everything : the art of Scott C. / Scott Campbell.
47) East Dragon, West Dragon / Robyn Eversole, illustrations Scott Campbell.

I started out with three memoirs by female writers/actresses/comedians – sometimes I like to theme my reading! Tina Fey was the only one whose work I was previously familiar with, and her book was the most polished and consistently amusing. I’ve never seen the American version of The Office that Mindy Kaling is known for, and while I did enjoy most of her writing there were some dubious bits about bodies and diets that really turned me off. I had no idea who Marieke Hardy was either until I picked up her book, which was less of a comedic work and far more personal and raw than the others.

Then my copy of the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson came from the library. I have to admit I did heavy skimming in some sections as it’s a really detailed book and I was more interested in the personal than the corporate. This article by Isaacson sums up some of the interesting points if you’re not keen on a weighty tome!

Orchids on Your Budget is a charming financial advice book from 1937, and hilariously similar to a lot of the modern non-consumerist literature. The only major difference was the emphasis on Society and Maintaining Your Place, otherwise the recommendations for frugal clothing, food, housing, budgets and so on are perfectly relevant. Oh, and the author recommended women think very carefully before marrying, as she believed husbands to be expensive and largely useless ;) When I read she had published a previous book called Live Alone and Like It I was not at all surprised. I have that out from the library now and will read it soon – I don’t live alone and I don’t think I would like it much either, but I bet the book will be amusing.

I picked up the book about fashion bloggers largely to roll my eyes at how silly such things are. Blogs are perfectly good and perfectly valid – why would you buy a book that’s essentially glossy print-outs of single posts, when you could visit the blogs themselves and get constant streams of new content?! But surprisingly, I did find some value in it. Setting aside the parts about the bloggers (most of whom were not my style, and none my size anyway) there were detailed sections about the cut of clothes, and examples of a wide range of silhouettes – line drawings of 34 styles of shirt, 27 coats, 31 pants, and so on for every type of garment. Just flicking through those diagrams for five minutes gave me half a dozen ideas for garments I’d like to design and knit. I’d never buy this, but I might borrow it from the library again in future to assist in sketching…

Speaking of online personalities, Oddfellow’s Orphanage is a children’s book by Emily Winfield Martin from The Black Apple. If you’re familiar with her work it is exactly as you’d expect, a whimsical melange of wide-eyed girls and circuses and woodland creatures. There’s not much narrative as each chapter is largely a vignette, but it was cute and really made me want to cuddle a baby bear, hee! I’d be happy to read it to Willow in a couple more years.

For The Win combines the subjects of Chinese gold farmers in MMOs, labour unions, and derivative-based financial collapse. That’s an ambitious combination, especially for a novel that’s purportedly for a YA audience, and Doctorow doesn’t quite pull it off. There are some compelling characters and plotlines, but other threads don’t go anywhere and there’s an awful lot of tedious explanation and exposition via Socratic dialogue. If you’re particularly interested in one of those subjects it might be worth a read, but I wouldn’t make a general recommendation.

I rounded out the month with two books of pretty pictures, which I included on my reading list largely because I want to gush about Scott C. HE IS THE BEST! I LOVE HIS ART! SQUEEEEE! *ahem* I was already familiar with all of the artwork included in Amazing Everything, but the beautiful picture book East Dragon, West Dragon was new to me and oh-my-I-must-own-a-copy-as-soon-as-possible. I pored over those illustrations for hours and I will do it again. So many details, so much fun, it makes my heart warm and fuzzy that such things exist.

And that was it! On to May!

Pippin’s withering gaze, staring straight into your soul. She’s a sweetie, really, she just suffers from the feline equivalent of what Krisatomic has termed Chronic Bitchface :)

This is a very accurate portrait of Monty: noble face, regally posed in the bookshelf… and covered in cobwebs, because she is the derpiest cat who ever herp-derped.

We recently inherited a couch, which Otto has made his own. I wasn’t paying attention, and within a day or two the black cushions were covered in so much cat hair no human can sit on them. Sigh! Now I need to fashion some kind of protective covers – funds are short so it’s probably going to involve old sheets and safety pins.

Here he forms a perfect blorpy torpedo, known to cat-sleep specialists as a blorpedo, or for those who prefer the baked goods taxonomy, a dinner roll.

This cardigan got quite a bit of wear last winter, and the weather is cooling down enough that I’ll be able to wear it again soon. Every now and then I pick a few pills off it, but otherwise it’s holding up really well, and gets softer and snugglier with every wash. I don’t put the hood up very often because it makes me look like a demented elf (and not in a good way!) but it’s nice to have it there when I get very cold ears or caught in the rain.

Here’s my Ravelry page with all the technical details.

Alright, we’re done with my face until I finish another knitting project :)

Right now I’m spending some time on my Hobbergobber Blanket, which is inching towards completion. Soon I’m going to tackle knitting socks again since I have a couple of skeins of lovely smooshy Knitsch Sock yarn in my stash, I need to whip out a pair or two of simple slippers to protect the socks since I’m always wandering around outside without shoes, and I’ve also got a few amigurumi patterns I’d like to make, so it’ll be little projects for a while.

I’ve also got an idea for another cardigan I want to make, which will involve writing my own pattern (!), but the construction I’m planning uses steeks which I haven’t tried before so I think I’ll make a similar toddler-sized pattern for practice first.

Then I’ve got some silk/wool yarn I’d like to make into a scarf or shawl, and I’m planning my next crochet blanket, and and and…there’s lots of lovely crafting in the pipeline :)