Ook!

Charlie the Chimp is always complaining he is hungry so I made him a banana...

I have been wanting to make an amigurumi banana for some time, and I was going through my patterns recently when I came across this.  Last night I decided to sit down and make it!

It wasn't difficult, although working the "peels" was a little fiddly!

If you fancy making your own banana, I downloaded the pattern from HERE.  If you are on Ravelry, then you should check the designer out -- she is very talented!!!

Next, I want to make one of these to go with it!!!

I must apologise again for the lack of stitchy updates.  Apart from the two Pokemon featured recently in my WIP (which I'm having colour issues with at the moment), I have been working on a few side projects.  The downside is that I have no white aida at the moment so I can't start stitching them.  Thankfully, Monday is payday so I should be able to rectify this!!!

Hopefully I'll have more of an update on this soon, but for now...

Keep Kalm and cross-stitch! xxx

PS - the chimpanzee plush holding the banana is called "Charlie the Chimp", I've had him since 1987 - he was from Avon Cosmetics :) xxx

Bloggy Updates and My Fascination With Amigurumi

Well, yet again it's been a whole week since my last post.  

I know that I've been quite tardy lately, but as you know stitching has been slow due to my wrist problems.  The wrist has been okay lately, but then I've been resting it over the weekend.

Suffice to say, I am now behind and getting a little frustrated because I've had nothing to post on here for the last few weeks in terms of work in progress etc...  I have to admit that my enthusiasm for Christmas projects has begun to wane, and I find myself wanting to pick up hook and yarn instead.

In fact, this is how I feel right now -- I am torn between finished my BIL's birthday card or doing some crochet!

I sense from the lack of comments I've had both on here and DA recently that some of you are not interested in my crochet, which is fine.  For me as an artist, I always want to try out new methods and techniques.  I can't remember why I wanted to take up crochet but I sense it was probably because I loved the little amigurumi dolls  that were all over the internet.

I bought magazines with freebie hooks and wool, and taught myself the basics through books and YouTube.

I have to confess, that my first attempts were not that good:

Freaky Eggs at Easter, 2009

However, at some point in either 2009/2010 I lost interest in the crochet (as with the cross-stitch), and I only took to it again recently.  With the help of my fiance's elderly aunt, I've learnt how to make a granny square and made myself a small blanket.

Feeling more confident with a hook, (and my partner says I've definitely improved), I decided to finish an amigurumi pattern I started some time ago too:

The pattern comes courtesy of "W0IfDreamer-OTH" and can be found HERE -- I'm really pleased how he turned out, but I think he needs a few friends to keep him company though!

Obviously, as with the cross-stitch, the goal would be to start designing my own amigurumi, and just recently I have been working on something, which I hope I can make into an amigurumi doll.

Well, I think that's all for me today -- hopefully I'll have something to post later in the week.

Till next time ... keep Kalm and cross-stitch! xx