A Tale of Two Giraffes

I've made a few amigurumi to date, including a couple from ambitious patterns. Aside from the expected problems with shaping, attaching limbs and following the sometimes confusing instructions I can't say I've had any real issues. I tend to be a bit arrogant that way.

This cute giraffe is the latest little crocheted critter I've made -- but not the first giraffe. It's the second version of the same pattern that I made in May, because the first?

Yes, my bright idea to use bulky weight chenille for the giraffe resulted in the monster you see here beside the second one. This is partly because I don't work with chenille yarn very often and have only a little experience with it, and I assumed a larger weight yarn wouldn't make that much of a difference.

By the time I attached the head to the body I knew I'd made a big mistake, no pun intended. The giraffe flopped around as I worked on it. The terrcotta yarn, which I thought would be an okay substitute for the brown, resembled bubonic plague (okay, not THAT bad, but you get the idea.) I kept showing the giraffe in progress to my guy and laughing about how terrible it looked, but I did finish it. That was my penance for some very bad choices.

I am definitely humbled, and will stop assuming I know everything about crochet from this point on. Learn from my mistakes! Ha.

Comments

On the Beach

Last week my guy and I went to walk Daytona Beach, which was mostly (and eerily) deserted. This is what our beaches used to look like when I was a kid. It was a beautiful day, cold and breezy but calm. It feels like 2026 is getting off to the right start.

Eight Plus Numbers

When I was looking up the retail on the small lot of yarn plus a tapestry kit I got a lot of surprises. This Red Heart Roll with It Sparkle skein in "Diamonds" was actually a cake that sells $10.99 on Yarnspirations. The lot included two Red Heart Super Saver Jumbo skeins, which retail for $8.99 each, and stuck in the center of the buff color I found a 5.5 mm crochet hook. This is a skein of 100% Icelandic wool, which can be really expensive. It's marked with a price tag of $7.00, and I found it selling for $8.00 online. The needlepoint kit is the biggest surprise of all. It makes a pillow, and hails from the UK, where it sells for £45.00 ($60.76 US). Since it's flamingos I definitely have to finish it if I can. Altogether my eight plus lot retails for $125.04; I paid $21.30 total for the lot with the buy-it-now option and one penny shipping. I indeed got a very nice bargain.

Halfway Month Blues

Last week I realized on the 14th that two weeks of 2026 flew right by me, and right now I'm writing during the third week. I wanted to be finished with more projects by now, but life and work have to come first. I think this might be when most crocheters start a new shiny project to boost their spirits. Not me. I kept working away at my first project for the year, and here's why: I don't like being surrounded by unfinished things. I also tend to get fatigued and abandon projects more easily if I've left them by the wayside to do something else. Finally, the payoff of the finished project gives me a much better spirit boost than messing around with several projects at the same time. I have a couple of strategies for sticking to working on one project at a time, which I can use to keep myself focused on reaching the finish line. Planning my next project is probably what I do most often by pulling the yarn from my stash, getting out the printed pattern for the...

Thrifty Crochet

Search This Blog