the tiniest narwhal

P1060580

The nar­whals are tiny, and they are also very apolo­getic today, because this pat­tern is WAY over­due! Remem­ber this give­away months ago? Where I asked every­one what ani­mal I should make for a new amigu­ru­mi pat­tern? This is it. So sor­ry about the mas­sive delay!

Here’s Mike’s hand, as a size reference.

narwhal

I made two, one goes to the give­away win­ner :D and the oth­er goes to Mike for his birth­day. You might notice that they’re slight­ly dif­fer­ent sizes. For the slight­ly larg­er one I used Mary Max­im Prism (light worsted. Red Heart Bou­tique Unfor­get­table is sim­i­lar, but slight­ly heav­ier), and for the oth­er I used Mary Max­im Step It Up (a sock weight yarn — unfor­tu­nate­ly dis­con­tin­ued). They are just left­over yarn in my stash. I do like the gra­da­tion of colour, makes a very mag­i­cal-look­ing nar­whal :D

I’m quite hap­py with how the tusk turned out. I was just going to glue a tooth­pick to it and call it a day, but thought I’d give cot­ton thread a try first. And it worked! So it’s cro­cheted, then stiff­ened with acrylic medium.

So here it is, final­ly, I present to you, the nar­whal pat­tern :D

P1060579

I used:

Nar­whal body — light worsted or worsted weight yarn, 3.5 mm hook
(if you use a lighter yarn i.e. sock weight, scale down on hook size accord­ing­ly i.e. 3 mm or even 2.5 mm)

Tusk — cot­ton cro­chet thread (I used Aunt Lydia Clas­sic #10), 2 mm hook

Stuff­ing (I like to use yarn ends), 2 small beads for eyes, nee­dle and thread for sewing on eyes, flu­id acrylic medi­um to stiff­en tusk (or white glue will do as well, but acrylic medi­um is more durable)

Stitch­es used: mag­ic ring, chain (ch), sin­gle cro­chet (sc), dou­ble cro­chet (dc), 2 sin­gle cro­chet togeth­er (2 sc tog), 2 dou­ble cro­chet togeth­er (2 dc tog), slip stitch (sl st).

Nar­whal body is cro­cheted in rounds in one piece, includ­ing the tail.

Rnd 1: 6 sc in mag­ic ring, do not join

Rnd 2: 2 sc in each sc (12 sc)

Rnd 3: 1 sc in each sc (12 sc)

Repeat Rnd 3 until piece mea­sures about 1.5 inch­es or longer if desired. Then begin to decrease into the tail part.

Decrease Rnd 1: 2 sc togeth­er five times, sc in each of next two sc (7 sc)

Repeat Decrease Rnd 1 for three rows (7 sc)

Stuff body firm­ly. I like to use yarn ends.

Decrease Rnd 2: 2 sc tog three times, sc in next sc (4 sc)

Decrease Rnd 3: 2 sc tog twice

Tail: ch 3, 2 dc tog in the base of the ch 3 just made, ch 2, sl st in sec­ond ch from hook, ch 3, sl st in the base of the same ch 3 in the begin­ning of row, ch 3, 2 dc tog in the base of same ch 3, ch 2, sl st in sec­ond ch from hook, ch 3, sl st in base of same ch 3. Fas­ten off, weave in ends.

Tusk: Attach cro­chet thread to head of nar­whal. With small­er hook, ch 13, sc in sec­ond ch from hook, sc in each ch to end of chain. Fas­ten off, weave in ends.

With small brush (or fin­ger), apply acrylic medi­um to cov­er entire tusk. Let dry, then apply anoth­er coat.

I did­n’t do this, but would­n’t it be fun if one sprin­kles a bit of fine glit­ter on the tusk before the acrylic or white glue dries? :D

P1060582

And here we have it, the tini­est nar­whal, uni­corn of the sea.

P1060581

If you have any trou­ble with the pat­tern please don’t hes­i­tate to drop me a note!

Hap­py week­end, every­one! :D

 

owls from far away

Got a won­der­ful sur­prise in the mail last week from my friend Nan­cy — owls! :D

Photo 2014-06-21, 10 41 18 AM

This beau­ti­ful ceram­ic owl charm. We’ve been going on adven­tures togeth­er for the past few days and it makes me so hap­py :D

And this fun owl puz­zle! He’s now set­tled hap­pi­ly on my desk (please excuse the unsight­ly dust. It’s since been dust­ed. Yikes.)

Photo 2014-06-21, 3 25 19 PM

And this love­ly sun­shiny dish cloth!

Photo 2014-06-22, 9 36 57 AM

 

So grate­ful for your gen­eros­i­ty, thought­ful­ness and friend­ship, Nancy!

Hope every­one has a won­der­ful week!

 

 

today’s awesome catch

P1060576

From a flea mar­ket! Found it on an ear­ring, with the blue glass bead and met­al bead. Rehung it for a necklace.

There was some rust on it and I kind of scratched it while try­ing to clean it off. But it’s okay, it’s all shiny now :)

 

Wish­ing you a delight­ful week!

 

 

hanami

IMG_2026

Our year­ly trip to see the cher­ry blos­som trees at High Park! This post is major­ly over­due, because it actu­al­ly hap­pened in mid-May, almost a month ago! And we were late too to catch the cher­ry blos­soms, as most of them have fall­en and the branch­es were half cov­ered in new leaves. But still an excit­ing sight of spring! And a hap­py occa­sion to get togeth­er with fam­i­ly and friends :D

DSC03218

My friend who is very tal­ent­ed at cook­ing made these oni­giri for our pic­nic, per­fect­ly tri­an­gu­lar and delicious.

IMG_0249

Pic­nick­ing under the cher­ry tree…

DSC03213

DSC03216

We also vis­it­ed the mag­no­lia tree, which was in full bloom.

DSC03221

And the set­ting sun paint­ing the trees golden.

DSC03225

Look­ing for­ward to more adven­tures to local parks this sum­mer! :D

Have a won­der­ful week­end, everyone!

 

 

green flying squirrel

Photo 2014-05-24, 4 38 25 PM

Final­ly fin­ished the pineap­ple top from Vogue Cro­chet. I used #10 thread and had to scale down to a 2.5 mm hook, so it looks less cozy than the one in the mag­a­zine and a bit more sum­mery, I think.

And the dol­man sleeves, they remind me of a fly­er squirrel.

I like how it turned out with the mint green. I’ve nev­er worn this colour before. The cashier at Michaels said it’s one of their “hot new colours” that just came in. And I bought all that they had on the shelf :P

Here’s a clos­er look at it.

DSC03227

And the sleeves…

DSC03231

And anoth­er attempt at embody­ing the green fly­ing squirrel.

P1060556

 

Have a hap­py Sun­day! :D