It's Spring - Let the Nest Making Begin!

I've been waiting for today for a long time! All winter long I collected up my yarn scraps, bits of raffia and Cunningham's fur and put it in a suet feeder. I decided on the first day of spring that I'd hang it up so the birds could use it to build their nests with. I'm not sure where I saw the idea (sadly it wasn't originally mine) but I love the thought that this spring and summer maybe my throw-away items will be turned into a little nest. How cool would it be to look up at a nest and see bits of yarn from the socks or hat I knit?!?

Birds love building their nests with fur so I made sure lot's of Cunningham's soft fur made it from his brush to the holder. I'm not exactly sure when the nest building begins, but it seemed like a good day to put it out there. I have it hanging next to a suet-filled feeder and right now the birds seem much more interested in that one. I captured a chickadee in mid flight as he flew from nest supplies to...yummy food.

I'll keep taking pictures every couple of weeks and track the progress. We have so many birds in our back yard that I can only imagine it will get used eventually.

Recent Crochet

I'm now saying that I officially crochet. After completing two projects that actually look like what they're supposed to, I feel like I deserve to list it as one of my crafty skills.

My little black cat sat around for awhile in pieces - for some reason I was convinced he wouldn't go together easily. It did take a really long time to get his face just perfect, but I think he was worth the effort. For a first pattern, it was definitely easy, but I should have chosen another color. It was really difficult to see the stitches when I was working. One of the good benefits of using black was that it hides all of my terrible sewing for his little arms, legs and tail!

I haven't decided if I'm going to give him up or not. I've gotten somewhat attached since he is my first crochet project. And he's just so darn cute!

My second project were a couple of Happy Eggs. I fell in love with them as soon as I saw the picture, so I borrowed the book from the library and made it my second project. I started by making the yellow chick with wool ease and then was annoyed that the white has a strand of glitter running through it and bought a white Vanna's Choice. The shell was way too big for the little guy so I made the gold chick and ended up making the yellow chick's shell by ripping out the shimmery strand. I actually like the wool ease chick and egg better even though it's not as firm as the Vanna's Choice. The little chick is fuzzier and the gauge works out to be more the size of an actual egg.

Amigurumi - I'm in love

I really didn't think I would ever want to crochet. EVER. I didn't like the look of it and thought knitting was superior. Then I saw amigurumi. I couldn't get enough of all the adorable little animals and items and decided I had to make them. Little did I know that almost all amigurumi patterns are crochet.

I took a quick lesson with my mom and ta da! I have the makings of my very own amigurumi black cat. The pattern is actually pretty easy but now, as you can see, I have to figure out how to put him together. I worked on his face FOREVER until it was just right. I could only get my hands on solid black eyes (they are hard to see in the photo), but I ordered a bunch of natural eyes so I can make more of these little guys. Isn't he cute!?!?!?