It’s been a bit quiet on the blog, firstly because I was racing a competition deadline to create a pattern for this little miscreant.

I’m not quitting while he’s a head. He will be a tribute to Tootle Parp, who is still MIA.

Secondly, I got an infection on top of the lurgy on top of the ME/cfs, and I couldn’t do much of anything for a while. I lost the race to complete the pattern in time, but we all win because now I’ve started it, I’ll finish and make it available in soft toy and puppet form.

Things I learned/relearned while working on the pattern:

• Making patterns is really h*cking hard. And takes waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay longer than I think it does.
• If I’ve crocheted something 3 times and I still can’t get the stitch count to come out right, it’s not my crocheting that’s wrong. There’s probably a mistake in the arithmetic in the pattern.
• If I can’t see that mistake, go do something else* or sleep on it. It’ll be obvious when I come back.
• For complicated bits, and things I haven’t done before, make the pattern follow the work, i.e. do a bit and write down what I’ve done, not the other way round. Trying to predict the pattern hasn’t worked out so well for me; others with more experience and/or different working methods might disagree.
• There’s unravelling. So much unravelling. Keep markers (stitch markers or yarn scraps) in the start of at least the last 3 rounds in case I need to undo one or two to fix mistakes.
• Switch the TV off when I’m really struggling.

I’ve also finished a travelling monster, been working on the neon green monkey’s clothes and hat, entered a flash fiction competition, and my bronze clay bits came back from their firing, so more updates to follow.

* In my case, go play with the Hellbeast who’s fed up with me doing boring human stuff and is now running around the house stealing things she knows she shouldn’t have and standing in front of me with them in her mouth to get my attention.