Say hello to my little friend: Deer Amigurumi

Last month the lovely Amanda (@pidgecrick on Twitter) posted a picture of an amigurumi deer pattern from June's Inside Crochet. A keen fan of cute and/or kitsch deer, especially the Babycham one, I knew I HAD to make it so eagerly awaited this month's issue. When I finally tracked down a copy this week (all the local shops stock an abundance of knitting magazines but never crochet  ones), I was a bit disappointed with the rest of the patterns. I had a flick through Simply Crochet and was delighted to discover the exact same deer pattern in there too. Yay! There were more patterns in there I liked so I plumped for Simply instead. 

I got straight to work on my little deer and was amazed at how quickly it worked up - it's a long while since I made anything this small! The pattern was pretty straightforward, although I had to improvise a bit as my first attempt at his ears were nearly as big as the deer himself. Once I had all the pieces completed, however, I remembered why I rarely make amigurumi: I do not enjoy assembling them. 

I think he turned out OK though and I'm pleased I actually managed to finish something for the first time in ages. My current list of ongoing projects is getting bigger by the week but I've come to realise that I need lots of different things on the go to stop me getting bored. Switching between two crochet throws, two knitted scarves, a crochet cushion cover and several hand embroideries seems to be working so far but it might be a while before I get any of them finished!

Jenny

x

Embroi-deer-y and a crafty giveaway!

Welcome to the first ever giveaway on my brand new blog!  The lovely people at Homecrafts recently sent me two papier mache reindeer to decorate as I pleased, along with two more to give away.  I was planning on decorating mine as reindeer and using them as festive ornaments but as they arrived right before Christmas and time was tight, I decided to make them into generic deer instead so they had year-round appeal.

I've been getting a little addicted to embroidering paper and card lately so after much dithering over how best to decorate my two cute deer, I decided embroidery was the way to go.  I painted the little deer with white acrylic paint then cut out its exact shape from sturdy card.  I doodled a little design, stitched away, glued the card to the deer, et voila:

I'm really pleased with the finished result and my little deer is now settled in his new home on my mantelpiece (which was looking very miserable and bare without its Christmassy decor).  The larger deer was going to be decoupaged but I like my embroidered one so much, I might change my mind and make him into a buddy for this one.

Here they are in their unaltered state. The larger reindeer is 25 x 22.5cm and the smaller 20 x 17cm.

Now for the giveaway...

To be in with a chance of winning a set of two reindeer to dress up to your heart's content, all you have to do is the following two things:

1. Follow this blog either via Google Friend Connect or Bloglovin'

2. Leave a comment on this post with your reindeer-decorating ideas and telling me what name you're using to follow my blog.

And that's it!  

*The winner will be chosen at random at 8pm Thursday 10th January.  The prize will be sent by First Class post, so only UK residents are eligible to enter.*

If you'd like to purchase the deer yourself, here they are on the Homecrafts website.  

Good luck :-)

Jenny

x