How I design - under pressure

well, this post is not really a part of the series that I plan, but it sort of belongs. To me a very important part of designing is inspiration and enough time. I can't work under time pressure. After school I wanted to become an artist, but I quickly realized it would mean to live from inspiration and the tricky part about inspiration .. it comes and goes. Only time will tell, so I studied biology.

Anyways sometimes you promise to create something and even though you had enough time in the very beginning, inspiration didn't sneak in. So it happened to Nemo. Now I am under time pressure to create something, but not only something, but a Nemo I can feel happy about too (being a little perfectionist sometimes is nerve wrecking)

So what do I do in such cases?

I try to find easy solutions.. like recreating something from a pattern I already made. With a fish like Nemo another fish pattern seems the next best thing. So I grabbed Chubby and started it in a Nemo-orange-yarn:

BUT it's snout was way too pointy. Meanwhile I did feel a bite by inspiration bug and started a completely new version:

But again I wasn't completely satisfied, I like the overall shape so far, actually quite a bit, but I don't like the texture: I added a few more stitches than just the classic single crochet and even though I think they might add a nice twist to the touch I fear they might allow stuffing to show through. And since Nemo will be given to a baby I don't want any risk.

While designing, I write down EVERY SINGLE STITCH I make:

What do I do now?, I try to combine both patterns..

the winter blues ..

it got a little silent here lately, the reason for this is .. well I got a little lazy craft-wise and the little amount of sunlight does affect this quite a bit. I sooo long for spingtime like I cannot remember I ever did. The weatherman said we're having the darkest winter in 42 years, fourty-two !! years. I always liked winter a lot, but this year it really kills me, I never thought I would ever wait for sunlight to touch my face and warm my skin. it's awful.
Last week we finally had two days of sun and warm temperatures and this kicked me, I felt power and the need to buy new summer shoes, but winter is back, I cannot stand it. tomorrow my new summer shoes will arrive and maybe they will help to forgive winter since it MUST become warmer (sooner or later).
but what perked me was cooking lately, I love risotto and have made a few different variations lately. I even toy with the idea to buy a "sauteuse" just for this purpose ...

I hope you're doing well and the weather is able to cheer you up, wherever you are ^__^

risotto with black salsify

January recap

it's about time I post my pictures a day for January ^__^ I haven't been too consistent this last month but I tried to take and post a picture a day so here it comes:

1. Today: it was January the first and I was lucky to spend the morning and a delicious breakfast with friends :)

2. Something new: to me at least and the very first piece in a bunch to come - my first granny square

3. Heart: I ♥ my lunch that day, as it was Mousse au chocolat, but now that I think about and especially with Valentines Day around the corner, my Pop heart would have been great too ^__^

4. The view from here: knitting on the couch

5. Movement: & 6. Mine: combined the two: my new decorative elephant sculpture, love it! (I find myself "helping" the one on the left onto the shelve)

7. Street: being on the road a lot, this is my daily view

8. Something beginning with ‘T’: well, a thermometer

9. Paper: I was writing a letter that day (again, but I couldn't bring myself to post a picture, it was hard enough to write the letter)

10. One o’clock: my lunchbreak, waiting and parking

11. Water: I have no idea what happened the day, did it rain? or snow? or was there even sunlight? no clue

12. Surprise: obviously it wasn't snowing the day before, winter came back on the 12th, what a surprise

13. Circle: my candles

14. Something yellow: another flower for my granny afghan, this flower is a lot smaller than the first one, but I think I already blogged about it ^__^

15. An ordinary moment: painting my nails, I was about to join a work conference the next day, and of course a girl wants to be pretty

16. Two things: my night lectures on the hotel bed, my kindle and a notebook

17. Ready: that's what we usually get to eat at such conferences - all the healthy stuff, you can see the pickles in the picture? can you?

18. Shadow: I must have been too tired or too busy, one or the other

19. Delicious: a mars bar, haven't had one in ages!

20. Something you saw: sunday movie time: Under the Cherry Moon, the BESTEST Prince movie ever!

21. What you do: one could think I ship the sea, but I actually don't .. I work as a sales representative for a medical company and therefore see a lot of the country, on that monday it was a frozen river

22. Corner: my new DVD/CD corner

23. Electric: speaks for itself, doesn't it? (taken in my bathroom)

24. Stripes: on the inside of my winter hat

25. Landscape: snow, everywhere

26. Together: working on a Saturday is only fun when you're working together, we're a great team

27. Sun: I guess that has been the only day that month that didn't include a single ray of sunlight, depressing, althought the day itself was fun, I drove to Rostock to see some of my old friends and have a late christmas party :)

28. Through: the ice on my windscreen I could see darkness (very early morning picture, but that's how I roll) ^__^

29. Grow: a few days ealier I checked what my very first picture on instgram was and it was this photo, which happened to be perfect for a "grow" pic.. nature always finds its way

30. Down: looking down

31. Yourself: well, it's me

that was my month, I hope yours were as colorful as mine and that February will be even better,
hugs Diana

3 hours

within only three hours the sky changed from dark to beautiful peace this morning, I couldn't resist but take pictures all along the way. On days like these I love my job! I hope you enjoy the view like I did...

it had a brain

designing sometimes takes forever and this time it does too, sorry for the little progress on my designing series.

But I have something else today .. a little How-To. I helped repairing a cute little toy bunny that got felted in the washing machine. In case you follow me on instagram, you might have seen this picture before:

Mr Bunny wanted to take a bath real badly and jumped into the washer, unfortunately the washer was going for a hot circle and Mr Bunny didn't read the take care sign before jumping in .. well coming out again, he was all crumpled and hard. His insides got felted terribly. And so Mr Bunny found its way to my house and asked for a fluffy belly, which I was able to give ..

here you can see Mr Bunny BEFORE he got repaired, he looks happy but he didn't feel happy, tough little fella

then I carefully opened the seam at the back of his head and opened it slowly, you can see how much his inside wool got felted, it's one solid block

Next I tried to remove the felted insides from the head/fabric. This was a little tricky .. a) the wool didn't only felt in itself it also felted to the lining of the fabric too, and b) the eyes were sewn into the head through the wool, which I would do as well, which I actually do when I sew on eyes/nose/bellys to my amigurumi, but I use stuffing that can't be felted, so that's one less problem

when I finally had removed all the felted material from his head and belly I could get, I just stuffed "some" new polyfil inside

and sewed Mr Bunnys head closed

doesn't he look all happy again?

bunny hugs,
Diana

just like I NEED another

hobby ...

my mom always was the one who loved cross-stitching I never really found it tempting until just before New Years when I spent a whole day browsing the webs for patterns and pictures and accessories .. and now here I am with probably another yarny doom

^__^
Diana

How I design - series - part one

A friend asked me to make an amigurumi specifically for his new born son and I thought since I'm starting from scratch I'd share my design process. A little step by step if you wanted to call it so ..

He wants a "finding Nemo" doll with the short fin. His son was born with one hand a little shorter than normal. But overall his son is all healthy and a super cutie!

Well what do I do when I make a new doll? first I research:

I always start with a google picture search .. I search for the original animal, in this case a clown fish ..

Since I wanted a Nemo, which is a specific clownfish, that already shows the typical signs of "cuteness" .. big eyes, I added Nemo to my clownfish search ..

Then I search for amigurumi that might already exist, I wouldn't want to make something that's already there ..

and I always take a look at dolls/toys of clownfishes ..

here I found a very good picture ..

the marked toy gives a very good picture of the overall shape of Nemo, especially the back fin was interesting to see, since it was continuous.

I sometimes (well quite often) make sketches of what I want, which I will share next time

so long, have a super start into the new week,
Diana