I made a mouse! This is only small, but saints alive, it took a long time. He must’ve had about 8 different faces.

I almost gave up (and err… took his head off to make a rabbit 🙊) but in the end I refused to be beaten. I don’t know why but I just couldn’t get his nose and mouth right. I almost left the mouth off, but I gave it one last try, and that was the one that stuck. Looking on Ravelry, I think a few other people have had trouble too. It’s not hard to do technically, but it is hard to make it look cute for some reason. I think perhaps I didn’t pad his cheeks enough, so his face is a bit pointy.

Here he is in my hand for scale. You can’t see clearly but I stitched a tiny white highlight in each eye. I’ve seen some of the brilliant Japanese knitters on Instagram do this, and I was desperate for anything that would make his face work, so I copied them. It’s not bad actually. Might do it again if I make another toy.

For the photoshoot I got out some odds and ends I made a while ago. A little basket, a toadstool, a strawberry and some acorns. I don’t know why I knit these things, but sometimes, I can’t help myself. Actually, I really like the patterns for the strawberry and the method for constructing the mushroom. The pattern is from Shinocraft – for the acorns too. Even just looking at that toadstool makes me want to knit another one. Or a radish. What is wrong with me?

In the meantime I’m still making a shawl that I thought I’d have finished by now. (Oof, just looking at previous posts – I started this shawl In February.) It’s okay, but a bit of a slog. I’m also knitting it on a cable needle and I the cable snapped, which wasn’t the greatest. I thought about unravelling the whole thing, but actually, I would like the finished shawl. In the end I managed to pick up about 200 stitches and get them onto another needle. I’m tempted to move into the ribbed portion of the shawl now, just to get it done. We’ll see.

Last night I was chatting to a friend who has started doing crewel work, but with silks rather than wool. I ended up showing her my tatting, (I’ve known her for about 18 years, not sure why this hasn’t come up before) and she loved the idea of it—so much so, she was going to look it up and buy a shuttle. I had a little panic that I wouldn’t remember how to do it, as it’s been so long, but luckily it’s all still there. I should probably start doing it again. I miss it.