Friday, December 13, 2013

A New Penguin Ornament


Today is my 30th birthday!  I decided that I wanted to share a project that I completed in March because it is a fitting birthday post for me.  The first Christmas ornament I ever received from Keith was a penguin, and then we got married at the New England Aquarium with our first dance surrounded by penguins.  I am now collecting penguin Christmas ornaments and therefore I wanted one of my early crochet projects to be an Amigurumi Penguin.  

This is my first time crocheting with fingering weight wool.   This pattern also looks more complicated than the other amigurumi crochet patterns I've attempted thus far.  Two colors in a round!  Since I love colorwork with knitting, I'm hopefully that I can figure this out.  The colorwork isn't so bad... but I am glad that the body as written is a single color. (It is supposed to be grey but I'm going to go with white.)  I see that some other users made a two color body, but I am going to try crocheting the single color and then see what I think.  At this point, I'm wondering why the body is created separately, but we'll see.  


So after knitting the body, I'm still confused as to why it is done separately   This is going to create an obvious seam at the neckline.  Oh well...  At least this should make it easier to sew on the feat and eyes before stuffing the little pengu.  (Never mind, they have you sew the head and body together before attaching any other pieces. If I were to make this again, I would make a continuous piece and then just stitch the bottom together at the end.  Craziness!   I disregarded the instructions and sewed on the beak and eyes before stuffing and sewing the neck closed.  (I decided to wait with the feet so I could handle the placement better.)   


This project used 3 g of Black, 1 g of white and negligible hand dyed orange KnitPicks Palette Yarn.  The entire project weighted 4 g before I started stuffing and weaving in loose ends.  I used a size B (2.25 mm) crochet hook.  


The patterns said to stuff the wings, legs and beak, but I just "stuffed" them with the loose end from the magic circle.  I am thrilled with the way this project turned out!  I'm not sure if I will make another, but this is a great pattern and you should really check it out.