Panda-monium

I was feeling at a bit of a loss after finishing my Disco Willow blanket. I had worked on it fairly obsessively for a couple of weeks (perhaps to the detriment of other things I should have been getting on with!), and having finished it I felt as though I was a bit burned out, crochet-wise.

Although I’m working again now, the casual nature of my new job means I still have a lot of free time though, so I wanted to be working on something else – albeit more gently!

I picked up my Cuddly Hexagons, but after the willow pattern, all those ends on the hexagon pattern felt like a real drag. I know it’s lazy, but I just couldn’t be bothered with them (I know I’ll come back to them later though, and the climate here means there’s still aaaaaaaages before that blanket will be useful.)  Instead, I wanted something small, that was a bit fun, and had very little end-darning involved...

I have 2 leftover balls of very cheap acrylic yarn, one black one white, that were bought when I was trying to decide on the background colour for the Disco Willow blanket. I hate waste, so I decided to do something with this yarn, as I'm not likely to ever use it in a blanket.

Black and white leads to several possibilities; cats, penguins, zebras, pandas, to name just a few. Pandas! My lovely sister-in-law has a real thing for pandas, so I thought of making a panda cushion for her. A few rounds in though, and I wasn’t feeling the love for making a giant circle, especially knowing that a second circle would be required for the back, so I ripped it all out in favour of having another go at amigurumi. Much more fun!

I haven’t done much amigurumi, just a couple of ball shapes to practice the basics of increasing and decreasing, followed by my attempt at an amigurumi budgie, which worked out pretty well considering it was freestyled, and by me!

There were loads of patterns on Pinterest for amigurumi pandas, but I decided to have another go at freestyling it, and I came up with this little critter!

His legs are fixed, so he can sit up by himself.

He has a little embroidered nose and smile, and (slightly wonky) beady eyes.

And he’s pretty weeny, less than 3 inches tall in fact.

He was really fun to make, and quick too.

He was so quick to make in fact, that I decided to have a browse on Pinterest for some more ideas for amigurumi makes…  I spotted loads that I liked, and picked one that would work to use up the black and white yarn (well, the white anyway).

I’m making from a pattern this time, and this next little fella will get a post when he’s finished too. He’s not finished yet though, right now he just looks like this…