Wednesday 19 December 2012

Amigurumi Bigfoot Elephant





I love elephants, in case it wasn't obvious by the title of my blog, so it was clear that when I discovered Amigurumi ("the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures" - Wikipedia) the first project I would attempt had to be an elephant!


And here he is:

I think he turned out quite well considering I had to teach myself how to crochet as I went along.  He's kinda cute though isn't he?!

When I decided to take up this new hobby I scoured the internet and luckily came across this fabulous website Amigurumi To Go! where I found the pattern for this little guy.  Sharon has lots of other similar patterns available on the website which I will eventually be trying my hand at.

As I mentioned I had to teach myself how to crochet and Sharon also has a really good video tutorial on how to start off your Amigurumi with a Magic Circle which was explained really well and helped hugely when I was starting and I'm glad to say that I have used this technique on other projects since.


Before Assembly:


And here he is posing some more:


Many thanks have to go to Sharon Ojala and all the other bloggers out there who take the time to share their patterns online and make then available free of charge.  It gave me the opportunity to learn a new hobby which I am really enjoying and hopefully I'll one day be able to create some patterns of my own....although I think I'm a fair bit away from that yet!

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Review: Shatter by Michael Robotham


Professor Joseph O'Loughlin is currently teaching Psychology in a University while battling quietly with Parkinson's disease. He is quickly brought back into the action when he is called to try to help talk down a jumper on Clifton suspension bridge. The woman is naked and appears to be talking on a mobile phone. Unfortunately he cannot save her and she jumps. 

Shortly afterwards, he receives a visit from her daughter, who claims that her mother would never have commited suicide and that somebody must have made her do it. And so the investigation begins as Joe tries to use his skills at reading people to find out what is going on. As more suicides take place the plot thickens. 

I really enjoyed this book, slight variation on the normal crime thriller and the protagonist is excellently written and is a very likeable character. 

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Mount TBR Challenge



So I might have mentioned that I love books, so much so that I have a teeny weeny addiction to buying them.  Around about this time last year I realised that I had 130 books on my shelf.....that I hadn't read yet!  And so, I decided to set myself a challenge for this year, I would not buy or borrow any books and would only read the books which are on my unread shelf.  The only exception to this rule is any Book Club books but my choices for the book club must be from my own shelves.

It's been tough and approaching the end of the year, I'm nowhere near as far through these 130 books as I had hoped but it's still going strong.  If you fancy having a look to see how I'm getting on, you can follow my progress on Leeds Book Club for reviews and scores.