Crochet Chameleons

My latest crochet addiction has been crocheting chameleons.

I've made four in total. The green one was my first attempt, followed by the multi-coloured purple one, then finally the two smaller, mirror image chameleons (although not actually mirror image because I gave one of them the wrong coloured head spike, oops).

The pattern I used is by Ami Amour and is available on the Amigurumi Patterns.net website. I was admiring this pattern for a long time before I decided to buy it. The pattern is obviously super cute, but I was also intrigued by the construction of the pac-man like mouth. The pattern comes with easy to follow instructions, with plenty of photos to show you how to create the open mouth. It was a lot simpler than I was expecting, but it is difficult to create a ninety degree angle. The mouths of my lizards don't bend a great deal; it's the top lip that forms the angle instead.

While the pattern is easy enough to make, I did find it took a while to sew all the pieces together in a way that I was happy with. In particular the legs need to be sewn on strongly to give the chameleon enough support to stand. As you can probably tell from the pictures, this didn't always work out for me - these poor lizards are not very good at staying on their feet! 

I had a lot of fun making these and they make a nice addition to my amigurumi collection. The pink and mint green ones live on my computer screen now (although they are regularly being knocked off by my cat when she decides to stand in front of my screen - which is often at the moment. Grrr.)

For the first time in a long time I'm not sure what to crochet next... I need some crochet inspiration! Let me know if you've seen any cute patterns lately because I'd love to give something new a try :-)

Book Review: Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

I'd like to try something different on my blog today; a book review!

This last year I’ve become completely addicted to Booktube. If you haven’t heard of Booktube, it’s a community of vloggers on Youtube that discuss all things about books. It’s a fantastic way to find book recommendations and you can often hear about upcoming books as many Booktubers get their hands on advanced reader copies (ARCs  - I learnt this term from Booktube!). I first heard about Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld from Kat from Katytastic. As soon as I heard that it was a novel about writing I knew I wanted to read it as soon as it came out. 

Afterworlds is about seventeen-year-old Darcy Patel who writes a novel in the thirty days of Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month - which is happening right now) and is lucky enough to get a publishing deal. This book is two stories in one. It follows Darcy as she prepares for publication, while in alternate chapters we get to read the paranormal romance that she has written. Darcy moves to New York and becomes involved in the Young Adult (or YA) book community. 

Darcy’s novel, which forms that other half of the Afterworlds, is about a young girl named Lizzie who discovers that she can crossover to the afterlife when she is caught in a terrorist attack. Lizzie meets a boy, an ancient reaper (called a psychopomp), they form a connection, and Lizzie begins learning about her new abilities and her relationship with the afterworld.

Of the two stories I definitely preferred Darcy’s. Lizzie’s story is engaging and intriguing, but there wasn’t enough of it for me to become fully invested in the world. The book's biggest strength is the connection between the two narratives. In the contemporary chapters of Afterworlds we watch Darcy struggle as she makes decisions about her story and her characters, then we get to read how she resolves them in the following chapters. There are also many instances where aspects from Darcy’s life, like her sister’s expressions or her editor’s recommendations, find their way into her story. The banter between Darcy and the other authors she meets are some of the most engaging parts of the book for me. Scott Westerfeld has said (in this podcast) that some of the characters are based on his real life author friends; one of them is strongly reminiscent of John Green, author of A Fault in Our Stars and well-known Youtuber. I found that the alternating points of view between the two different stories gave the book a great pace – I flew through it in a couple of days and it isn’t a short book. 

When I first heard about this book I was expecting to see Darcy’s story develop as a narrative over time, however the Afterworlds in the book is clearly the completed, published version of Darcy’s story. In reading it I had to remind myself a few times that Darcy's story is actually written by Scott Westerfeld, a successful and experienced YA author. Darcy’s experience isn't a typical publishing experience either; it’s unlikely that many people could write a first draft during Nanowrimo that would attract the attention of an agent and result in a $300,000, two book contract. If I sound a little jealous, it’s because I am :P That said, the book also explores the effort and time taken to rewrite a manuscript and get it ready for publication. Things aren't a walk in the park for Darcy by any means.

Afterworlds definitely has a few insights into the process of writing YA, but it is not a book about how to write. It is a book about writers and writing, coming of age and self-discovery. I enjoyed reading this immensely and would recommended it to anyone who is a fan of reading YA books. The story is gripping, well-paced and the characters were believable enough that I wanted to google them to see how their careers were doing. This book is highly, highly recommended.

One a sidenote, the book trailers for Afterworlds are worth watching (I didn’t know book trailers were a thing until this year!). The standard one gives a nice overall impression of what the book is like (although you might get the impression that there are zombies in this book from the trailer. There are no zombies). The other trailer shows various YA authors "attacking" the book for misrepresenting the YA community. It's hilarious and features loads of well-known authors, including John Green.  Definitely worth a look if you’re interested! 

Crochet Catch Up

Soooooo it's been a long time since I've written a blog post... an embarrassingly long time... 

While I haven't been blogging, I've definitely been crocheting. To get back into it I wanted to catch you up on all the crochet I've been doing over the past few months. 

And here they are!

The first amigurimi I made was the pink bear and white bunny. I had been admiring the Cutie Bears pattern by Ami Amore for a while and finally decided to buy it earlier this year. I really love the proportions of this bear with its oversized head! I will be making some more of these as they are very quick to make and provide instant cuteness. It's also a really easy pattern to modify. I made a bunny with the pattern by changing the ears. I made four identical bunnies for Easter this year (three to give away and one for meeee!).

The second of these projects I made were the kangaroos. I made these for my cousins' kids when I visited them during my holiday to England back in June. The pattern is Katy and Kelvin kangaroo which I bought here. The pattern includes a baby kangaroo that sits in the pouch but sadly I ran out of time to make them. I ended up making five of kangaroos, one of which I was rushing to finish in the airport before going home! 

The next project was the crochet burger or as my friend named him, Junkfood Tuesday. The cool thing about this ami is its seamlessness. No sewing required! I made this with a friend who was learning how to crochet. It was a tough project to start with but it was great for teaching the basics of making amigurimi as it included lots of different techniques. The pattern is available for free too :-)

Directly after making the burger I made the slightly creepy looking ghost creature. This ami is a Japanese tree spirit from the movie Princess Mononoke. This crochet version has more cute and less creepy than the ones in the movie though. I made this for a friend who came to my house and was so allergic to my cat that I felt I needed to make it up to her with crochet. He now lives underneath a mushroom shaped lamp at my friend's house where I'm sure he is very happy. The pattern is free from Amigurumei.

The next project I made was a cherry blossom garland for my friend's hens party. I made this in a day and was really happy with how it turned out. I used two different patterns to make the flowers. Sadly I didn't note them down, but they were both free patterns that I found online. One day I will make one of these garlands for myself; it just looked so pretty hanging on my calendar!

The last ami I made was the blue triceratops. I made this for my little brother's birthday. He's currently going through a Jurassic Park phase and I couldn't resist crocheting him a dinosaur. The triceratops was my favourite dinosaur as a kid so picking a dinosaur was an easy decision. (Does anyone else remember the Land Before Time movies with the baby triceratops? So cute!). The pattern is by Awkward Soul on Etsy.

And that's everything I have crocheted since my last post... almost! I do have another project to share once I have taken some nice pictures.

Hopefully this marks the end of my blogging drought. I'm planning to blog a lot more regularly with more crochet and also trying something different with a few book reviews. (I have recently become addicted to watching book reviews on YouTube and I'm inspired to give book reviewing a go!)

Fingers crossed that I will be back soon with another post!