Stuffed animal: to post pics or not?

Am now doing a small knitting project.
It was supposed to be a naive small bunny or bear or what ever animal. A small stuffed toy. I planned to use it to as a sort of wedge under my smartphone to get the phone in a more comfortable angle for internet surfing in bed.

I made the faceless body and left it for a couple of days. I planned to knit a girlfriend for him later. I also planned to knit a sweater for it and give it a face. But what to do with the bottom half: trousers or long sweater to cover its non-existing private bits?
Then I decided to give him a complete set of private bits. Why not?

Yesterday I have attached them and it looks very funny and -if I may say so- very well executed. Me, the creator -not with capital c- made a design flaw though: the poor guy can't reach his bits because the arms are to short.

Anyway, do I post pictures and details or not? Do I blur the bits?
Thought about it and decided to post it anyway. How many people will see this blog anyway.

Since I am an absolute knitting novice I am now stuck: don't know how to finish the sweater.
The briefs are also not very haute couture.
Oh well, gotto start somewhere.

Hope I won't get blocked from Blogger by posting this. Let's call it 'art'.

Before:
Very boring. Clearly something is missing.

After:

Much better!

I won't post close-up pics. Am a bit of a woos.

The body was made with 16st in dpns. No idea how many rows. Arms and legs were all made with 4st i-cords. Arms were made separate and attached later. Ears were a 3st i-cord.

The girlfriend will get a set of boobies. Should not be too difficult to design.
And with a thin thread I will crochet a nice lingerie set.

All knitted with 2.5mm DPNs. Private bits: crochet hook 2mm.
Yarn used:
Body: Durable Glanskatoen nr 10, undied.
Briefs: Durable breikatoen, nr 12, white.
Sweater: Wibra coton.

Stylish flower

I am a big fan of the oriental crochet books. The designs are very nice. Very well blocked and then photographed in a no-nonsense way. The diagrams are very clear and I have not noticed any design flaws so far.

A while ago I found this book and the flower on the cover always stayed in my mind. So simple and so subtle.

A few days ago, on the 30th of April, our queen Beatrix abdicated and passed the crown over to her son Willem-Alexander. Despite living in Amsterdam I decided not to go into town but stay home and watch the ceremonies on TV. The broadcast started at around 8 am and finished around 9.30 pm. So many hours to crochet in front of the TV. So I finally started the flower.

I used Durable Glanskatoen nr 12 ecru and a 2 mm hook. I'm not sure what the brand of the pink thread is. This skein was a hand-me-down.
The chart and design was very simple. I soon noticed that my flower was going to be huge compared to the one in the picture. Way bigger than I expected. The finished flower is about 11 cm -just over 4 inch- in diameter. Next time I'll use much thinner thread. I made the stamen of single strands with a single knot at the end.

The chart:

The result:

I really like the wave.

Maybe for handy to know for future projects:

It was a fun and easy project. 

Just before bedtime

Haven't had a crochet hook in my hand all day. I did get a lot of ideas from Pinterest. So late at night I thought: damn... all day looking at pictures I could make but have not made a thing today. So around 11pm I decided to start a small project that I had on my to do list for a while: a crocheted leaf. It looked simple and and quick. But because I was getting more tired by the minute, I had problems keeping track of rows and stitches. So a simple and quick project eventually took almost 3 hours to finish.

The finished leaf has some small errors, but I think it is not noticeable, in fact, they add a nice curve to the leaf. The curve is more noticeable when it is hanging.
I have adjusted a few stitches at the instertion of the stem: I joined the two sides of the leaf over the stem, creating more 3D effect.
I am quite happy with the result. If I would block it it would become flat, so I'll leave it as it is.

I used a 2mm hook and cotton thread Durable Glanskatoen ecru nr12.