An Easter Hedghog

A fool may be known by six things: anger without cause; speech without profit; change without progress; inquiry without object; putting trust in a stranger; and mistaking foes for friends. --Arabian Proverb

And now, all of a sudden, it's April. I can barely believe it. It snuck up on me, as stealthy as a pup under a coffee table:

It feels strange to me that it's also Easter Sunday today. I can't remember Easter ever falling on April 1st, but here it is. I don't feel very Easter-y this year and I'm not sure why. I guess that's why I felt the need to make a felted hedgehog with rainbow prickles instead of a bunny:

I'd been thinking about making another felted sheep, but a friend brought up a tutorial she had seen online for felted hedgehogs, and well, it seemed like the thing to do:

The body is made on a wire frame covered with some hand-carded wool someone gave me. The white pillowy frame around his face is combed merino top, and the ears are a combination of some llama roving and alpaca locks. Of course, the crowning glory is the dyed locks that make up his "prickles." I'm particularly pleased with how nicely those dyed locks worked out. I thought it might look too clown-ish, but I find it quite charming. And I'm no expert, but I think it even might make for good camouflage, but as I am not actually a hedgehog I couldn't say for sure. The kink in the locks also give it quite a coiffed look: possibly the most styled prickles a hedgehog ever had:

The other hedgehogs in the collection barely even looked twice:

We've had a visitor in the office for the last couple of weeks: Levi, a two-year old chihuahua. He's the quintessential little dog: quite the little general, and quite the lap dog:

And he's also quite distracting when I'm trying to get work done. Oh well:

Luckily, Seymour didn't seem to mind too much. He sniffed me ever so carefully when I got home, but he figures he could eradicate the other doggie's smell by napping on me every chance he gets:

Ruff life, as they say:

The never-ending thingy thing project is still going on, and I'm just going to keep hammering at it until I'm done, I guess. In the meantime, here are some lemon poppy seed muffins I made today:

And here is the very non-Easter-y meal for tonight: slow-cooker chicken with orange, cinnamon, cloves, star anise and a bit of soy sauce. It'll do the job, I think:

I think next week might be the time to break the monogamous knitting promise. There are just too many goodies in my yarn stash waiting for me, and I'm using the never-ending thingy thing project as an excuse to be lazy. Perhaps I'll dig out something spring-coloured for a change. Or maybe I'll try another felted creature... perhaps a psychedelic mountain goat...

Have a great week!