I Took a Giraffe to Winnipeg
No matter how it looks from the outside, everything that is made by hand requires a lifetime of effort.-– Kit Dunsmoret
I was lucky enough to go home to visit my family in Winnipeg a couple of weeks ago. We'd booked it way back in November during a Black Friday seat sale, so I sort of forgot about it until a few weeks before we were supposed to go. Luckily, I remembered to tell my mom we were coming!
I really enjoy coming home in May. The weather is usually really nice and we can get out and about to see things and visit friends. My usual haunts were all there waiting for me:
I even got to meet up with a few friends:
While I was there, I took the opportunity to rest and relax. I really felt I needed it after a stressful few months at work. I also took the opportunity to bring along a project that I wanted to get finished before I came back to Vancouver Island. I was going to make a little stuffed animal for a baby shower I would be attending when I got back.
And you know, when you make stuffed animals, you have to have stuffing. And when you have to pack stuffing, you have to be creative about how to do that:
Why yes, I vacuum-packed some polyfill. Doesn't everyone?
I made a baby blanket a couple of weeks ago that had a variety of different animals on it. I figured it would be nice to choose one of the animals and make a toy of it:
And so after a little bit of hunting, I found a super cute crochet pattern of a giraffe:
It came together relatively quickly. I think I started working on it on the Sunday and got the body and head assembled by Wednesday. It was the spots that took the most effort. I originally made some circles, but it looked too much like he'd broken out with chicken pox, so I decided to make randomly-shaped blobs and sew them on. Apparently, randomly shaped blobs are harder to make than I thought... but I got them done and sewed them on well before the week was over.
I'm very proud to give my handmade gifts to people when I can and when I know they will be appreciated. I hope that they are loved and used for years to come.
They were a hit at the baby shower, but the baby was more enthralled by a balloon... as was I apparently:
Unfortunately, after several weeks in a row of embroidery and then a week of crochet, I seem to have developed tendonitis in my wrist. I took the week off of all stitching this week because it was too painful and I didn't want to flare it up. It felt weird to have idle hands, but I took it as a sign to move on to a different project. It's going to involve these pretties. Stay tuned!
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